Bring Me One of Everything by Leslie Hall Pinder. (Grey Swan, 2012) Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Bring Me One of Everything

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver at TheCommentary.ca.

Described by Margaret Atwood as ‘a writer of great talent and sensitivity,’ Leslie Hall Pinder joins me now to talk about her latest novel, her third, Bring Me One of Everything. The novel takes Native history in this part of the world, and Ms. Pinder’s experience in law, and she weaves a story that’s described as an eloquent tale of suspense and intrigue. We’ll get Ms. Pinder to tell us about the book, who the characters are, and what drew her to write this book. An anthropologist, Austin Hart, who salvages the artistic remains of the Haida people in British Columbia, kills himself. Years later, another character, Alicia Purcell is commissioned to write the libretto for an opera based on Hart’s life. She’s got her own issues and those are borne out in the book, including her relationship with her mother Sophie. Leslie Hall Pender is a retired attorney, who practiced in her own firm, pursuing land claims on behalf of Native clients. She previously wrote two novels, Under the House, and On Double Tracks, which was nominated for a Governor General’s Literary Award in 1990. The websites for more are at www.lesliehallpinder.com, and www.bringmeoneofeverything.com. The book is published by Grey Swan Press. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Leslie Hall Pinder; Ms. Pinder, good morning.

Why Men Lie by Linden MacIntyre. (Random House, 2012) Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Why Men Lie

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver at TheCommentary.ca.

The newest book from Linden MacIntyre is called Why Men Lie. It’s the conclusion to his Cape Breton trilogy which began with The Long Stretch in 1999, and was followed by The Bishop’s Man, which won the 2009 Scotiabank Giller Prize. In this novel we see men through the eyes of Effie MacAskill Gillis, she’s the sister to the bishop, Duncan MacAskill of the last book. We’ll get Mr. MacIntyre, who joins me now, to tell us about the book, we’ll ask him why men lie, and more. Linden MacIntyre is the co-host of the fifth estate, and the winner of at least nine Gemini Awards for broadcast journalism. The book is published by Random House. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Linden MacIntyre; Mr. MacIntyre, good morning.

The Headmaster’s Wager by Vincent Lam. (Doubleday, 2012) Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: The Headmaster’s Wager

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver at TheCommentary.ca.

Vincent Lam joins me now. He’s got a new book out, his long awaited novel, The Headmaster’s Wager. It has already been described as epic, a masterpiece, superbly crafted, and deeply affecting. In the book, Percival Chen is the headmaster of a highly regarded English school in Vietnam. Set amidst the Vietnam War, we see Chen, who’s Chinese, navigate the culture and politics of Vietnam. He’s a gambling and womanising bon vivant, looking out for his son who he wants to retain a sense of his Chinese identity, and Chen has also fallen for a local, a half-Vietnamese, half-French woman. Vincent Lam is an emergency physician in Toronto, and he lectures at the University of Toronto. He received the 2006 Scotiabank Giller Prize for his collection Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures. He’s also written a biography of Tommy Douglas, and co-written a book on influenza. The website for more is at www.vincentlam.ca. The book is published by Doubleday. He will be appearing with Linden MacIntyre next Wednesday night, the 9th of May at Incite, the series put on by the Vancouver International Writers Festival, which will be at the Central Branch of the Vancouver Public Library, Downtown. And next Thursday night, the 10th, he’ll be appearing at Bolen Books in Victoria. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, in Vancouver this day, Vincent Lam; Dr. Lam, Good morning.

419 by Will Ferguson (Viking, 2012) Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: 419

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver at TheCommentary.ca.

