Invisible Publishing

The Nile brought them life, but the Nile was not their friend.A small farming village in North Sudan wakes up one morning to the news that a little boy has drowned. Soon after, the animals die of a mysterious illness and the date gardens catch fire and burn to the ground. The villagers whisper of a sorceress who dwells at the foot of the mountains. It is the dry season. The men have places to go, the women have work to do, the children play at the place where the river runs over its own banks. Sixteen-year-old Fatima yearns to leave the village for Khartoum.In Khartoum, a single mother makes her way in a world that wants to keep girls and women back. As civil war swells, the political intrudes into the personal and her position in the capital becomes untenable. She must return to the village.A Mouth Full of Salt uncovers a country on the brink of seismic change as its women decide for themselves which traditions are fit for purpose-and which prophecies it's time to rewrite.

Spitball literary essays on the off-kilter joys, sorrows and wonder of North America's national pastime. A collection of essays for ardent seamheads and casual baseball fans alike, The Utility of Boredom is a book about finding respite and comfort in the order, traditions, and rituals of baseball. It's a sport that shows us what a human being might be capable of, with extreme dedication-whether we're eating hot dogs in the stands, waiting out a rain delay in our living rooms, or practising the lost art of catching a stray radio signal from an out-of-market broadcast. From learning about America through ball-diamond visits to the most famous triple play that never happened on Canadian soil, Forbes invites us to witness the adult conversing with the O-Pee-Chee baseball cards of his youth. Tender, insightful, and with the slow heartbreak familiar to anyone who's cheered on a losing team, The Utility of Boredom tells us a thing or two about the sport, and how a seemingly trivial game might help us make sense of our messy lives.

My father drowned in the Aegean Sea, fifty nautical miles northeast of the port of Piraeus. When it happened, my mother and I were at home in Toronto. It was early evening in Greece, afternoon for us, and I was at school when she found out. Niko Kiriakos, tentative heir to the ailing Calypso Shipping fleet, always suspected he was cursed. Following his sudden disappearance, his wife, Anna, and daughter, Zoe, are left adrift. Unmoored, they begin to test the boundaries of their lives, struggling with issues of loyalty, identity and what it means to be a family. Spanning years and tracing a route from Niagara Falls to Greece, Escape Plans is an unblinking look at the ties that bind us together and the things that pull us apart. "Vlassopoulos has found a way to carry over the wide-eyed curiosity and innate goodness of childhood into the mysterious, often sad, often tragic world of adulthood."-Montreal Review of Books

Sideshow Concessions is the first book from queer performer and scholar Lucas Crawford. A collection populated by the circus-like bodies and experiences of a narrator navigating rural pasts and urban presents, Sideshow Concessions is the unofficial story of someone who is both a bearded lady and the fattest man in the world. "Sideshow Confessions is an accessible glimpse at the absurd - a clever look at a trans narrative which explores its challenges without drowning in them... Crawford's sense of humour is a breath of fresh air."-Broken Pencil "Sideshow Concessions is fresh, honest, heartbreaking, and funny, with turns of phrase equally intelligent and moving."-Karen Solie

One of the Toronto Star's top books of the year A year after watching Leo go through thin ice, twelve-year- old Ferd is obsessed with the idea that he can persuade his dead brother to come home through a campaign of letters. Plaintive notes appear around the house-folded squares of paper in the rain reservoir, kitchen sink, and washing machine. Ferd's mother, Algoma, is also unravelling; attempting to hide her son's letters, reconnect with her increasingly distant husband, and rebuild her life. "Algoma is a strong debut novel with a haunting landscape, convincing characters and a vivid sense of the haphazard nature of our lives."-National Post "A very good first novel from a refreshing new voice."-Quill & Quire

What hidden evasions and exclusions lie behind the subtle perfection of the BLT? What is the etymology of the croissant? Why did we drink all that Bud Lite Lime? What did you do to my face? This collection of writing by Jonah Campbell-metalhead, misanthrope, unrepentant good eater-explores both the finest and most furtive of culinary pleasures. Food & Trembling approaches eating not with a four-figure expense account, but a rare insight and fierce appetite for the pleasures of the table. Also chips. Too many chips. "Jonah Campbell's Food & Trembling is a love song of food and language written by a lover of gravy and a hater of brunches."-The Coast

Over a decade after the release of their first album, The Dears have weathered the indie fringes, the collapse of the music industry as we knew it and the near implosion of the band itself, with their creative vision and gang dynamic intact. The Dears: Lost in the Plot looks at how The Dears survived the fallout, and helped launch the acclaimed mid-aughts music scene in their hometown of Montréal. The Dears: Lost in the Plot is the first book in Invisible Publishing's new Bibliophonic series. The Bibliophonic Series is a catalogue of the ongoing history of contemporary music. Each book is a time capsule, capturing artists and their work as we see them, providing a unique look at some of today's most exciting musicians.

Shortlisted for the Danuta Gleed Literary Award The innocence and clarity of Teri Vlassopoulos's narrative voice reveals new and unexpected layers. The characters in these stories look for signs and omens as they attempt to understand events in their lives by framing them in abstract superstitions. The stories in Bats and Swallows are sharp, accurate, told with balance and skill. "Vlassopoulos has found a way to carry over the wide-eyed curiosity and innate goodness of childhood into the mysterious, often sad, often tragic world of adulthood."-Montreal Review of Books

Ghost Pine: All Stories True offers thirteen years worth of sparkling true stories from the life of author Jeff Miller, compiling the best of his long-running zine. From his youth in suburban Ottawa in the late 1990s, to travels across Canada and North America and his current home in Montreal, Miller's stories are equal measures funny and sad, nostalgic and unsentimental, punk rock and grandparents.

A small flat sits unoccupied above Henry's café. When a woman comes to rent the room, Henry's world begins an unusual transformation. As they grow closer the city itself is affected, changed, and slowly dismantled. Unsure if he is a victim of his own senility, the chaos inches closer and Henry suspects it may have something to do with the woman upstairs and the stranger she is hiding from. "A haunting novella."-Bookgaga "Read this magical tale for beauty, pure and simple."-The Coast

A classic work of award-winning Atlantic fiction Leah is haunted: by the things she's done, and the things she has failed to do. And then there's the the ghost of her brother. She has to learn to let go of the past if she, or her brother, are ever going to move on. A funny, urban story, Homing is about love, death, and rock and roll-through the eyes of a woman who's grown afraid of the city, a ghost who's lost his way, a musician who's trying to find his, and Sandy and Harold, a pair of homing pigeons who help each of them bring it all home. "Domet's writing style is amusing and engaging, and you really end up caring about her characters."-Consumed by Ink "Homing anchored me from the first page... I wanted to hide away and not come out of my reading nook until it was all done."-R.H. Downs