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Fiction Reviews

Sherry Coffey: Dauntless, Why I’m Here, Jill Frayne.

Who hasn’t wanted to be the fly on the wall of a therapist’s office? To hear the secrets people pay others to know? Jill Frayne’s Why I’m Here is a novel set in Whitehorse, Yukon, in 1995 and tells the story of Helen Cotillard, a counsellor who works at the only counselling agency in the Territory. Out of necessity, Helen “took all comers” in her practice. Her new client, Gale, is a scrappy and unhappy adolescent from Cobalt, Ontario, who is brought to therapy by her stepmother.

Chris Benjamin: MacLeod hits all his notes, Animal Person, Alexander MacLeod.

More than a decade ago, Alexander MacLeod showed unusual patience with his debut short story collection, Light Lifting. Patience in his delivery, care in his craft. Not a word out of place, some would say. The collection itself was the result of more than a decade of story writing and publishing one at a time in literary journals. Great short stories take time to master, and the bevy of jury recognitions his debut garnered was more indication MacLeod had put in the work. 
 

Pre-Order the Winter Issue Today!

 

The forthcoming Winter 2023 issue of The Fiddlehead is now available for pre-order! 

The issue will feature the winning story from The Fiddlehead's 2022 Fiction Contest, as well as work from talented writers such as Alice Zorn, Abu Bakr Sadiq, Kate Cayley, Brian Bartlett and many more.

Pre-orders will be in the mail by the end of January. To order your copy click the appropriate link below: 

Canadian Addresses

Pre-Order the Autumn Issue Now!

The forthcoming Autumn 2022 issue of The Fiddlehead is now available for pre-order! 

The issue will feature the winning essay from The Fiddlehead's 2022 Creative Nonfiction Contest, as well as work from award-winning authors such as Tolu Oloruntoba, Corinna Chong and many more.

Pre-orders will be in the mail by the end of October. Don't miss your chance to reserve a copy today! 

Canadian Addresses

Betwixt and Between: A Review by Ian Colford of Brian Thomas Isaac's "All the Quiet Places"

Betwixt and Between

All the Quiet Places, Brian Thomas Isaac. Brindle & Glass, 2021.

Brian Thomas Isaac’s first novel, All the Quiet Places, describes the early life of Eddie Toma. Eddie lives with his mother Grace and younger brother Lewis on the Okanagan Indian Reserve in Southern British Columbia’s rural interior.

Back of the road a ways: A Review by Susan Haley of Carol Bruneau's "Brighten the Corner Where You Are"

 

Back of the road a ways

Brighten the Corner Where You Are, Carol Bruneau. Vagrant Press, 2020.

 

Sometimes a gifted writer can convey a character by getting an absolute sense of that character’s voice. It is a peculiar kind of ventriloquism, some kind of almost hypnotic union, and when it works it is absolutely brilliant, as it is in Brighten the Corner Where You Are, by Carol Bruneau.

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