Baraka Books

The Before Columbus Foundation, founded in 1976 by Ishmael Reed and others, remains "dedicated to the promotion and dissemination of contemporary American multicultural literature." It operates on the premise that storytelling traditions existed thousands of years before the arrival of Europeans, which counters the myth that storytelling begins with the Puritan settlement. The foundation established the American Book Awards in 1978, which has recognized hundreds of writers who otherwise would have been ignored. Its board of directors includes three MacArthur Fellows, three former U.S. Poet Laureates, three Pulitzer Prize winners, a winner of the Booker Prize, and a recipient of a Presidential medal. BLIND PERSISTENCE is the Before Columbus story as told by a host of leading American poets, novelists, public intellectuals. Contributors include Wajahat Ali, Carolyn Forché, Joy Harjo, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Nancy Mercado, Margaret Porter Troupe, Shawn Wong and more. Edited by Ishmael Reed and Justin Desmangles (with Carla Blank and Tennessee Reed) Ishmael Reed has authored fifty works of fiction, poetry, non-fiction, plays and librettos, and edited numerous anthologies. He has received prizes in every category. The fourth novel in his "Terribles" series, The Terrible Fives, is forthcoming from Baraka Books in 2026. Other recent works include Why the Black Hole Sings the Blues (2022), and The Shine Challenge 2025, premiered at NYC's Theater for the New City on January 30, 2025. Reed is also a cartoonist, songwriter, musician and composer, public media commentator and publisher. Books published by Baraka Books include Bigotry on Broadway (with Carla Blank), The Complete Muhammad Ali, The Terrible Fours, and Why No Confederate Statues in Mexico. He lives in Oakland. Justin Desmangles is chairman of the Before Columbus Foundation, administrator of the American Book Awards, and creator of the radio broadcast New Day Jazz. A member of the board of directors of the Oakland Book Festival, Mr. Desmangles is also a program producer at the African-American Center of the San Francisco Public Library. His poetry and journalism has appeared in Amerarcana, Black Renaissance Noire, Drumvoices Revue, Konch, and Musiqology.

Eyes Have Seen, From Mississippi to Montreal is a vivid and searing memoir about growing up black in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. In the difficult and often dangerous years of ubiquitous racism, Anderson recounts how family, good neighbours and the cultural underpinnings of Newman Quarters kept him grounded and capable of embracing the racial and tyrannical crosswinds of the American South of the 1950s and 60s. With electric candour, Anderson writes about joining the Mississippi civil rights movement at the age of fifteen, the burgeoning anti-Vietnam War activism, and reimagining the underground railroad to Canada. "Little did I know that the internal and public outcomes of the waning Mississippi Freedom Summer and my personal fate would collide with my ancestral struggles and hurl me into the narrative of runaway fugitives seeking exile in Canada." It is also a story of exile, of living under the assumed name of Clifford Gaston from 1966 until 1977 when amnesty was granted to draft dodgers, of dodging arrest and deportation, of forging a new home in another country so far away from family and friends. Fred Anderson was born in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. He left home at an early age to join the Civil Rights Movement, becoming a field secretary for the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in the Mississippi Delta, Alabama, and Southwest Georgia. He fled in the winter of 1966, to Montreal as a Vietnam war resister. He attended Sir George Williams University and was awarded the 1973 Board of Governors Medal for Creative Expression in Literary Arts. Fred was instrumental in co-founding two black research institutes and a Black literary forum and is a member of the Quebec Writers' Federation. He was employed as program manager, overseeing gender-specific therapeutic interventions for several English-speaking rehabilitation centres for adolescent girls. Later, he would assume the same responsibility in Northern Quebec in the service of Inuit and Cree adolescent girls. Fred Anderson lives in Montreal. REVIEWS AND PRAISE "There are still a few-maybe only two-generations of people in North America who might recognize some of the history that anchors this memoir; the Civil Rights movement in the United States, the anti-war efforts of the 1960s led by students, the international liberation movements, the names of famous Black leaders. There are, sadly, already several generations who have no clue. The barely told story of Afro-Caribbean immigrants in Montreal and the shaping of Black consciousness across borders successfully moves the story of Afro-descendants in Canada beyond that of the Underground Railroad and the Sleeping Car Porters, revealing how Black political thought has flourished in community organizing and in the arts. Eyes Have Seen grants necessary access to how ordinary people living full lives-as children, parents, grandparents, farmers, churchgoers, educators, friends, artists, lovers, sisters, and brothers-become compelled to respond to acts and systems harmful to the fulfilment of their humanity, resulting in extraordinary actions for the greater good of so many who will be the unknowing beneficiaries of their sacrifices." - Nantali Indongo, Host-Producer of CBC's The Bridge, Current Affairs Arts and Culture Contributor "The captivating story of Fred Anderson, aka Clifford Gaston, is rooted in the African-American traditions of the American South. These traditions, whether mystical, familial or political, inform a meandering journey that took him from Hattiesburg, Mississippi, to Montreal, Quebec. As a young activist with the SNCC (Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee), Fred Anderson's life has been shaped by the great moments of North American history, from the African-American civil rights movement and the mobilization against the Vietnam war to, on our side of the border, the Montreal Congress of Black Writers, the Sir George Williams affair, and the October Crisis of 1970. Eyes Have Seen is a fascinating read that leaves you awed and inspired." - Aly Ndiaye, aka Webster "A masterpiece. Eyes Have Seen is brilliant, erudite storytelling in well-limned, lyrical and cinematic prose. As the USA endeavours to lie about its white supremacist legacy, this memoir is a searing reminder of Jim Crow and its cost: in lives, in property, its psychological terror, and the exile suffered by those who endured or fought it. The latter half of the memoir, which depicts Anderson's life as a Vietnam-War draft resister in Montreal, is an invaluable contribution to history." - Nigel Thomas, author of A Different Hurricane "Fred Anderson's story is a gripping tale that maps the terrain of Black family and exile at a moment of a certain Black becoming. The Civil Rights Movement and Black Power continue to reverberate for all of us and Anderson's intimate account of his experience through the movement and exile to Canada is not just one of triumph but a reckoning with a past that is not yet behind us. Anderson's memoir is a guide to what we must now live too. His account of the 1960s spans Mississippi to Montreal and Black metropolitan life and politics is laid bare. We need accounts like these to fill the voids in the official archives and more importantly to puncture the myths of national difference. Read this memoir and sit with its many truths and its difficult triumphs!" - Rinaldo Walcott, Professor and Chair of Africana and American Studies at the University at Buffalo. Author ofThe Long Emancipation: Moving Toward Black Freedom. "Congratulations, Fred Anderson is one of the bravest men I have ever known. He was a favourite of Ms Ella Gaston @Justice for Ella for his courage against the deadly odds of the 1960's Civil Rights fight in Mississippi." - Pam Johnson, author of Justice for Ella, A Story that Needed to be Told.

