BC Books From Vancouver Island & the Coast

“What is a stroke?” This is the question that plagues Ron Smith as he emerges from the carpet bombing of his brain. The Defiant Mind: Living Inside a Stroke is a first-person account of a massive ischemic stroke to the brain stem. Smith takes the reader inside the experience and shows how recuperation happens ― the challenges of communication, the barriers to treatment, the frustrations of being misunderstood and written off, the role of memory in recovering identity, the power of continui …

It’s 1947 in Lahore, and the Sharma family is forced to flee their home during the violence of the Partition of India. As the train tracks measure the ever-growing distance between Varoon and his mother, who vanished during the panic to escape, the boy is thrust towards an uncertain future.

Forty years later, Varoon’s grown son, Anush, desperately tries to disentangle himself from his father’s demands, which are mired in grief and whiskey. Compounding the pressure is an unusually auspiciou …

The second instalment in the Lane Winslow mystery series; for fans of the Maisie Dobbs and Bess Crawford series.

On a snowy day in December 1946, Lane Winslow—a former British intelligence agent who’s escaped to the rural Canadian community of King’s Cove in pursuit of a tranquil life—is introduced to the local hot springs. While there she overhears nearby patrons speaking Russian. When one of those patrons is found dead in the change room, Lane’s linguistic and intelligence experience …

A revised and updated edition of a collection of personal essays that illuminate what life is like for those who live with mental illness, and how it impacts their family members.

More than 4 million Canadians and 57 million Americans suffer from a diagnosable mental illness, and yet there are still considerable stigmas and a great deal of misunderstanding surrounding even the most common diagnoses—schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, autism, obsessive-compulsive disorder, clinical depression, post …

The third instalment in the Arthur Ellis award-nominated Forsyth and Hay mystery series.

Detective Chief Inspector Stephen Hay of Scotland Yard believes he is dealing with a serial killer. Two young female victims bearing a superficial resemblance to each other are found asphyxiated and posed, with indecipherable writing on their right hips. A hostel caretaker, a journalist and his photographer, a bariatric specialist, the Canadian High Commission in London, and a psychic all have roles to play i …

#1 BC bestselling book of 2017
Winner of the 2018 BC Book Prizes' Bill Duthie Booksellers Choice Award

A collection of stories chronicling the characters and dramas that capture life in small coastal communities.

In this story collection, Pat Carney follows the rhythms of day-to-day life in coastal BC. Featuring a revolving cast of characters—the newly retired couple, the church warden, the musician, the small-town girl with big city dreams—Carney’s keen observations of the personalities and …

Sonja Danychuk, a serious and introverted student with dirt-poor immigrant parents, takes pride in her intellectual and academic achievements—essential skills to help her survive and eventually leave small-town Davenport in Northern Ontario. When her father is cut down by a fatal heart attack, Sonja must find a way to pay for university, so she agrees to tutor Carl Helbig, her high school's hockey star and NHL hopeful, despite her strong aversion to his jock-like persona.

Carl graduates and hea …

Ghost stories from Canada’s most haunted city, including tales from iconic sites such as the Empress hotel, Hatley Castle, and Ross Bay Cemetery.

Beautiful, charming Victoria is world renowned for its seaside attractions, flourishing gardens, and breathtaking ocean views. But looming behind its picture-perfect façade is a city shrouded in mystery, with restless, disembodied beings that whisper ghastly tales of mystery, violence, and horror.

Known as British Columbia’s most haunted city, Victo …