August Releases

The Reinvention of Love

By Helen Humphreys

When Charles Sainte-Beuve, an ambitious French journalist, meets Victor Hugo, a young writer on the verge of fame, he finds himself in a world of great passions, a world in which words can become swords. But, to Charles' surprise, he is more attracted to Victor's long-suffering wife, Adele. When the two lovers create a scandale in Paris, Victor exacts his price for betrayal.

Set during the tumultuous reign of Napoleon III, and sweeping from France to the Channel Islands, to Halifax and back, The Reinvention of Love draws a rich portrait of the old city, where duels are fought in its parks and cholera-ridden bodies float in the Seine. Along its narrow, crime-filled streets, noble families and artists-Chopin, George Sand, Alexandre Dumas-mix with ordinary citizens, still restless with ideas of revolution. And towering over all is the enormous talent of Victor Hugo, who is quickly becoming the voice of France to the world.

The Reinvention of Love turns historical fact into an atmospheric, delicately wrought story of inescapable family ties and forbidden love.

The Birth House

By Ami Mckay

The Birth House is the story of Dora Rare, the first daughter to be born in five generations of Rares. As a child in an isolated village in Nova Scotia, she is drawn to Miss Babineau, an outspoken Acadian midwife with a gift for healing. Dora becomes Miss B.'s apprentice, and together they help the women of Scots Bay through infertility, difficult labours, breech births, unwanted pregnancies and even unfulfilling sex lives. Filled with details as compelling as they are surprising, The Birth House is an unforgettable tale of the struggles women have faced to have control of their own bodies and to keep the best parts of tradition alive in the world of modern medicine.

A World Elsewhere

By Wayne Johnston

A World Elsewhere has all the hallmarks of Wayne Johnston's most beloved and acclaimed novels: outsiders yearning for acceptance, dreams that threaten to overpower their makers, and unlikely romance. It is an astounding work of literature that questions the loyalties of friends, family and the heart. At the centre of this story is a mystery: the suspected murder of a child. This sweeping tale immerses us in St. John's, Princeton and North Carolina at the close of the nineteenth century. Landish Druken is a formidable figure: broader than most doorways, quick-witted and sharp-tongued. As a student at Princeton, he is befriended by George Vandermill, son of one of the wealthiest men in America. Years later, when Landish and his adopted son turn to Vandermill for help, he invites them to his self-constructed castle and pulls them into his web of lies and deceit.