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| Photo by David Wirzba on Unsplash |
Alberta is the 4th largest Canadian province in landmass and population. Although landlocked, with no access to any ocean, water is very much present in its landscape with over 600 freshwater lakes in Alberta. The province also holds the record for the fastest temperature change ever recorded, when in 1962 temperature went from -19 °C to 22 °C in 1 hour at Pincher Creek. There is a wide range of attractions in Alberta: magnificent night skies in Bon Accord, the Calgary Stampede in July, the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Paleontology, an inland lighthouse in Sylvan Lake, Lake Louise World Ice Carving Competition every winter, or the world's largest indoor rollercoaster in West Edmonton Mall. Any of these attractions are reason enough to visit Alberta. But for a literary trip you can try any of these twelve books:
Historical Fiction
In 1903 Mary Boulton flees alone across the West, one heart-pounding step ahead of the West, one heart-pounding step ahead of the law. At nineteen, she has just become a widow–and her husband's killer. As bloodhounds track her frantic race toward the mountains, she is tormented by mad visions and by the knowledge that her two ruthless brothers-in-law are in pursuit, determined to avenge their younger brother's death. Responding to little more than the primitive instinct for survival at any cost, she retreats ever deeper into the wilderness–and into the wilds of her own mind
Based on the author's own experiences, this award-winning novel was the first to tell the story of the evacuation, relocation, and dispersal of Canadian citizens of Japanese ancestry during the Second World War.
📚 Icefields by Thomas Wharton
At a quarter past three in the afternoon, on August 17, 1898, Doctor Edward Byrne slipped on the ice of Acturus glacier in the Canadian Rockies and slid into a crevasse . . .
Nearly sixty feet below the surface, Byrne is wedged upside down between the narrowing walls of a chasm, fighting his desire to sleep. The ice in front of him is lit with a pale blue-green radiance. There, embedded in he pure, antediluvian glacier, Byrne sees something that will inextricably link him to the vast bed of ice, and the people who inhabit this strange corner of the world. In this moment, his life becomes a quest to uncover the mystery of the icefield that almost became his tomb.
Within the deceptively simple framework of a tourist guidebook, Icefields takes a breathtaking, imaginative look at the human spirit, loss, myth, and elusive truths. Here is an impressive literary landscape, and an expedition unlike any you have ever experienced.
Short Stories
📚 The Miss Hereford Stories by Gail Anderson-Dargatz
Visit the town of Likely, Alberta through the eyes of ten-year-old, Martin Winkle. Most visitors see Likely as nothing more than a sleepy little town. The citizens seem oblivious to the anti-war protests and love-ins thriving across the country. They are content to focus on their 4-H contests and meetings with the Hereford Breeders' Club. As The Miss Hereford Stories unfolds Martin introduces readers to his community, where the old ways are being threatened by the new, fathers and sons are fighting and married lovers are rediscovering one another. Readers will begin to see the magic of Likely and realize it really is more than a sleepy little town.
Magical Realism
📚 Green Grass, Running Water by Thomas King
Strong, Sassy women and hard-luck hardheaded men, all searching for the middle ground between Native American tradition and the modern world, perform an elaborate dance of approach and avoidance in this magical, rollicking tale by Cherokee author Thomas King. Alberta is a university professor who would like to trade her two boyfriends for a baby but no husband; Lionel is forty and still sells televisions for a patronizing boss; Eli and his log cabin stand in the way of a profitable dam project. These three—and others—are coming to the Blackfoot reservation for the Sun Dance and there they will encounter four Indian elders and their companion, the trickster Coyote—and nothing in the small town of Blossom will be the same again…
True Crime
📚 Deadly Encounters by Barbara Smith
Quiet pleasant communties, sparkling under the clear blue skies of Alberta, have witnessed bloody murders and violent mayhem.
From a wide variety of accounts, Babara Smith has selected eight intriguing stories that will astound and amaze you.
Mystery still surrounds the fate of pro golfer Frank Willey who disappeared in 1962. Two men were convicted of his murder, but his body has never been found. No suspect, however, was ever found in the case of MaryAnn Plett. The pretty, young real-estate agent disappeared after going to show a property to a client -- but some skeletal remains were discovered seven months later.
In 1948, a family could hardly have guessed that their newly puchased home would come complete with a corpse; and, in another case, Winnie Wanner's bathroom was found splattered with blood. Although her estranged husband was seen leaving the apartment with a suspiciously large bag, Wnnie vanished from the face of the earth.
These chilling tales, previously little known outside Alberta, also include matters of greed, rum running, shoot-outs, and hostages. They will be every bit as fascinating to the crime buff as those found anywhere.
Mystery/Thriller
The University of Alberta's English Department is caught up in a maelstrom of poison-pen letters, graffiti and misogyny. Miranda Craig seems to be both target and investigator, wreaking havoc on her new-found relationship with one of Edmonton's finest.
YA
📚 Prairie Ostrich by Tamai Kobayashi
Bookish, eight-year-old Egg Murakami lives on her family’s ostrich farm in rural, southern Alberta. It is the end of the summer, 1974. Since her brother’s death, her Mama curls inside a whiskey bottle and her Papa shuts himself in the barn. Big sister Kathy — in love with her best friend, Stacey — reinvents the bedtime stories she reads to Egg so that they end in a happily ever after.
Confronted by bullies and the perplexing quirks of the adults around her, Egg watches, a quiet witness to her unraveling family as she tries to find her place in a bewildering world.
The sisters increasingly depend on one another for protection and support but the girls’ relationship is threatened when Kathy’s stories clash with the realities of their small town of Bittercreek. How can Egg trust someone who has lied to her about everything?
Graphic Novels
📚 Wolverine: Origin by Paul Jenkins, Andy Kubert, Richard Isanove
Collecting the best-selling - and controversial - romantic period piece that defied industry expectations and pulled back the curtain on Wolverine's mysterious past! At long last, all is revealed about the incredible forces that molded the world's most perfect killing machine with a heart as big as the great outdoors.
Romance
Contemporary Fiction
📚 Downhill by Katerine B. Pavkova
Nonfiction - Survival
📚 Into the Abyss: How a Deadly Plane Crash Changed the Lives of a Pilot, a Pilitician, a Criminal and a Cop by Carol Shaben
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