Liz, born in China and raised in Montreal, is about to land in Germany for a summer physics internship at the end of her freshman year. Eager for a new beginning, she hopes to break free of her unrealized childhood dream of becoming a pianist, a dead-end romantic relationship, and the tug of war between her Chinese and Canadian identities. In Germany, she meets fellow intern Haider, an Indian Muslim from Toronto, and they fall in love against expectations. But summer doesn't last forever. Once they return to Canada, culture clashes and family disapproval threaten to pull them apart. As her sense of self is pushed dangerously close to a tipping point, Liz must summon the courage to survive the chaos that her life has become. Lili Zeng holds a PhD in biophysics from McGill University. She has several peer-reviewed papers under her name and has given a dozen scientific and public outreach talks. Also a classically trained pianist, she has won numerous music competitions and soloed with prestigious chamber and symphony orchestras. She was born in Guangzhou, China, and moved to Montreal, Canada, with her parents as a child. Dear Haider is Lili's first novel. Praise and reviews "Lili Zeng's slow-burn account of Liz's summer student internship lays the foundation for a rollercoaster ride filled with often unexpected life adventures as Liz steps into a new chapter of her life. Zeng's awe-inspiring debut novel is a fearless and courageous narrative of first love, loss, despair, and ultimately of hope and healing. Truly, a testament to the resilience and enduring faith of the human spirit!" - Mary Anne Levasseur, caregiver and youth mental health advocate "A very sincere and touching story about a young girl exploring herself and love. It candidly shows the protagonist Liz, a Montreal-based Chinese immigrant's step-by-step adventures and inner doubts, conflicts and struggles in her love with a white youth and an Indian youth. Some of the real presentation and reflections on racial differences and chasm are a valuable and even most fascinating part of this story." - Xiaodan He, filmmaker, A Touch of Spring "When Liz sets off to continue her studies in Europe, her path seems clear--until unexpected love is both a distraction and a portal. But to what? A coming of age story of the struggle with one's own sense of self as it expands and contracts against the expectations of the larger world." - Leila Marshy, author of Philistine

The history of the Montreal Canadiens is about more than just hockey. It's also the story of how hockey's most winning team has always skated hand-in-hand with its home province of Quebec. Brendan Kelly takes a fresh look at the ups and downs of the Habs since the heyday of the "Flying Frenchmen" in the 50s, 60s and 70s and shows how the history of the team mirrors the tumultuous changes in Quebec over the past decades. Why was it that from 1955, year of the "Rocket Richard Riot," until 1995, year of Quebec's second referendum, the Canadiens won 17 Stanley Cups? Kelly talks with former Canadiens greats like Serge Savard and Bob Gainey, journalists, politicians, filmmakers and even Lord of the Rings star Viggo Mortensen, maybe the Canadiens' most famous fan-telling the tale of the team's unique bond with its fans. One surprising conclusion is that when the team's roster was at its most Québécois, the team had its greatest success on the ice. Since Montreal's last Quebec superstar, Patrick Roy, was unceremoniously booted out of town, the franchise has failed to win a Stanley Cup and has rarely been amongst the NHL's elite squads. In one chapter entitled "Trumping the Two Solitudes," Kelly also shows how the Canadiens have had the power to bridge the linguistic divide in Montreal. Credit, François Couture Brendan Kelly, born in Glasgow, raised in Montreal and a fan of the Canadiens for longer than he can remember, was one of the founders of the late great alternative weekly the Montreal Mirror. He worked at the Montreal Daily News in the late 80s and had a weekly music column on CBC Radio for over 30 years. His Montreal Gazette column "What the Puck" is a controversial contrarian hot take on the Canadiens that elicits much hate and even more love. He has written for the Gazette since 1996. He also contributes frequently to various Radio-Canada cultural shows. Marie-Philip Poulin is a three-time Olympian who holds the unique distinction of scoring the Olympic gold-medal-winning goals for Canada at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, the 2014 Olympics in Sochi and the 2022 Olympics in Beijing. She was also captain of the team that won silver at the 2018 Games in PyeongChang. The recipient of numerous honours and awards, Poulin is considered one of the world's top players. Marie-Philip Poulin lives in Montreal and is Captain of the Montréal Victoire. She recently won the 2025 PWHL Most Valuable Player Award. REVIEWS AND PRAISE "In Habs Nation, a charming historical-sports investigation, Brendan Kelly, journalist at The Gazette, suggests that the more Quebecois the CH is, the more likely it is to win the Stanley Cup." Le Devoir "I don't know much about hockey. But I devoured Brendan Kelly's book." Sophie Durocher, Le journal de Montréal

Two young writers who grew up in the shadow of the huge chimneys of a copper refinery in Rouyn-Noranda speak out. They refuse to be lulled by the songs of gold that have silenced the people who built the city and enriched the foundry owners for decades. They subtly and poetically illustrate the love-hate relationship they maintain with the arsenic and "piles of slag and copper." This passionate dialogue in French hit Quebec bookstores like a tornado and the English version will echo in company towns throughout North America. Epigraph "These letters, peppered with love and rage, are another step in a movement that began long before our time, led by women and men who raised their voices against all odds. To the women who work without pay to demand justice for our community, to the citizens who have spoken out over the years, to those who have paid the price for their commitment, to honest doctors, may this book be used above all as a pretext for giving you a voice again and all the recognition that you deserve." Jean-Lou David was born in Rouyn-Noranda in 1993. He is an author. Gabrielle Izaguirré-Falardeau grew up in Rouyn-Noranda. She is a student, artist and militant. Mary O'Connor is a Montreal translator who holds a degree from Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland. In the media "This unusual and often poetic dialogue between two writers about their love-hate relationship with the mining town of Rouyn-Noranda created a stir in Quebec, and is now translated into English. A passionate look at the realities of communities shadowed by smokestacks and the rapacious extraction of natural resources." Quill and Quire "... the letters are poetic, almost violently emotional, romantic, and heartbreaking..." Pascal Chevrette, L'action nationale "The authors' intimate and heartfelt approach inspires a profound reflection on how big industry exploits the territory but also a declaration of love for a region, its magnetic landscapes, its creative silence and places that recall the solidarity of the people." Le Devoir

Québec, 1534 à nos jours : voici l’histoire vivante d’un peuple, de ses explorateurs et de ses luttes pour préserver une identité unique en Amérique du Nord.

Moe Tremblay is struggling with domesticity. New to Montréal, his wife climbs the corporate law ladder while he stays home with the kids. It sounded like a good idea. Then Dean shows up. Enticing him with tales of grime and glory, he convinces Moe to join his band, Guilt Trip. This opens the door to a world of aging musician journeymen and a local music scene that is soiled and sexy, alluring and dangerous. The Guilt Trippers is a darkly funny and moving take on modern parenthood, the Montréal music scene, and some of the musicians who call it home. Philippe Mineau, a life partner and father to two young boys, has worked in a lab coat firing lasers at proteins in Denmark, played accordion for jazz manouche and Forró bands, worked as an illegal migrant fruit picker and farm labourer, and written policy on psychedelic drugs for the federal government. He currently runs a music studio in Montreal's Little Italy, plays in the pop rock band Radio Patente, and tries to spend as much of his summers as possible on the water, canoe paddle in hand. The Guilt Trippers is his first novel. He lives in Montreal. PRAISE & REVIEWS "The Guilt Trippers takes a raw, compelling look at the challenges, pitfalls and rewards of trying to merge a musician's life and parenthood. Unflinchingly accurate in its depictions of the demands of early child rearing, the often indelicate negotiations of band politics, the temptations of escape through drugs and sex and the strain all this can put on relationships, The Guilt Trippers moves forward like a train that feels like it might go off the rails at any moment. A thoroughly engaging debut by Philippe Mineau." - Glenn Milchem, drummer for Blue Rodeo and father of four. "When the burdens and joys of fatherhood clash with the grit and euphoria of being a committed musician, The Guilt Trippers unfolds with dazzling finesse into an exploration of family, kinship, and oh yes, sex, drugs and rock and roll. A love letter to parenthood, the magic of Montréal nights, and musicians jamming in underground studios and bars everywhere." - Cora Siré, author of Fear the Mirror "A rock `n roll novel with a tender heart; Philippe Mineau's punchy prose traverses a tightrope that balances past and present, fatherhood and friendship, marriage and pure debauchery. The novel taps into the ageless spirit of Montreal, but one that threatens to be just a little bit wiser with the passage of time." - Dean Garlick, author of Chloes and The Fish

Grandir entre les loups, les incendies et les silences : Northern Girls, True Stories raconte la survie d’une enfance brisée en Ontario rural.

