Another New Book

Since I know there are a few Canadians lurking around reading my blog, I thought I would talk about the book that I got in the mail today. It is called This is my Country, What's Yours? A Literary Atlas of Canada by Noah Richler.

This is another book that looks really really interesting, but I don't know if I would have ever heard of if it wasn't for the Random House new release email. I have not read it yet, obviously, but it smells so new! I pulled it out of the envelope and was like: "New Book Smell!"

Anyways, I am very loyal to Canadian authors, a lot of my favourite authors are Canadian and I try to read as many new ones each year as I can. So, when I was reading the blurb to this book, which I will post momentarily, I thought that this was a much more interesting way to look at Canada and their authors. It is also supposedly a television documentary, I know I read that somewhere, that might be interesting to watch.

From the flap:

Stories are the surest way to know a place, and at a time when the fabric of the country seems daily more uncertain, Noah Richler looks to our authors for evidence of Canada's true nature. Over three years, Richler criss-crossed the country and met with a veritable who's who of Canadian literature, interviewing close to one hundered authors from Cape Spear to Inuvik about places, ideas, and arguments pertaining to this fortunate but uncertain country.

Bold in it propositions, sensitive in its debates, and wid-reaching in its scope, THIS IS MY COUNTRY, WHAT'S YOURS? reveals the wonders and variety of a country in which stories do battle and explains why they reveall higher truths than our official histories do. In the course of his travels, Richler sees a Canada that has been throught Ages of Invention, Mapping, and Argument. He considers the aggressive role the novel played in the settling of Canada, its rise in aboriginal hands and shows the stories our best authors have written to be deeply and inherently political. Travelling from Newfoundland to the Northwest Territories, he studies the role that work has played in the development of the country and learns of our Myths of Disappointment. He encounters not one but several "distinct societies" and considers the role of the city in our current exhilarating age. The result is a journey through the reality of Canada, but also its imagination, at a critical point in the country's evolution.

THIS IS MY COUNTRY, WHAT'S YOURS? is an impassioned literary travelogue and a vivid portrayal of our society, a homage to the work of Canadian authors and to the idea of writing itself.

Anyways, I think this book looks interesting, and I hope someone other there will read this and go, hey, that looks good!

The authors that are included in this book that I have heard of or read are:
Margaret Atwood
John Bemrose
David Bergen
Austin Clarke
Douglas Coupland
Michael Crummey
Sheldon Currie
Katherine Govier
Barbara Gowdy
Tomson Highway
Jack Hodgins
Wayne Johnston
Thomas King
Mary Lawson
Ann-Marie MacDonald
Alistair MacLeod
Antonine Maillet
Yann Martel
Rohinton Mistry
Lisa Moore
Alice Munro
Michael Ondaatje
David Adams Richards
Carol Shields
Miriam Toews
Jane Urquhart
Guy Vanderhaeghe
M.G. Vassanji
Thomas Wharton
Rudy Wiebe
Richard Wright

And that is just some of them... others I have either heard of and don't know why or never heard of before ever. Also, see that list? I own at least one book by each of the authors listed.

I'll be sure and post when I finish it! And I was going to link it to Random House, but for some reason, I can't seem to find it by searching. (This is not the cover I have, but close enough).