Tristan Hughes is an award-winning novelist and short story writer born in Atikokan in rural Ontario and brought up on the Welsh island of Ynys Mon. Here are his picks of fiction set in Canada.
The Lonely Land by Sigurd Olson
An account of a canoe journey by the great environmentalist along one of the old voyageur routes – the Churchill River. Rich in natural and human history, it’s a classic adventure tale. You wish you’d been along for the trip.
Books and Islands in Ojibwe Country by Louise Erdrich
Erdrich is one of the finest novelists working today, but here – in this account of a journey with her young daughter across Lake of the Woods and Rainy Lake – she offers a beautifully crafted series of reflections on family history, landscape and Ojibwe traditions and language.
Crow Lake by Mary Lawson
An elegantly understated coming-of-age novel about four orphans growing up in a remote farming community in Ontario, Canada. Poised and subtly written, the emotional undercurrents of loss and regret come powerfully to the surface.
Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese
A spare, beautiful, compassionate novel, following a journey through memory by Saul Indian Horse, a northern Ojibwe survivor of the residential school system. Charting his life from a talented ice hockey player to a hospice in the city, it conjures the landscapes of northern Ontario.
The Underpainter by Jane Urquhart
An intricate and finely crafted tale exploring memory, art and landscape, centred around a relationship between an artist and his model in Silver Islet on the northern shores of Lake Superior.