What is Zionism, where did it come from, and why does it continue to shape Israeli policy, politics and propaganda? With Zionism Decoded in 101 Quotes, Yakov Rabkin dispels common misconceptions about Zionism beginning with its origins in 17th century Protestant England. When the political ideology finally attracted Jews over two centuries later, it caused a profound rift that persists to this day. On the one hand, a militant minority has used Zionism to fuel colonization and create the "New Hebrew Man," the brawny cynical Israeli. On the other hand, detractors assert that it is a profound betrayal of Jewish values and beliefs. Meanwhile, evangelical Christian Zionists form the backbone of Israel's global support, seeing in Zionism a fulfillment of scripture. Then there is the Palestinian perspective; a people barely acknowledged and brutally swept to the side. With a Foreword by Ronnie Kasrils Yakov Rabkin has been Professor of History at the Université de Montréal since 1973. He has also held visiting positions at universities in Australia, France, Israel, Japan, Russia, South Africa, Ukraine, and the United States. His areas of expertise are contemporary Jewish history, international relations, and science and technology policies. He has authored hundreds of articles and several books, including Science between the Superpowers, A Threat from Within: A Century of Jewish Opposition to Zionism (available in fifteen languages), What is Modern Israel? (available in six languages), Demodernization: A Future in the Past, and Judaïsme, islam et modernité. The current book is also available in French and Russian. Rabkin is frequently invited to comment on current events in electronic and print media. He has done consulting work for OECD, NATO, UNESCO and the World Bank, among others. He is a founding member of Independent Jewish Voicies (Canada). Ronnie Kasrils, a South African Jew, devoted his life to fighting apartheid in South Africa where he was a guerilla fighter, comrade of Nelson Mandela and later Minister for Intelligence Services in the ANC Government of Thabo Mbeki. PRAISE & REVIEWS "Yakov Rabkin is our greatest guide to a fundamental and sad truth: Zionism is not Judaism and in many ways is the opposite of the Jewish tradition and faith. This short and piercing book shows that Zionists consciously aimed to break from the Jewish tradition and to create a new identity. Sadly, that identity has become malignant in its racism, hatred, and murderous violence towards the Palestinian people. This book helps us to understand this tragic reality, and through that understanding, to have a chance of redemption towards peace and justice." Jeffrey Sachs, University Professor at Columbia University "The most concise and incisive challenge Zionist propaganda and Israeli Hasbara will ever face. With the help of 101 quotes, Rabkin exposes the huge project of historical and moral fabrication that cost the lives of so many people, Arabs and Jews alike. A must read and invaluable companion for both novices and well-read audiences on the topic of Zionism and Palestine." Ilan Pappé, historian, University of Exeter, author of Ten Myths about Israel "Zionism's relation to Judaism-that is, to Jewish histories and traditions-remains one of the most challenging questions posed to Judaism itself." Yaacov Yadgar, Professor of Israel Studies, University of Oxford, author of To Be a Jewish State "They say that dynamite comes in small packages. This compact booklet, more an illuminating essay with remarkable quotes, strikes Zionist fabrications between the eyes like a slingshot. And the ogre crumbles." Ronnie Kasarils, Former South African guerilla, then Minister in the government

With a Foreword by Dr Gabor Maté. Almost two years in and we continue to watch in horror as 2 million people living on 140 square miles of land bear an unprecedented and unfathomable pummelling by the Israeli Army. More bombs have been dropped on Gaza than in World War II; more children killed, wounded and orphaned than in any other conflict of this century; more journalists and healthcare workers killed than in any other conflict ever; and entire towns and districts are reduced to dust. Those who speak about the carnage are punished by censure, sanction, smearing and worse. Across Canada-and internationally-journalists are muzzled, academics are stifled, doctors are fired, activists are arrested, and artists are banned. Words such as genocide and ceasefire have been excised from the vocabulary, and criticism of the conflict invites accusations of antisemitism. Razing Palestine brings together the testimonies and stories of a wide range of individuals across a variety of domains who have suffered the cost and consequences of speaking up for Palestine. As Palestine is razed, the courage and the voices of those who raise the issue must be heard. Contributors include: Sheima Benembarek, Amy Blanding, Safa Chebbi, Libby Davies, Yipeng Ge, Yara Jamal, Thoby King, Nora Loreto, Ehab Lotayef, Samira Mohyeddine, Kagiso Lesego Molope, Arfa Rana, Sean Tucker, the Jewish Faculty Network, and many more. Leila Marshy is the author of The Philistine (LLP, 2018) and My Thievery of the People (Baraka Books, 2025). Leila's Palestinian father was exiled from his home in 1948, never to return. During the First Intifada, Marshy lived in Cairo and worked for the Palestinian Red Crescent and the Palestinian Mental Health Association. She has been a community and political organizer, including founding a dialogue group with the Hasidic community in her neighbourhood. Her stories and journalism has been published in Canadian and American media. She lives in Montreal. REVIEWS AND PRAISE "This anthology is subversive in the most positive sense of the word. It seeks to provide an unequivocal and evidence-based response to the enforced silence around what millions of people the world over recognize as the most urgent moral issue of our time: the unspeakable suffering imposed on the people of Gaza." - Gabor Maté, MD, CM "Razing Palestine: Punishing Solidarity and Dissent in Canada is an essential addition to the public record and history." - Libby Davies, former MP for Vancouver East

In the tumult of the pandemic, a writer hopes the quarantine might provide the space to finally complete a decades-old project on her travels throughout Latin America. But an unexpected disease suddenly clouds her eyes. Poetic, inventive, introspective, Between the Island and the Turtle follows the author's shifts in vision from past to present, shedding light on what it is to witness suffering and illness, ultimately questioning what literature can do in times of crisis. Karine Rosso is the author of Histoires sans Dieu (2011), Mon ennemie Nelly (2019), Interpellations(s): Enjeux de l'écriture au "tu" (2018) and, alongside Nicholas Dawson, Nous sommes un continent: Correspondance mestiza (2021). A cofounder of the feminist bookstore L'Euguélionne, Rosso is a professor of literature at the Université du Québec à Montréal. Anita Anand is an award-winning Montreal author and translator. The author of Swing in the House and Other Stories and A Convergence of Solitudes, Anand is also the translator of Caroline Dawson's As the Andes Disappeared, Juliana Léveillé-Trudel's Nirlitt, and Fanie Demeule's Lightness and Mukbang. Reviews and praise "With her precise and deeply moving writing, the author (. . .) takes us on a journey between the worlds that shape her identity-North and South America."-Malia Navia, Châtelaine "A hybrid text bridging autofiction and social reflection that explores the role of literature in times of crisis." -Audrey-Anne Blais, La Presse "This novel is about loss, about what breaks within you and around you, about commitment and the inevitable exhaustion looming around the bend; it's about the power (or lack thereof) of literature. It is a raised fist, a courageous act of resistance."- Dominique Lemieux, Les libraires