The award-winning novelist, humorist, and travel writer Will Ferguson joins me again. He’s got a new novel out, 419. It is described as a novel ‘both epic in its sweep and intimate in its portrayal of human endurance.’ We’ll ask Mr. Ferguson, who joins me from here in Vancouver, what 419 means. My understanding is that it has something to do with those scam emails one gets, usually from someone in a land far away needing help getting money from a bank belonging to a dead relative. It’s an insidious phenomenon, and we’ll get Mr. Ferguson to tell us about the book and more. Apparently, a Canadian woman Laura Curtis goes overseas to investigate her father’s death, which happened because of one of these swindles. Will Ferguson is the author of several prize-winning memoirs including Beyond Belfast, Hitching Rides with Buddha, and Canadian Pie. His novels include Happiness™ and Spanish Fly, which he was on with last. He has won three Leacock medals, and has been nominated for the IMPAC Dublin Award and a Commonwealth Writers Prize. The website for more is at www.willferguson.ca. The book is published by Viking. Please welcome back to the Planta: On the Line program, Will Ferguson; Mr. Ferguson, good morning.

Ed King by David Guterson. (Knopf, 2011) Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: Ed King

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver at TheCommentary.ca.

David Guterson joins me now. The bestselling author is in town as part of the Cherie Smith Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver Jewish Book Festival. He’s also just published his latest novel, Ed King. It’s described as a story of destiny, desire and destruction, reimagining Sophocles’s Oedipus Rex. We’ll get him to tell us more about this book. Mr. Guterson is the author of the novels East of the Mountains, The Other, Our Lady of the Forest, and Snow Falling on Cedars, which won the PEN/Faulkner Award. He’s also written a short story collection The Country Ahead of Us, the Country Behind, and Family Matters: Why Homeschooling Makes Sense. He lives in Washington State, where Ed King is set. It’s published by Knopf. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, David Guterson; Good morning, Mr. Guterson.

The Magician King by Lev Grossman. (Viking, 2011) Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: The Magician King

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver at TheCommentary.ca.

Lev Grossman joins me now. He is in town appearing at the Vancouver International Writers and Readers Festival. He’s the author of the bestselling novels Codex and The Magicians. His new book is The Magician King, which is a sequel to the New York Times bestseller The Magicians, which came out in 2009. In The Magician King we return to the magical land of Fillory, where Quentin and his friends now run the place. They’re bored however and through some doing, they’re brought back to his parents house in Chesterton, Massachusetts. We see both worlds, the magical and fantastic, and the sort of suburban America that we’re more familiar with. We’ll get Mr. Grossman to tell us more about this book, writing it, the worlds of fantasy and fiction that seem to be mainstream nowadays. Lev Grossman is a well-known cultural commentator and a senior writer and critic at Time magazine. His website is at www.levgrossman.com, and the website for the book is at www.themagicianking.com. The book is published by Viking. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Lev Grossman; Good morning, Mr. Grossman.

The Cannibal Spirit by Harry Whitehead. (Hamish Hamilton, 2011) Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: The Cannibal Spirit

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver at TheCommentary.ca.

There’s a new novel out this week called The Cannibal Spirit. Its author Harry Whitehead joins me now. He worked for many years in the film business, and has degrees in creative writing and medical anthropology, and a PhD from Lancaster University. He teaches at the University of Leicester. He’s in town this week speaking at the Vancouver International Writers and Readers Festival. There’s an event, Wednesday the 19th at 8.00pm. Check out their website at www.writersfest.bc.ca for more information and tickets. George Hunt, who was an assistant to the famed anthropologist Franz Boas, is the central figure in this fictionalised account which looks at Native traditions, anthropology, spirituality, and the chasm between two civilisations in these parts at the turn of the last century. We’ll get Harry Whitehead to tell us about this book, how he came to write it, and more. The book is published by Hamish Hamilton, which is an imprint of Penguin. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Harry Whitehead; Good morning, Dr. Whitehead.

The Man Who Killed by Fraser Nixon. (Douglas & McIntyre, 2011) Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: The Man Who Killed

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver at TheCommentary.ca.

