The Shipping News by Annie Proulx – NEWFOUNDLAND & LABRADOR
WW2 crime mystery set in Canterbury, Kent (and London)
Ten Great Books set in CANADA
2nd January 2026
Ten great books set in Canada. Canada is the world’s second-largest country by land area, a vast nation celebrated for its stunning natural wilderness and commitment to multiculturalism. From the rugged Atlantic provinces and the French-speaking heartland of Quebec to the towering Rocky Mountains and the temperate rainforests of British Columbia, Canada’s geography is as diverse as its people. The country is home to more lakes than any other nation, with the Great Lakes and the expansive Arctic tundra defining its northern character.
Major urban centres like Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal serve as vibrant hubs for finance, technology, and the arts, reflecting a society built on immigration and inclusivity. Known for its high quality of life, universal healthcare, and love for ice hockey, Canada maintains a distinct global identity.
Here are ten great books set in the country.
New Girl in Little Cove by Damhnait Monaghan – NEWFOUNDLAND & LABRADOR
When a new teacher arrives in a tiny fishing village, she realizes the most important lessons are the ones she learns outside the classroom.
It’s 1985. Rachel O’Brien arrives in Little Cove, Newfoundland seeking a fresh start after her father dies and her relationship ends. As a new teacher at the local Catholic high school, Rachel chafes against the small community, where everyone seems to know her business. The anonymous notes that keep appearing on her car, telling her to go home, don’t make her feel welcome either.
Still, Rachel is quickly drawn into the island’s distinctive music and culture, as well as the lives of her students and fellow teacher, Doug Bishop. As Rachel begins to bond with her students, her feelings for Doug also begin to grow. Rachel tries to ignore her emotions because Doug is in a long-distance relationship with his high school sweetheart. Or is he?
Eventually, Rachel’s beliefs clash with church and community, and she makes a decision that throws her career into jeopardy. In trying to help a student, has she gone too far? Only the intervention of the ‘Holy Dusters,’ local women who hook rugs and clean the church, can salvage Rachel’s job as well as her chance at a future with Doug.
Sweetland by Michael Crummey – NEWFOUNDLAND & LABRADOR
The scarcely populated town of Sweetland rests on the shore of a remote Canadian island. Its slow decline finally reaches a head when the mainland government offers each islander a generous resettlement package the sole stipulation being that everyone must leave. Fierce and enigmatic Moses Sweetland, whose ancestors founded the village, is the only one to refuse. As he watches his neighbors abandon the island, he recalls the town s rugged history and its eccentric cast of characters. Evoking The Shipping News, Michael Crummey one of Canada’s finest novelists conjures up the mythical, sublime world of Sweetland s past amid a stormbattered landscape haunted by local lore. As in his critically acclaimed novel Galore, Crummey masterfully weaves together past and present, creating in Sweetland a spectacular portrait of one man s battle to survive as his environment vanishes around him.
The Bleeding by Johana Gustawsson – QUÉBEC
Queen of French Noir, Johana Gustawsson returns with a spell-binding, dazzlingly dark gothic thriller that swings from Belle Époque France to 21st-century Quebec,with an extraordinary mystery at its heart… FIRST in a bewitching new series
‘The Bleeding begins with a truly macabre and ritualistic crime that leads back to mysteries in Belle Époque Paris, and 1949 Post-War Quebec. Intriguingly dark and vivid, and so cleverly told through three different time frames’ Essie Fox
‘A wonderfully dark, intricately woven historical thriller spanning three generations … it will have you hooked from the very first page’ B A Paris
‘Wonderfully dark and creepy, with a superb twist in its tail!’
The Coral Bride by Roxanne Bouchard – THE GASPÉ PENINSULAR
When an abandoned lobster trawler is found adrift off the coast of Quebec’s Gaspé Peninsula, DS Joaquin Moralès begins a straightforward search for the boat’s missing captain, Angel Roberts – a rare female in a male-dominated world. But Moralès finds himself blocked at every turn – by his police colleagues, by fisheries bureaucrats, and by his grown-up son, who has turned up at his door with a host of his own personal problems.
When Angel’s body is finally discovered, it’s clear something very sinister is afoot, and Moralès and son are pulled into murky, dangerous waters, where old resentments run deep.