With a Foreword by Oliver Stone. In December 2024, Syria's president Bashar al-Assad departed for Russia after militia forces took Damascus. An Al-Qaeda affiliated group led by Abu Mohammed Al-Jolani (aka Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa) took power. New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman hooted that it was the "biggest...most game-changing event in the Middle East in the last 45 years." Yet until then, Al-Jolani was wanted for terrorism and had a U.S. State Department $10 million bounty on his head since 2017. The media-established story of popular "rebels" triumphing over "evil" has since dominated. Washington's role in this long-standing regime change operation was erased. This is the first comprehensive account of the U.S. regime change operation in Syria dating back decades. The goal was to end Syria's nationalist economic program, its support for the Palestinians, and its steadfast opposition to U.S. and Israeli hegemonic designs in Western Asia. The methods utilized fit a long-standing U.S. regime-change playbook applied worldwide. Key aspects include a protracted demonization campaign, imposition of crippling economic sanctions, and CIA financing of rebel groups under the billion-dollar Operation Timber-Sycamore. Jeremy Kuzmarov holds a Ph.D. in American history from Brandeis University. He did his BA and MA at McGill University in Montreal, where he was born. He has taught at numerous colleges in the United States and is regularly sought out as an expert on U.S. history and politics for radio and TV programs. Managing Editor of CovertAction Magazine, Kuzmarov is author of five books on U.S. foreign policy, including Obama's Unending Wars (2019) and Warmonger (2024). In addition, he has contributed to many edited volumes, including The Oxford Handbook of Late Colonial Insurgencies and Counter-Insurgencies. Kuzmarov lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Dan Kovalik has been a labor and human rights lawyer since graduating from Columbia Law School in 1993. He served as in-house counsel for the United Steelworkers for twenty-six years. He has represented plaintiffs in human rights cases arising out of egregious abuses in Colombia. He also taught International Human Rights at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law from 2012 to 2023. Author of many books, including The Case for Palestine: Why It Matters and Why You Should Care, he received the David W. Mills Mentoring Fellowship from Stanford Law School, the Serena Shim Award for Uncompromised Integrity in Journalism, and Iran's 15th Farabi International Award. Dan Kovalik lives in Pittsburgh. Oliver Stone is an Oscar-winning Filmmaker as (Platoon, Born on the Fourth of July) and is the author of several books including the highly acclaimed memoir Chasing the Light. Praise for the authors' previous books. About Kuzmarov's Obama's Unending Wars "A devastatingly clinical analysis "-Max Blumenthal "extraordinary book"-Peter Kuznick About Warmonger (on Clinton's foreign policy) "Who first set us on this disastrous road of endless war and imperial overreach? Kuzmarov brilliantly answers these questions in his stunning new book."-James Bradley About Kovalik's The Case for Palestine "New leaders like Dan Kovalik are now among us. New books like his are our weapons." George Galloway

Louis, a young queer man, lives in Pointe-aux-Trembles, in Montreal's east end, with his rap-obsessed, schizophrenic brother and their terminally ill father. While working at a Tim Horton's, Louis dreams of becoming a stand-up comedian. Delivered in short, addictive chapters, All Kidding Aside deftly juggles themes of love, class, and grief with poetic mockery and spare, electric banter. Poet, novelist, and screenwriter Jean-Christophe Réhel is the author of six collections of poetry. His first novel, Tatouine, published orginally in French under the title Ce qu'on respire sur Tatouine, won the prestigious Prix littéraire des collegiens in 2019. Published in English in 2020, it was longlisted for Canada Reads. Réhel's TV series, L'air d'aller, won the Prix des étudiants à Canneseries in 2023. He lives in Montreal. Neil Smith is a Montreal-based writer translator. His novel, Boo, published in 2015, won the Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction. His 2007 short story collection, Bang Crunch, was selected as a best book of the year by The Washington Post and The Globe and Mail, won the McAuslan First Book Prize, and was a finalist for the Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction. The Goddess of Fireflies, Smith's translation of Geneviève Pettersen's novel La déesse des mouches à feu, was nominated for the 2016 Governor General's Award. His latest novel, Jones, published in 2022, was nominated for the Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction. Reviews and Praise "All Kidding Aside (...) takes its readers on a journey into a world woven with turbulent adventures, offering a deep and captivating exploration of brotherly love, precarity, and grief." - Alice Laforce, le Nouvelliste "In Jean-Christophe Réhel's (...) `love letter to comedy', the poet and screenwriter wrestles with themes that challenge, yet never dip into pity. The winner of the Prix littéraire des collégiens celebrates the beauty the everyday... and laughs about it."- Radio-Canada "Réhel pulls us into a rather gloomy universe of messy bedrooms, boot-slopped kitchen floors, soulless Timbits, objects of thoughtless gluttony, chunks of sandwich scattered in the street, carrots jammed into the bottom of a snowman's belly. But `in the midst of all this baseness,' as Brassens might say, we witness real and touching human connections."- François Lavallée, Nuit Blanche About Tatouine: "A joy to read!" - Shelagh Rogers, CBC's The Next Chapter "A novel of inventive, self-deprecating humour." - Jade Colbert, The Globe and Mail "Réhel gives the reader a front-row seat to a baroque and often hilarious interiority - one that highlights the complexity and tragedy of the human condition, while playfully revealing the capacity of the human mind for turning the struggles of existence, large and small, into a source of amusement. [...] In addition to the often-dark humour, Réhel has a poet's eye for rhythm, repetition, and stark imagery that thankfully isn't lost in the exceptional translation by Katherine Hastings and Peter McCambridge." (Dean Garlick, Montreal Review of Books) "Certainly one of my favourites of this year." (Steven Buechler, The Library of Pacific Tranquility)

2024 is not 1914. Yet, while much has changed since the first world war, the global state of imperialism has not significantly altered. Unlike a hundred years ago, this is no longer a situation of relatively equal adversaries facing off against each other. Rather, we live in a world where one hegemonic power--the USA--is trying desperately by and all means to cling to its world-wide domination, exercising hegemony over all. No other country, including China and Russia, has either the will or the capacity to replace it. Herein lies the source of the major tensions and conflicts in the world today. Imperialism proposes a new interpretation of contemporary imperialism. Highlighting its historical continuity, Samir shows how crucial the past is to understanding what is happening today. Since the fall of the Soviet Bloc, the term "imperialism" has largely disappeared from public discourse, but reality is forcing it back. Imperialism proposes a new understanding of imperialism. Highlighting its historical continuity, Saul shows how crucial the past is to understanding what is happening today. Samir Saul is a full professor of international history at the Université de Montréal. He has taught and supervised many graduate students for over three decades, with a concentration on modern France and the Arab world. He did his doctorate in history at the Université de Paris. Along with dozens of scholarly articles and as many on current world problems for a larger public, he has published two major studies entitled La France et l'Égypte de 1882 à 1914. Intérêts économiques et implications politiques (Paris, 1997) and Intérêts économiques français et décolonisation de l'Afrique du Nord (1945-1962) (Paris, 2016). He is also co-editor of Méditerranée, Moyen-Orient : deux siècles de relations internationales (Paris, 2003). This is his first book to appear in English. Praise "Samir Saul is one of the very best French-language specialists in international economic relations. He has chosen here to tackle a question that is still debated and that has lost none of its relevance, on the contrary: imperialism. If we weren't convinced, this book leads us there. (. . . ) a powerful resource." Dominique Barjot, Emeritus Professor of Economic History, Université Sorbonne "Saul sheds new light on the changing face of imperialism through the ages, from primitive ancestral practices to its more covert contemporary forms in the guise of capitalism." UdeM Nouvelles