The author of a new book that has gotten a lot of good notices joins me now. The Man Who Killed is the first novel from Fraser Nixon. I see that this past weekend, it’s on the bestseller list here in BC. The reviews include some superlatives like the book is “an unqualified showstopper of a first novel,” and “a rip-roaring page-turning thriller.” It is set in Montreal, 1926. Jack, a real colourful rogue, offers the book’s narrator, Mick a job running booze across the border. There’s sex, murder, politics, and celebrity. The era comes alive with Mr. Nixon’s wonderfully stylish writing. We get a sense of the smoke and smell of booze in the air, as well as the sound of the language, the vernacular of the era, which reads so well in this book. Fraser Nixon was born on the West Coast and has lived in Toronto, Paris, and Montreal. He’s an actor, painter, electrical apprentice, and hotel night manager. He has worked in various sales jobs as well. The website for more is at www.frasernixon.com. The book is published by Douglas & McIntyre. Incidentally, Fraser will be appearing as part of the Real Vancouver Writers Series, hosted by our old friend Sean Cranbury, next Monday, the 30th at W2. In Vancouver, please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Fraser Nixon; Good morning, Mr. Nixon.

The Sentimentalists by Johanna Skibsrud. (Douglas & McIntyre, 2011) Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: The Sentimentalists

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver at TheCommentary.ca.

Johanna Skibsrud’s first novel, The Sentimentalists won the 2010 Giller Prize. She became the youngest winner in the prize’s history, and has gone on to great acclaim. The book is about a daughter who after her own drama, decides to live with her estranged father in a fictional Ontario town called Casablanca. There, she draws out her father hoping to understand him better and the horrors he witnessed in Vietnam. It’s a challenging read in that you think about family, fathers, daughters, war, and memory. When the book was nominated for the Giller very few copies of the book could be found, as its original publisher Gaspereau Press had only printed something like less than a thousand copies. I think they’re the only press in the country that prints and publishes their own books. The whole confluence of the current realities of the book trade came together with the critical success of this book. We saw how the small press is coping in the shadow of the big chains. Right after the book won the prize, The Sentimentalists was a big hit electronically. And then Douglas & McIntyre, here in Vancouver, entered the scene when it was licensed the book’s trade paperback rights, thereby ensuring less than 10 days after the Giller Prize win, the book could be had in the tens of thousands. Johanna Skibsrud joins me now from here in Vancouver to tell us more about this book, what winning the Giller was like, and more. The original book can be had through Gaspereau’s website at www.gaspereau.com. And the trade paperback from Douglas & McIntyre can be had at sundry book stores across the land. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Johanna Skibsrud; Good morning, Ms. Skibsrud.

The Guardians by Andrew Pyper. (Doubleday, 2011) Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: The Guardians

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver at THECOMMENTARY.CA.

The acclaimed and bestselling author Andrew Pyper joins me again. His previous books, all critically lauded include Lost Girls, The Trade Mission, The Wildfire Season, and a short story collection, Kiss Me. His new book, his sixth, The Guardians is already selling well. It’s an engrossing book that I could only read in daylight hours. I get all fraidy-scared easily. Here’s Andrew Pyper from the last time he was on this program. This is from September 2008, when he was on to talk about his previous book, The Killing Circle:

(START CLIP)

PYPER: . . . but eventually, soon, I’m going to have clear the deck of all that stuff because I want to get, you know, fully involved in the next book.

PLANTA: And—may I ask what the next book will be about?

PYPER: Yeah, it’s a—totally different again—the premise is a haunted house story for grownups. Or at least a haunted house story without ghosts. I grew up in a small, smallish town and we had, as I think most small towns a house that was abandoned, that everyone made up stories about. And so it’s an adult story—a story of adults revisiting their childhood and the things that may or may not have happened in a haunted house.

(END CLIP)

It’s a really good book about the childhood friendship of four boys who grow up in rural Ontario connected by a dark, sinister past. The past comes back to haunt them some 20 years later, and tremendously well in this book. The Guardians, other than being a really good thriller, is profound when talking about life and death, growing older, Parkinson’s disease, murder, friendship, and importantly the male friendship variety that’s rarely discussed in fiction or elsewhere. The Guardians is published by Doubleday. The website for more is at www.andrewpyper.com. Please welcome back to the Planta: On the Line program, Andrew Pyper; Good morning, Mr. Pyper.