Hamilton Writes — a look at some recent books by city authors or about the city
What the Dog Knows
By Sylvia McNicoll
Beloved Burlington children's/young adult author Sylvia McNicoll is back with a new one, a novel whose action is based in Hamilton and rooted in an actual local tragedy, the drowning of a child. McNicoll, however, takes the pivotal event, and turns the aftermath into something touching, hopeful, often comical, and full of insight.
After protagonist Naomi drowns, she awakes to find her dog Diesel, who died earlier in that worst summer ever," giving her much-needed counsel, telepathically. Together they try to fix things but time seems to keep throwing them back to the moment Naomi drowned. Can they save each other in the end?
Available at Epic Books (Locke Street) and online (Google title) for $13.99. Published by Dundurn Press.
Between Silk and Wool
By Lena Scholman
A once peaceful country is in shock - collective shock. There's a Dutch word for it - verslagenheid. The Nazis, breaking a promise, have overrun the Netherlands. Hilde, a 14-year-old seamstress, bristles, determined to resist. But the spectrum of choices from heroism to compromise, from defiance to realism to survival, even to cowardice, is a complex one.
In this wonderfully accomplished, moving and nuanced novel, Scholman, who developed it out of a family memoir project, uses her narrative and her compelling characters, like Lady Astrid, an aristocrat forced to billet military guests, to excavate the truth of how people deal with horror, yes the glory, but the grey areas as well.
Publisher Carpe Diem Writing House. In various bookstores and Dutch stores and online. Available in Hamilton: Epic Books, King West Books. Price $21.95.
Illyrian Spirits: A Croatian Tale
By Frank Buchar
Christopher tries to start over after a failed marriage, hoping to write travel pieces but on a visit to Croatia, he encounters a group of people in touch with the spirit world, and they see in him some unusual talents.
As they work together ancient (Illyria) and present Croatia intertwine and a quest begins to resolve unfinished business for spirits raised, now flesh, who are filled with regret, fear, longing and a taste for revenge.
Available at barnesandnoble.com, $15.95.
Memoirs of an Inner-City Teacher
By Dr. Ricardo-Martin Marroquin
This book begins with a young teacher dropped into the harsh realities and trials of an inner-city school as his first job. Despite the difficulties or perhaps because of them, the teacher learns as much as his students, working through their issues and beyond them to their core as they help each other develop as human being.
Marroquin has taught languages at Redeemer in Hamilton for 15 years. Available on Amazon or through author at riccardomartinm@hotmail.com for $22.95 for paperback, $9.99 on Kindle or $22 in person.
Francie's Got a Gun
By Carrie Snyder
The much-anticipated followup to Hamilton-native Snyder's popular Girl Runs," this novel opens with a girl darting through a neighbourhood street holding a gun. From there the story becomes enwreathed in a multiplicity of other characters - friends, family, neighbours, all with their own fractured perspectives.
Through it all not only is the propulsive (sometimes humorous) action driven forward but issues of social cohesion and breakdown are explored. Not out until July 26.
Publisher: Knopf Canada. Will be available most bookstores. $32 hardcover preorder.
Gone But Not Forgotten: A Self-Walking Tour of The Hamilton Cemetery, Volumes 1 and 2
By Robin McKee
Robin McKee, Hamilton's much-celebrated history buff and cemetery tour guide, puts his popular tales of the tombs into print and pictures in the first two of three volumes. The books features several of McKee's favourite tours, focusing on wars, disasters and fires.
It is a perfect companion for a reader who wishes to go on a self tour of the cemetery or it is enjoyable as a straight-up read at home, full of history, excitement and intrigue.
Available at Saturday 11 a.m. Hamilton Cemetery tours, 777 York Blvd, or by email at robinmckee3@gmail.com for $20 per volume.
Blood Donor
By Karen Bass
Jo McNair is 17 years old and misses her curfew. It's worse than she thinks. Accepting an offer for shelter for the night, she ends up being captured by abductors who are out for teen blood. In this wild ride of a thriller, the stakes are life and death and the very blood of teenagers as Jo tries to escape before she is drained dry.
Blood Donor," which has been shortlisted for the Crime Writers of Canada Best YA Crime book, is published in dyslexia-friendly print to draw in reluctant teen readers.
Published by Orca Books. Available now at Indigo and online (Google it) in the $10 range, paperback.
Jeff Mahoney is a Hamilton-based reporter and columnist covering culture and lifestyle stories, commentary and humour for The Spectator.jmahoney@thespec.com