COACH HOUSE BOOKS FALL/ WINTER 2020-21 TitleFall/Winter 2020-21 genre by COACH HOUSE BOOKS Publisher: Stan Bevington Editorial Director: Alana Wilcox Managing Editor: Crystal Sikma Sales and Marketing Coordinator: James Lindsay Digital and Distribution Coordinator: Nick Hilton Digital Intern: Yasmin Emery Editorial Intern: Tali Voron Toronto Books Editor: John Lorinc 80 bpNichol Lane, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 3J4, Canada Phone: 416 979 2217 | 1 800 367 6360 | Fax: 416 977 1158 www.chbooks.com | [email protected] Twitter: @coachhousebooks For ordering information, see back cover. Other sales inquiries: [email protected] Rights, permissions, and desk copy requests: [email protected] Canadian media and publicity inquiries: [email protected] U.S. media and publicity inquiries, Cursor Marketing Services: [email protected] All other requests: [email protected] Coach House acknowledges the financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund and the Government of Ontario through Ontario Creates for our publishing activities. Fauna fiction by Christiane Vadnais, translated by Pablo Strauss In a near-future world ravaged by climate change, who will win in the struggle between humanity and nature? A thick fog rolls in over Shivering Heights. The river overflows, the sky is streaked with toxic green, parasites proliferate in torrential rains and once safely classified species – humans included – are evolving and behaving in unprecedented ways. Against this poetically hostile backdrop, a biologist fights to understand the nature and scope of the changes transforming her own body and the world around her. Ten lush and bracing linked climate fictions depict a world gorgeous and terrifying in its likeness to our own. Fauna, Christiane Vadnais’s first work of fiction, won the Horizons Imag- inaires speculative fiction award, the City of Quebec book award, and was named one of 2018’s best books by Radio-Canada. ‘Reminiscent of David Kronenberg, Kafka, and H.G. Wells … [Fauna] depicts the hypnotic Darwinian nightmare our negligence and denial will lead us to ISBN 9781552454169 in the coming years.’ – Le Devoir 5 x 8 | 144 pp | pbk $20.95 CAD | $15.95 US ‘A spirited vision of the end times that reminds us that a new one will be born FIC055000 FICTION / Dystopian out of the old, as savage and alive as the previous one’s primitive beginnings.’ EPUB 9781770566569 – La Presse SEPTEMBER 2020 ‘Vadnais’s language is precise, rich in imagery, unsettling. The quality of the writing makes for a raw, searing read.’ – L’Express christiane vadnais holds an MFA in creative writing, and has long been active as an events programmer and project manager in Quebec’s literary community. Radio-Canada named her a ‘Young Author to Watch’ for 2020. Fauna is her first work of fiction. She lives in Quebec City. pablo strauss’s previous translations for Coach House are The Country Will Bring Us No Peace, The Supreme Orchestra, and Baloney. He is a two-time finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award for translation. Pablo grew up in Victoria, BC, and has lived in Quebec City for fifteen years. Credit: Maryse Cléro-Nobréga FICTION | 3 The Dark Library fiction by Cyrille Martinez, translated by Joseph Patrick Stancil Libraries are magical places. But what if they’re even more magical than we know? In Cyrille Martinez’s library, the books are alive: not just their ideas or their stories, but the books themselves. Meet the Angry Young Book, who has strong opinions about who reads what and why. He’s tired of people reading bestsellers, so he places himself on the desks of those who might appreciate him. Meet the old Historian who mysteriously vanished from the stacks. Meet the Blue Librarian, the Mauve Librarian, the Yellow Librarian, and spend a day with the Red Librarian trying to banish coffee cups and laptops. Then one day there are no empty desks anywhere in the Great Library. A great horde of student workers has descended, and they will scan every single book in the library: the much-borrowed, the neglected, the popular, the obscure. What will happen to the library then? Will it still be necessary? The Dark Library is a theoretical fiction, a meditation on what libraries mean in our digital world. Has the act of reading changed? What is a reader? A book? Martinez, a librarian himself, has written a love letter to the urban ISBN 9781552454077 forest of the dark, wild library, where ideas and stories roam free. 5 x 8 | 144 pp | pbk $20.95 CDN | $15.95 US FIC064000 FICTION / Absurdist ’The caustic and often hilarious story of the misadventures of a library, all the concerns and issues facing the professions … The fantastic with a hint of EPUB 9781770566224 irony of Cyrille Martinez’s writing is reminiscent of Marcel Aymé.’ OCTOBER 2020 – Livres Hebdo ‘Over a documentary base that it itself worth reading, he composes a passionate fiction, almost fantastic, showing the defeat of the printed word by the digital.’ – L’Humanité cyrille martinez is a poet, novelist, and librarian living in Paris. His second novel, The Sleepworker, was translated by joseph patrick stancil, who studied French and translation at UNC-Chapel Hill and New York University. He lives in New York. Credit: Mark Melki 4 | FICTION Neighbourhood Watch fiction by Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette, translated by Rhonda Mullins The lives of three kids intersect in the hallways of an apartment block in a Montreal neighbourhood Kevin lives in 62. His mom took off but it’s okay because his dad’s a wrestler and he always wins. Even when he gets laid off from his job. Melissa is in 64. She has to look after her siblings because there’s a restraining order that means her mom can’t be within fifty metres of them. So when Melissa needs to tell her something, she leaves a note on the sidewalk near where her mother is looking for customers. And Roxane, in 61, obsessed with the violin, collects her mom’s empties so she can sell them for a snack at the depanneur. They hear each other through the thin walls. They’re all more grown up than they should be for twelve-year-olds, and they’re all alone – so alone they don’t even try to find solace in one another’s company. Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette, author of the acclaimed Suzanne (2019 Canada Reads shortlist, international bestseller), encountered real-life versions of these kids when she was making her film Le Ring. With her characteristic poetic flair and generosity, she has painted, in brief strokes, an unforgettable ISBN 9781552454176 and moving portrait of a fictional apartment block in Montreal. 5 x 8 | 144 pp | pbk $20.95 CDN | $15.95 US ‘You’ll recognize in this novel scenes from The Ring. The idea for this book FIC043000 FICTION / Coming of Age was born long before.… After the film, she wanted to pursue their stories, EPUB 9781770566538 without the heaviness of film.… The narration borrows the point of view and the crude and sometimes awkward language of the characters.’ – La Presse OCTOBER 2020 ‘Barbeau-Lavalette takes on a naive and charming tone without a trace of miserabilism.’ – Voir Montréal anaïs barbeau-lavalette is a Montreal-based novelist, screenwriter, and director. Her debut novel in French (now translated as Neighbourhood Watch) was made into a film called The Ring. rhonda mullins’ translation of Suzanne by Anaïs Barbeau- Lavalette was shortlisted for the Best Translated Book Award in 2018 and shortlisted for 2019 CBC Canada Reads. FICTION | 5 The Carrying Place Stories of Indigenous Toronto edited by Denise Bolduc, Mnawaate Gordon-Corbiere, Rebeka Tabobondung, Brian Wright-McLeod, and John Lorinc A collection of perspectives by and about Indigenous Toronto, past, present, and future Beneath every major city in North America lies a deep and rich Indigenous history that has been colonized, paved over, and ignored. Few of its current inhabitants know that Toronto has seen 12,000 years of different peoples, including the Haudenosaunee, the Anishinaabe, the Huron-Wendat, and the Mississaugas of the New Credit, and a vibrant culture and history that thrives to this day. With original contributions by Indigenous elders, scholars, journalists, artists, activists, and historians about art, food, health, and more, this unique Coach House Books anthology explores the poles of erasure and cultural continuity that have come to define a crossroads city-region that was known as a meeting place IMAGE TO COME long before the arrival of European settlers. Contributors include political scientist Hayden King, historian Alan Corbiere, musician Elaine Bomberry, artist Duke Redbird, playwright Drew Hayden Taylor, educator Kerry Potts, writer/journalist Paul Seesequasis and ISBN 9781552454152 former Mississaugas of the New Credit chief Carolyn King. 5.5 x 8.5 | 192 pp | pbk $23.95 CDN | $18.95 US denise bolduc is an accomplished creative director, producer, programmer, LCO013000 LITERARY COLLECTIONS / Native American speaker and arts consultant recognized for her involvement across disciplines. She is a faculty instructor with the Centre for Indigenous Theatre and served EPUB 9781770566453 on committees and boards including Native Earth Performing Arts, imagine- MARCH 2021 NATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival, the National Indigenous Arts Admin- istrators/Leaders, and Aboriginal Voices Radio. She is Anishnaabe from the Lake Superior territory, and a member of the Batchewana First Nation. mnawaate gordon-corbiere, Grouse clan, from M'Chigeeng First Nation, has a BA in History and English from the University of Toronto. She works at Heritage Toronto as their Indigenous Content Coordinator. Widely recognized as ‘the authority’ on Native music, brian wright-mcLeod (Dakota/Anishnabe) is a Toronto- based music journalist and educator. His first book, The Encyclopedia of Native Music was the basis for the Smithsonian Institute’s Native music exhibit Up Where We Belong that launched the documentary film Rumble, which won three 2018 Canadian Screen Awards.