It is 1944 and Red Army soldiers have liberated the Polish town of Dobryd from Nazi occupation. After three years of hiding, a family are helped down from a hayloft and given bread. One of the soldiers picks up a four-year-old child and carries her outside. She looks around in wonder and feels, for the first time in her life, the fresh air of summer on her cheeks. So begins a young girl's new life amid the ruins of World War II. While adults mourn what was lost forever, the narrator explores a world that had been forbidden to her, discovering the pleasures of the senses and the company of other children. Though resolutely thriving in the present and thrilled about what's ahead, the young child also pieces together the past that the adults are determined to bury. In this powerful autobiographical novel about momentous events, Montreal writer Ann Charney tells an illuminating story of ordinary people committing appalling crimes and surviving unfathomable despair. Written with fierce candour and insight, it is a compelling story of the human spirit. Ann Charney is an award-winning Canadian novelist, short story writer, and journalist. Dobryd was first published in 1973 and was translated into many languages. Her work has been published in Canada, the U.S., France, Germany, and Italy. Ann Charney's other books include Life Class, Rousseau's Garden, Distantly Related to Freud and Defiance in Their Eyes. She has won Canadian National Magazine Awards both for her fiction and non-fiction and was made an officer of the Ordre des arts et lettres in France. Ann Charney lives in Montreal. Peter McFarlane is an author, journalist, editor, and arts administrator. His most recent book, which was inspired by Dobryd, is Family Ties, How a Ukrainian Nazi and a Living Witness link Canada to Ukraine today. Author of numerous articles, he is also the editor of several award-winning titles including Unsettling Canada. He lives north of Montreal. Reviews and Praise "Along with The Diary of Anne Frank . . . Dobryd will take its place as one of the truly significant insights into the effects of war." Books in Canada "A tale told with great skill and simplicity; her book is a tour de force." Maclean's "A `marvelous' autobiographical novel of a Jewish girl emerging from hiding in Poland after the defeat of the Nazis, and rediscovering freedom and hope." Publishers Weekly "One of the best books on a European destiny in our century." Stuttgarter Zeitung, Germany "Original and compelling, this book makes us believe in the possibility of happiness amid the terrors of war." Frankfurter Neue Presse, Germany "A terrifying and inspiring story of war seen through the eyes of a child." L'express, Belgium "An extraordinary testimonial to the strength of the human spirit, even in the worst times." Flair, Belgium "The novel's unsentimental, clear-eyed vision offers hope that, with luck, the human spirit can blossom under the most dreadful circumstances." Mary Soderstrom

Every year, nearly 2 million babies are stillborn around the world; in Canada, one in every 125 pregnancies ends in a stillbirth. It is September 1991 and Lydia has just given birth to a stillborn child in Montreal. As she and her husband grapple with the after effects, their relationship comes under intense scrutiny. Lydia, the daughter of poor Greek immigrants, fears she has failed her husband as well as his more prosperous Greek family. Their marriage had been shaky from the start and the stillbirth seriously threatens its very foundations, including John's commitment to fidelity. Tunes for Dancing Bears plunges deeply into the complexities of grief and the many challenges of being a woman. A touching story of family, loss, immigration, hope, and the real meaning of for better or for worse. Irena Karafilly is an award-winning author of several acclaimed books and of numerous stories, poems, and articles. She has published in literary and mainstream magazines, as well as in The New York Times and the International Herald Tribune. Her short stories have won Canada's National Magazine Award and the CBC Literary Award. Her latest novel, Arrested Song, was recently published in the UK by Legend Press and was Finalist for the QWF 2024 Paragraphe-Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction. She divides her time between Montreal and Athens. Reviews and Praise "This eloquent, impressionistic novel evokes the devastating void left by a stillborn child." Meg Nola, Foreword Reviews "Irena Karafilly has written a beautiful and moving addition to the literature of loss and grief." William Kotzwinkle, author of Swimmer in the Secret Sea Praise for Arrested Song "I enjoyed this book immensely. Karafilly succeeds brilliantly where I had decided not to even try. A very accomplished novel." Louis de Bernieres "A gripping, powerfully evocative chronicle of Greek island life. . .. Nothing is black and white here, least of all her feisty, iconoclastic heroine . . . hard to put this book down." Sofka Zinovieff "Arrested Song is a wonderful novel, fully realized and absorbing." Anna Porter "An epic, page-turning story, of longing and bravery. Arrested Song is a must read." Nadia Marks "Beautifully written and riveting." Carol P. Christ "Arrested Song is a highly accomplished, thoroughly researched, and compelling read." Dean Kalimniou "One of the best novels I?ve read about modern Greece . . .. A truly original work." Diana Farr Louis "A beautifully written, superbly detailed and addictive historical novel mostly set on the island of Lesvos. I savoured every word." Peter Barber.

From the highways of Cairo to the outports of Newfoundland, the soul-crushing cubicles of Montreal city work and the deceptive perils of the Quebec countryside, these brilliant short stories lay bare the workings of power and the small acts of both courage and compromise by which those on the margins defy them. Marshy's distinctive style and untamed strength guides the reader in an electrifying high-wire act through the inner lives of refugees, queers in love and grief, wives, workers, and so many others fighting their way out from under. Beautifully cohesive across a stunning depth and range of setting and subject, no one is innocent in My Thievery of the People. Leila Marshy is of Palestinian-Newfoundland parentage, which explains a lot. During the First Intifada, she worked for the Palestinian Mental Health Association in Gaza, and Medical Aid for Palestine in Montreal. Her first novel, The Philistine, was published in 2018 and in French in 2021. She lives in Montreal. PRAISE "Tightly woven, electric, exciting, and rooted deeply in place, Marshy's stories depict the everyday life of a host of characters: a Cairo daughter daunted by her brother's return, a paranoid Montreal snow plow driver, a Russian "knife guy" working at a circus in Las Vegas, an Egyptian waiter serving a tourist family on a boat, a mysterious Quebecois beekeeper off the side of the road. Emotionally unpredictable and incredibly immediate, Marshy's voice is both stark and like a pulsing half-dream, caught between reality and something else. Each story left me wondering but not dissatisfied, curious to know what the next story would bring. An excellent follow-up to her wonderful debut, The Philistine." --Eli Tareq El Bechelany-Lynch, The Good Arabs (Winner of the Grand Prix du Livre de Montreal, 2022) "A household in a Montreal suburb suffused with marital tension, a dusty village in an unnamed Middle Eastern country, a mysteriously archaic travelling circus: My Thievery is a delightfully engrossing and awe-inspiring collection that transports us from the mundane to the exotic and spaces in between, all in the service of the sort of satisfying, trend-defying morality tales in which the consequences of our choices can include death--or at least retribution." -- Anita Anand, A Convergence of Solitudes

