“It is our displacement that binds us.”

This haunting, subtly textured, absorbing read from Anne Michaels was worth the long, long wait post-Fugitive Pieces. Is Anne Michaels perhaps Canada’s Marilynne Robinson? Both have a modest number of titles, new titles from both are hugely anticipated, and both always richly reward their readers with tender, acute, precised crafted explorations of the human heart.

The Winter Vault starts slowly to build the layers of imagery that tell the central story of Avery and Jean Escher, and that of their parents and others that touch their lives. All of the imagery and all of the intertwined stories deal with displacement – by war, by water (through the striking juxtaposition of the building of the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Aswan Dam in Egypt), by heartbreak and by enduring love. Although it builds gradually at first, the rich layering of themes and images gains momentum and lends emotional depth and resonance to the central story of how Avery and Jean come together, are torn apart by personal tragedy, and then find their way back to each other. (Hmm, is that a spoiler?)

With all of the examples of displacement throughout the story, it’s interesting that Michaels selects the image of the winter vault (a temporary crypt for those who die in the winter and cannot be buried until the earth thaws again in the spring) as the title. It gives the sense that the winter vault preserves something precious, gives it the dignity it deserves, and protects it until warmth and new life – the advent of spring – can provide a permanent home. The grave as a final, peaceful home is an affecting and wholly appropriate symbol for this story.

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materfamilias reads – Review of Anne Michaels’ The Winter Vault

“Old City Hall” is breathtakingly good. It’s a crisply paced murder-mystery with a satisfying plot and sufficient twists to keep it addictive and infectious to the very end. Actually, I would not pigeonhole “Old City Hall” as just good for the murder-mystery genre – it is a fine book, period.

The novel boasts an intriguing and consistently sympathetic cast of characters, the most colourful and endearing of which is the city of Toronto itself. Rotenberg rounds out the story with historical and cultural background on the city, and behind-the-scenes legal, law enforcement and incarceration insights that add interest and dimension to the overall story without unduly slowing down the plot momentum. And whoa … underpinning the whole thing with a Toronto Maple Leafs subplot of sorts – how great is that? Rotenberg handles a complex narrative with a confidence and deftness that belies the fact that this is his first novel.

Emotion wells up quickly from the supposedly dry and clinical reports of day-to-day occurrences at a downtown Toronto library. Written by a frustrated and depressed but conscientious young woman, the ostensible reports trace both fond and troubled memories from her childhood, and bring her to the awakening and possibilities of happiness in her present life. Longlisted for the 2009 Giller Prize, Baillie’s novel is populated by fleeting but poignant portraits of people finding solace and sanctuary in books and libraries. The book weaves humour, sadness, longing, romance, suspense, menace and more in a compact and compelling form.