Exquisitely written, with Bouchard’s trademark lyrical prose, The Coral Bride evokes the power of the sea on the communities who depend on it, the never-ending struggle between the generations, and an extraordinary mystery at the heart of both.
Black Rock by John McFetridge – MONTREAL
An artfully told police procedural set in an explosive era in recent history Montreal 1970. The “Vampire Killer” has murdered three women and a fourth is missing. Bombs explode in the stock exchange, McGill University, and houses in Westmount. Riots break out at the St. Jean Baptiste parade and at Sir George Williams University. James Cross and Pierre Laporte are kidnapped and the Canadian army moves onto the streets of Montreal. A young beat cop working out of Station Ten finds himself almost alone hunting the serial killer, as the rest of the force focuses on the FLQ crisis. Constable Eddie Dougherty, the son of a French mother and an Irish – Canadian father, decides to take matters into his own hands to catch the killer before he strikes again. Set against actual historical events, Black Rock is both a compelling page – turner and an accomplished novel in the style of Dennis Lehane.
A Town Called Solace by Mary Lawson – NORTHERN ONTARIO
Clara’s sister is missing. Angry, rebellious Rose had a row with their mother, stormed out of the house and simply disappeared. Seven-year-old Clara, isolated by her distraught parents’ efforts to protect her from the truth, is grief-stricken and bewildered.
Liam Kane, newly divorced, newly unemployed, newly arrived in this small northern town, moves into the house next door, a house left to him by an old woman he can barely remember, and within hours gets a visit from the police. It seems he’s suspected of a crime.
At the end of her life Elizabeth Orchard is thinking about a crime too, one committed thirty years ago that had tragic consequences for two families and in particular for one small child. She desperately wants to make amends before she dies.
Set in Northern Ontario in 1972, A Town Called Solace explores the relationships of these three people brought together by fate and the mistakes of the past. By turns gripping and darkly funny, it uncovers the layers of grief and remorse and love that connect us, but shows that sometimes a new life is possible.
Casket Cache by Janice J Richardson – NIAGARA FALLS
When hard-working Jennifer inherits a funeral home in Niagara, she’s determined to build the reputation of a business people can trust. A casino pit boss is murdered, A burglar breaks into the funeral home, Jennifer finds a mysterious cache of cash, and the Niagara police put her on the suspect list. Jennifer has families to serve and funerals to arrange, that is her number one priority. Someone cunning and dangerous wants the cash back and Jennifer Spencer, funeral director, is in the way.
Old City Hall by Robert Rotenberg – TORONTO
A talk-show host confesses to the brutal murder of his young wife. The evidence is cast iron. But when a determined detective, an ambitious rookie prosecutor and a defence lawyer keen to make her mark piece together the details of the case, nothing fits. An intricately plotted web of lies, half-truths and hidden motives emerges – along with a secret no one could have suspected.
The Shipping News by Annie Proulx – NEWFOUNDLAND & LABRADOR
Annie Proulx’s highly acclaimed, international bestseller and Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Quoyle is a hapless, hopeless hack journalist living and working in New York. When his no-good wife is killed in a spectacular road accident, Quoyle heads for the land of his forefathers — the remotest corner of far-flung Newfoundland. With ‘the aunt’ and his delinquent daughters — Bunny and Sunshine — in tow, Quoyle finds himself part of an unfolding, exhilarating Atlantic drama. ‘The Shipping News’ is an irresistible comedy of human life and possibility.
Wild Fires by Sophie Jai – TORONTO
The only things Cassandra knows about her family are the stories she’s heard in snatches over the years: about the aunt and cousin she never got to meet, about the man from the folded-up photograph in one of her aunt’s drawers, and of course about her cousin Chevy, and why he never speaks – but no one utters a word about them any more.
When a call from one of her sisters brings Cassandra news of Chevy’s death, she has to return home for the funeral. To Toronto and the big house on Florence Street, where her sisters are hiding more than themselves in their rooms, where the tension brewing between her mother and aunts has been decades in the making, and where sooner or later every secret, unspoken word and painful memory will find its way out into the open.
Moving between Toronto and Trinidad, Wild Fires is a vivid and compelling story exploring the ways we mourn and why we avoid the very things that can save us.
Enjoy our selection of books set in Canada!
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