Malory Fleet's son was killed by bikers and now she's worried about his missing girlfriend, Amanda. But that case was closed shut by the police a year ago and Frank Cain, the private investigator she's hired, is reluctant to take it on. On the sometimes seedy streets of uptown Saint John, no one wants to talk, even fewer have anything to say, and the police have cast a blanket of fog over everything. As Frank searches fruitlessly for clues, he learns more about Malory than about Amanda, and begins to grow wary. Throughout, Detective Stuart Boucher is following Frank and making little effort to hide it, leading Cain to conclude that the officer may have more to do with the case than he's letting on. For Frank Cain, as unmoored as a lost ship in the harbour, in unravelling this case he risks unravelling himself. Saints Rest is a neo-noir novel set in a gritty and unforgiving Saint John, a town where few people are prepared for its secrets, least of all Frank Cain. Luke Francis Beirne was born in Donegal, Ireland, and lives on the Wolastoqey land of Saint John, New Brunswick. His first novel, Foxhunt (Baraka Books, 2022), was a finalist for the 2022 Foreword INDIES award and selected as one of The Miramichi Reader's Very Best novels of 2022. His second novel, Blacklion (Baraka Books, 2023), was selected by CBC as one of the novels to read in 2023 and shortlisted by the Writer's Federation of New Brunswick for the 2023 Best Novel Award. His stories, essays, and reviews have appeared in Counterpunch, NB Media Co-op, Hamilton Arts & Letters, and CrimeReads. Beirne's work has been stylistically compared to Ernest Hemingway, Graham Greene, Frederick Forsyth, and John le Carre. Saints Rest is his third novel. Reviews and praise "Saints Rest by Luke Francis Beirne is set in a dreary Saint John, New Brunswick and centers around Frank Cain, a private investigator. Think Dashiel Hammett's Sam Spade or the Continental Op, and you're on the right track for a great read. . . . Snappy dialogue and realistic characters make Saints Rest such an enjoyable book." James Fisher, The Seaboard Review "Beirne captures the hard-boiled spirit of Saint John-the dense fog, the salty air of the harbour, the cold-in-the-bones daily life of the working class. A fine example of East Coast Grit Lit." Jerrod Edson, novelist About Blacklion "Mr. Beirne's writing is good, really good...I used to read a lot of Frederick Forsyth, and Blacklion very much recalls the type of story Mr. Forsyth would spin. Recommended, along with Foxhunt." James Fisher, The Seaboard Review "Highly atmospheric... very cinematic..." Colleen Kitts-Goguen, CBC "Beirne achieves a certain Hemingway quality for his protagonist and associates... a fine effort in a genre where the bar has been set extremely high by le Carre, Greene, Deighton, and others." Ian Thomas Shaw, The Ottawa Review of Books About Foxhunt "[Foxhunt is] a cold-war thriller rather like early le Carré. ... eerily pertinent given recent news ..." Simon Lavery, Tredynas Days "[A] brilliant young writer." David Adams Richards "With its beautifully lyrical prose, Foxhunt is an alchemic mix of realpolitik and shadowy noir." Mark Anthony Jarman "Against a seamless historical and literary backdrop, Foxhunt balances compelling intrigue with vulnerable human emotions." Meg Nola, Foreword Reviews (March-April 2022)

Autoworkers unionized the General Motors plant in Oshawa in 1937 after a bitterly fought strike that pitted them against a rabidly anti-union government, hostile press and GM corporation. It was a major turning point in Canadian labour history. Crucial factors contributing to the strike's success include the historical background of working-class struggle in the community, patient and courageous prior organizing by Communists, the engaged leadership of rank-and-file GM workers, and the solid support of the United Autoworkers International Union. The author focuses on the voices and actions of rank-and-file workers and on the day-to-day events, many of which have been misunderstood or misinterpreted. The Truth About the '37 Oshawa GM Strike takes down the long-accepted-but false-narrative espoused by the academic Irving Abella that the Oshawa workers were "on their own" without significant support from the UAW/CIO leadership and that they would have been better off not to organize under the banner of an international union. It also shows how that narrative fails to grasp the degree to which class struggle organizing principles were crucial to the strike's success. A true understanding of the '37 strike provides valuable lessons for people seeking to revive the labour movement today. Tony Leah is a long-time union activist with experience in bargaining, shop-floor representation, labour education, and political mobilization. A maintenance and construction welder with GM, Oshawa for nearly 40 years, he has held many positions within the Auto Workers Union at both Oshawa Local 222 and on the Canadian national level. Editor and author of many articles on labour history and activities, Tony Leah holds an MA in Labor Studies from McMaster University. He lives in Toronto. Praise and reviews "A remarkable piece of research and a substantial original contribution to the historiography of not just the Local, but of the history of the UAW and the CAW in Canada." Professor Stephanie Ross, McMaster University School of Labour Studies. "This really needs to be seen, in part because it offers an important re-interpretation of this event in Canadian labour history... beautifully crafted.... It's clear, it's thorough. It reads almost like a novel." Wayne Lewchuk, Professor Emeritus, McMaster University School of Labour Studies "It takes the tenacity and truthfulness of a grass-root activist to tell the real story of working-class politics. Tony Leah does that in this behind-the-scenes tale of the historic '37 GM strike." Sid Ryan, Former President of the Ontario Federation of Labour

Cate, 43, is a university professor in an unfulfilling marriage. When Nuna, the young Inuk woman she mentors, disappears, Cate and her new friend, Isabel, 28, set out on a journey to find her. On the road, their friendship is tested, Nuna remains elusive, and Cate must contend with her ever-demanding husband who wants her to come home. As lead after lead falls through and the search reaches a critical impasse, Cate makes an important decision to stop living for others and finally live life on her own terms. Set in Montreal, Ottawa and Nunavik, Looking for Her explores the intersecting lives of three women in search of themselves. Carolyn Marie Souaid is the Montreal-based author of nine poetry collections and the acclaimed novel, Yasmeen Haddad Loves Joanasi Maqaittik, set in Nunavik (Northern Canada), where she lived and worked for three years in the 1980s. She has performed at literary events in Canada and abroad, her work garnering a top prize at the 2012 Berlin Zebra Poetry Film Festival. Her literary papers (1967-2022) are housed in the Rare Books and Special Collections of McGill University's McLennan Library. About Carolyn Marie Souaid's previous work For Yasmeen Haddad Loves Joanasi Maqaittik "Her language naturally pairs with the physicality of the story ... Unsettling realism is enhanced by Souaid's understanding of the complications of race and complicity." Starred Review, Foreword Reviews "Carolyn Marie Souaid has a brave honest voice and a love for northern Canada and its people that is genuinely moving to read about." Tomson Highway "Yasmeen Haddad Loves Joanasi Maqaittik is the lyrical and absorbing result of a sincere mission to come to grips with another culture. That it took decades to commit to the writing is a tale in itself." Ian McGillis, The Montreal Gazette For This Side of Light (2022) (Poetry) "This carefully edited book lives up to the task of bringing together Souaid's powerful poems into a selected volume...a significant contribution to Canadian literature." Jury Citation, Shortlisted for the Mary Scorer Award for Best Book by a Manitoba Publisher "Souaid's fearlessness is unapologetic, and offers a courageous worldview, one that doesn't hide from the truth." Montreal Review of Books For The Eleventh Hour (2020) "The Eleventh Hour is deliciously paced and gorgeous. It makes the reader want to slow down and speed up at the same time - to revel in the words and rhythms but also to give in to the narrative thrust of each poem's twists and turns and surprises." The Pacific Rim Review of Books For This World We Invented (2015) "Souaid has her fingers so delicately placed on the pulse of her audience that they hardly notice when she starts to pinch...Not many books of poetry dance like this. Sublime and superb. I would like to use every compliment I can think of. Brilliant." Michael Dennis, Today's Book of Poetry, 2015 For Satie's Sad Piano (2004) "This long poem is perhaps the first serious effort to encompass the nation since Dennis Lee's problematically Ontario centric/Torontonian Civil Elegies appeared in 1968 and 1972." George Elliott Clarke, The Halifax Herald

