Vita

Hi all. I'll be spending a week in Toronto and I thought I'd get myself in the mood with a nice read. Any suggestions for good books set in Toronto or Ontario? I did a brief search and Margaret Atwood figured pretty heavily. I liked the Blind Assassin but would like to try a different author.

Thanks.

BAK

Jack Batten writes mysteries about a lawyer named Crang who lives in the Queen Street West area. The books mention real places, and you can wander around the city looking for the places he mentions.

BAK

nfldbeothuk

Stuart McLean is a nice light summer read – think Garrison Keillor from Canada. I enjoy mysteries as light reading, and Alison Gordon has written several about a Toronto journalist. Carol Shields (who bores me), Jane Urquhart (who doesn’t) and Alice Munro (best female short story writer EVER) are well-known Canadian authors. Richard B. Wright has written about Ontario – because your question caused me to realize how few popular Canadian writers actually write about contemporary Ontario! Many of them write about Barbados or Africa or Canada in 1929. Douglas Coupland and Barbara Gowdy are examples, and most of my own favorites write about another part of Canada (Miriam Toews, Michael Crummey, Mordecai Richler, etc.)

SallyCanuck

Austin Clarke

A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving takes place in Toronto or part of it does anyway.

Unless by Carol Shields

In the Skin of a Lion by Michael Ondaatje

Vincent Lam - Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures

semiramis

Another vote hear for Michael Ondaatje.

Also even though you want to try a different author - consider Margaret Atwood's "The Robber Bride" and one of her earliest "The Edible Woman".

An Ontario author (books set in Northern Ontario) is Giles Blunt.
"Black Fly Season" is quite good but disturbing.

snoopy12

Anne Michaels - Fugitive Pieces.

I second the votes for Atwood - The Robber Bride and Ondaatje - In the Skin of a Lion

Vttraveler

Many of Robertson Davies' wonderful novel are set in Ontario/Toronto. He taught for years at the University of Toronto

Davies' Cornish trilogy:
Rebel Angels
What's Bred in the bones
Lyre of Orpheus

also
Murther and Walking Spirits
The Cunning Man
(these were the 2 first books in what would have been the "Toronto Trilogy&quot

the first book of the Deptford Trilogy, Fifth Business, is also set in rural Ontario

Vita

Thanks to everyone for your suggestions. I decided to go with Robertson Davies' Deptford Trilogy, primarily because it was the easiest to get my hands on quickly. Loving the writing so far! Very nuanced.

I'm taking your suggestions with me and might pick up some additional titles while I'm there, as I will be visiting some of the independent bookstores you suggested in a different post.

Thanks again!

Vttraveler

I hope you enjoy the Robertson Davies. He is one of my all-time favorite authors.
I think you will find a bigger selection of the other books suggested once you are at a good book store in Canada. We go to Montreal quite often and I am always interested in browsing in Chapters there because of the range of Canadian (and to some extent British) books there that aren't carried in the US. Just be aware that the cost of Canadian books at the current exchange rate is bad.