Products of popular culture, romance novels have been largely devalued and scorned by cultural gatekeepers. Yet they lend themselves to a historical analysis of how societies attribute a precise place to the impulses of love and codify its manifestations. This book is based on the premise that love is not as spontaneous and free as one would have us believe. While it is true that love exists in all human communities, not all communities love in the same way. The words used to speak of love, which simultaneously reveal and censor, inform and sublimate, channel and repress the stirrings of the heart, are chosen according to everchanging social and cultural norms. Love stories or romans d'amour are among the most widely read and appreciated by all classes of society and have been continually revisited and reinvented over time. The capacity for renewal in such a rigidly codified genre is nothing short of amazing, as is the resulting diversity of content. Love Stories Now and Then is the first comprehensive survey of Quebec and French-Canadian romance novels. It tackles questions that everybody asks. What is "love at first sight"? How do class, national identity, religion, and race influence choice of partners? What are the rules to flirting? What are the limits to expressing one's desires? What are people's expectations in marriage? What is the place of sexuality and how does it differ in French and English culture in North America? This book challenges many of our assumptions about romance novels and offers a compelling glimpse into the dreams and fantasies of love over the past two centuries. Marie-Pier Luneau is Professor in the Département des Arts, langues et littératures at the Université de Sherbrooke where she has taught Quebec literature for more than 20 years. Currently director of the Groupe de recherches et d'études sur le livre au Québec (GRÉLQ), she co-founded and co-manages the international journal Mémoires du livre / Studies in Book Culture. An award-winning author and researcher, Luneau has published books on authorship, on the history of publishing in Quebec, and more recently on the history of popular literature and in particular romance novels. Marie-Pier Luneau lives in Kingsey Falls, Québec. Jean-Philippe Warren is Professor of Sociology at Concordia University and a member of the Royal Society of Canada. Co-director of the "Democracy and Pluralism" section of the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research on Diversity and Democracy, he is the author more than 300 articles on many subjects linked to the development of Quebec and Canada. He is the recipient of several awards and distinctions including the Governor General's Award for Nonfiction (2015) and the Canada Prize in the Humanities and Social Sciences for the best scholarly book (2019). Jean-Philippe Warren lives in Montreal.

The Thickness of Ice is a tender and tragic tale set in the remote subarctic town of Churchill, Manitoba, on Hudson Bay. The barren icy landscape pervades the characters' lives and relationships. As the novel opens Wade confesses that he was responsible for the death of his best friend Jack three years after meeting him. They had been arguing about Tess, a Dene woman they were both in love with. Jack's body was never found, and Wade never admitted to the act. It was assumed that Jack had left abruptly. However, many years later, Wade meets Esther who moves to Churchill to live with him. She hears the story of Jack's disappearance. To bring some closure to Wade, she determines to resolve what happened to Jack. For Wade, his carefully constructed life is now threatened. Gerard Beirne holds Canadian and Irish citizenship. He has published three novels, three books of poetry, and a collection of short stories. His short story collection In a Time of Drought and Hunger was shortlisted for The Danuta Gleed Literary Award. Gerard has lived in Northern Manitoba and also taught English at the University of New Brunswick. He now teaches Creative Writing and Literature at ATU Sligo, Ireland. Reviews and Praise "Set in the Canadian tundra, Gerard Beirne's exquisite novel The Thickness of Ice is more than a love story; it's a story of culpability and redemption, propelled by a twenty-five-year-old mystery. . . . Breathtaking and immersive, The Thickness of Ice is a snowbound, heartwarming mystery novel marked by love and beauty, friendship and betrayal, and the darkness of the human heart." STARRED REVIEW, Elaine Chiew, Foreword Reviews (May / June 2024) "A deft and moving tale of love and loss on life's cold margins, in which character is fate, and landscape is character." Ed O'Loughlin, Giller Finalist & Man Booker Prize nominee "This is a beautifully cadenced novel of loneliness and desire. The evocation of the physical world is wonderful, the synthesis of the weather of the heart and the elemental landscape is stunning. Prose of grace and clarity is ballasted with real narrative drive as past ghosts emerge. Powerful, evocative, haunting, The Thickness of Ice is an extraordinary novel." Eoin McNamee, screenwriter, Longlisted for Man Booker Prize for Blue Tango, author of 19 novels "Clever writing and pacing make this story not only believable but serve to draw the reader in as all the characters are likeable in their way, but all have their flaws, cracks in their characters... One can tell when good writing is unfolding right before their eyes." STARRED REVIEW, James Fisher, The Miramichi Reader "A masterpiece in cadence, rhythm, metaphor, symbolism. Beirne's characters are rich in detail even as we get so few details, and he has created a landscape so vivid in its emptiness and coldness, and at the same time so mythical, that I was awestruck page after page. Chapter 18 is an opera." Leila Marshy, Author of Philistine About Gerard Beirne's other work "Beirne's descriptive writing is superb. He evokes the atmosphere of the town brilliantly, along with the surrounding landscape..." Books Ireland "By far the most memorable novel of the year for me was Gerard Beirne's wonderful The Eskimo in the Net.... Just like the central character, Jim Gallagher, the reader is drawn into the depths of both a mystery and a personal voyage of discovery.... Wonderful clear prose and sensitive observation in a tough environment make this an outstanding debut work, scandalously ignored by this year's Man Booker judges." Graham Ball - Daily Express

By Yves Engler; Owen Schalk In Books and Featured Books Tagged In Canada, Chile, Congo, Coup d'État, Greece, Guatemala, Haiti, Imperialism, Iran, Palestine, Ukraine, and Venezuela. Canada's Long Fight Against Democracy Published Date: February 1, 2024 Pin It Tweet Send to friend Send inquiry Description Pre-order now; available February 2024 Canada's Long Fight against Democracy is a sweeping overview of Canadian-backed coups since 1950. It documents Canada's contribution to the ouster of over 20 elected governments from Mohammad Mossadegh in Iran to Patrice Lumumba in Congo, Salvador Allende in Chile and Jean Bertrand Aristide in Haiti. As part of subverting democracy, Ottawa has cut off aid and imposed illegal sanctions in the hopes of turning the population against the targeted government. Canada has also financed opposition civil society groups and allowed protesters to use its embassy as a staging point to topple a president. They've even organized a secret international gathering to discuss overthrowing a popular leader, decided a marginal opposition politician was the legitimate president, and dispatched the Canadian military to subvert democracy. While government officials and the media regularly frame conflicts with geopolitical competitors as motivated by a belief in democracy, the authors debunk the notion that decision-makers in Ottawa are driven by promoting democracy abroad. Washington's role in subverting elected governments has been detailed in countless studies by scholars and observers from around the world. The literature on Canada's role in anti-democratic meddling is comparatively limited. In fact, this is the first book to focus on Canada's role in subverting democracy around the globe. Yves Engler is a political activist and author of twelve books. He has been dubbed as "one of the most important voices on the Canadian Left." The Globe and Mail has situated him in the mould of I.F. Stone, while Quill & Quire says Engler is "part of that rare but growing group of social critics unafraid to confront Canada's self-satisfied myths." Yves Engler lives in Montreal. Owen Schalk is a writer from Manitoba. He is the author of Canada in Afghanistan: A Story of Military, Diplomatic, Political, and Media Failure, 2003-2023 (Lorimer Books, 2023). His articles have been published by Alborada, Monthly Review, and Protean Magazine, and he contributes a weekly column to Canadian Dimension magazine. He also writes fiction, and you can read his short stories in Quagmire Literary Magazine, Sobotka Literary Magazine, Vast Chasm Magazine, and more.

Shaf, a physics teacher and a philosopher, fought as a partisan in the Balkans during the Second World War. He has not been heard from for 40 years. How could such an ubiquitous and expansive person disappear? Did the murder of his mother and girlfriend Nika by fascists during the War spark his sporadic displays of insanity? Rumours had him teaching in the United States and Europe during the Cold War. Ben, Shaf's former student and Nika's brother, has never given up looking for him. He finally meets up with Shaf in his home town, where they first met. The encounter does not turn out as expected. Set in Sabzic, a fictitious town in an unnamed country in the Balkans, Shaf and the Remington chronicles the lives of a family, a people, a town and a nation, from dawn at the time of the first great War to dusk as the Cold War sputters to an end. Rana BoseRana Bose is an award-winning novelist, playwright, poet, and dramaturge. He has written four novels, including Fog (2019), winner of The Miramichi Reader's 2019 Best Canadian Fiction Award. His plays have been published and performed in Canada and the United States. Founding editor of Montreal Serai, Rana Bose lives in Montreal. In the media "Set in the fictitious town of Sabzic in what is clearly Yugoslavia but never identified as such, Bose relates the personal stories of Ben and Shaf against the backdrop of invading panzer divisions and local partisans. But this is in no way historical fiction. Rather, it is an allegory to the forces of human nature, which pit the petty desire to divide against the will to unite. ... [Rana Bose] would certainly merit a place in Canada's pantheon of outstanding writers." Ian Thomas Shaw, The Ottawa Review of Books. Praise "The characters are so full of life, distinct and engaging. The structure is perfect. I loved the artful ending. All is tied up but in a light, electric way. Nothing is heavy-handed. The themes are so prescient. A brilliant exploration of `the end of an era'-the post-war truce between races, religions and ideologies. I thank you for restoring my faith in the novel. In addition to being a fiercely intelligent political novel, the prose is luscious." Marianne Ackerman, novelist, playwright, and journalist, author of Mankind and Other Stories of Women "This is a gripping, exuberantly written tale, mixing genres and vocabularies, tracking the elusive dream of interethnic harmony. Rana Bose's story is beautiful and wise." Sherry Simon, Canada Chair in Translation and Cultural History, Director of Concordia's Interdisciplinary PhD in Humanities Program, author of The City in Translation: "Urban Cultures of Central Europe" "Masterfully crafted, the final pages of the book compel the reader to start over again." Nilambri Ghai, founding member and editor of Montréal Serai, author of From Johanne to Janaki: Bringing Vikings to Varanasi.

Nicole Fortin is on the cusp of realizing a long-held dream when her life takes a sudden turn. Instead of participating in the Olympic Games, she finds herself struggling to master the challenging physical demands of her job in an aerospace plant and win the confidence of her male colleagues. As her involvement in union activity deepens, she is drawn into the centre of a bitter labour battle that pits her workmates against their employer. In the midst of this escalating confrontation, incidents from Nicole's past threaten to destroy her credibility with her coworkers and her relationship with her daughter. Workplace and family ties become tangled and stretched to the breaking point. Maker is working-class literature in the tradition of Theodore Dreiser, John Dos Passos and from Baraka Books Mick Lowe and The Nickel Range Trilogy. Jim Upton worked for twenty-five years in unionized jobs at an aerospace plant. During this time, he participated in several sets of contract negotiations as a union activist, including one as a member of the union negotiating committee. He lives in Montreal. Maker is his first novel. In the media "There's a lot of trailblazing happening here, and a keen labour story told. ... Upton's style is simple and matter-of-fact, with short chapters lending themselves well to the pace of action and creating a sense of urgency and tension, particularly as the negotiations heat up in the story." Alison Manley, The Miramichi Reader Praise "Jim Upton's page turning novel Maker is a fast paced look inside the anatomy of a bitter strike in Montreal's aerospace industry. The author brilliantly captures the tensions and fears that run through the minds of every striking worker and the enormous pressure loaded onto the shoulders of every bargaining committee member. An excellent read!" Sid Ryan, Former President of the Ontario Federation of Labour "There are precious few Canadian novels about workers and work, and fewer still about industrial work in particular. Fictional accounts of strikes, viewed from the inside, are yet harder to find. In Maker, Jim Upton has crafted a fast-paced portrait of a woman who rises to lead her union through a hard-fought battle against a multinational determined to increase its profits on the backs of Quebec workers." Elise Moser, author of What Milly Did: the Remarkable Pioneer of Plastics Recycling "Maker is the inside story of life in the skilled trades from the point of view of a real person. It's not the story of the company as told in the business section. It's about the struggle for fairness by flesh and blood unionized people who work on the shop floor." Anne Lagacé Dowson

Diagnosed with incurable cancer in 2009 with a maximum six-year life expectancy, the author chronicles her journey through traditional and alternative treatments to complete remission. Without rejecting traditional treatment (i.e., chemo or radio therapies), she refused to be an object to be treated by others. Though initially terrified, she was able to move on, insisting on knowing what was going on and why. This required research, adventure (trips to other countries), sadness, humour, serenity, and some very surprising "alternatives." These include self-hypnosis, determining the emotional causes of my lymphoma, working with a medium, and the essential need for laughter and hope. Her roadmap could be described as interactive, since newly-diagnosed cancer patients overwhelmed by their situation can adapt her approach to their lives. Praise "A woman like so many others who learns she has cancer but who refuses to let gloomy predictions cripple her. She wants to believe she'll be healed. She wants to broaden her horizons. She's ready to challenge herself. Hers is the journey of a heroine. A heroine who overcomes her fears, doubts and suffering, but who ends up winning. A book of hope for those who think they're doomed." Claudia Rainville, founder of the Meta Health Approach and author of 9 books in French, Italian and German.

Winter blankets Montreal, while a bookseller and her lover dream of Prague. As the narrator's open marriage becomes the subject of a novel, reality blurs with fiction, and she tries to reconcile the need to create with the desire for love and sex. Written in stark, spare prose, Prague is an introspective and intimate account of the making of a novel from life. REVIEWS "a maelstrom of situations and emotions ... heartbreaking." (James Fisher, The Miramichi Reader) EXERPT "Our story was falling flat. All of this waiting for a few moments of euphoria, it was exhausting. The moments came, but not often enough. I didn't want to hold back. I wanted to throw myself into it. Set everything on fire. Be with him, be crazy. I felt like we were going to run out of time. He was afraid of getting close, becoming attached, being a couple. He was solitary, had a full inner life. Once a week was the deal. No more. He didn't want to lose control. I knew he'd let me into his life because I wasn't a threat. A married woman, the ideal arrangement. He was holding me at a distance, but other times felt so close. Closer than anyone had been. Closer than I'd imagined possible."

Deux femmes, deux destins hors norme : découvrez comment Mother Joseph et Louise Blanchard Bethune, pionnières de l’architecture au XIXe siècle, ont défié les conventions et marqué l’histoire de part et d’autre de l’Amérique du Nord.

1653 : après deux ans chez les Iroquois, Pierre-Esprit Radisson s’échappe et traverse l’Atlantique, déterminé à retrouver sa mère à Paris. Mais la guerre a tout détruit.

Et si la justice internationale n’était qu’un instrument au service des grandes puissances ? Justice Belied rassemble les analyses d’avocats, de journalistes et d’universitaires pour révéler les dérives d’un système censé protéger les droits de.

Frederick Coburn (1871-1960) was arguably Canada's best-known painter at the peak of his career. Nick Fonda revisits Coburn's work providing charming new insight into the painter and his surroundings. His method includes casting an inquisitive gaze on other accomplished artists who have followed unusual paths as they responded to the same muse that moved Coburn a century ago, Quebec's Eastern Townships. These include Minnie Gill, Denis Palmer, Mary Martin, Stuart Main, France Jodoin, and Keven Sonmor, and more. Based on interviews with neighbours and Coburn aficionados and Nick Fonda's own thorough understanding of the milieu in which Coburn grew up, lived, and worked, Hanging Fred and a Few Others is more than a biography of an important artist. It is also a lively and fascinating reflection on the role of place-the Eastern Townships-in an artist's life. F.S. Coburn, in addition to being a painter, was an accomplished photographer. Nick Fonda, with the help of Bob Laberge, also presents 14 photos from the family collection, all taken or inspired by Frederick Coburn.

Sudbury, 1963. Jake McCool, 19 ans, découvre l’enfer des mines de nickel et les luttes syndicales en pleine Guerre froide.