I wonder if you can help, please? One of my foibles when visiting somewhere, is to want to read about it in fiction. Do any of you know any good fiction set in Nova Scotia? Especially crime or thrillers?

I know about Green Gables, obviously- although, to be honest, I've never read them, but they were Sunday tea time TV viewing when we were kids.

All suggestions gratefully received.

Barometer Rising by Hugh Maclennan

Fall on Your Knees, Ann-marie Macdonald

More noted here - http://www.thewhirligigbookshop.com/index.html

Lawrence Hill's novel, The Book of Negroes, (published as Someone Knows My Name in the USA, Australia and New Zealand) is inspired by a fascinating but little known historical document called the Book of Negroes, copies of which can be found in the USA at the New York Public Library, the Rockefeller Library at Colonial Williamsburg (Virginia) and the U.S. National Archives in Washington D.C. In Canada, copies of the same historical document can be found in the Nova Scotia Public Archives and in the National Archives of Canada. Lawrence Hill wrote a feature article called "Freedom Bound" about the historical document The Book of Negroes in the February/March 2007 edition of The Beaver: Canada's History Magazine.

Here's another author:

The Lost Salt Gift of Blood and As Birds Bring Forth the Sun and Other Stories are collections of short stories by Canadian author Alistair MacLeod set predominantly in Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia and in Newfoundland.

Another of his books, one that I read and enjoyed, is No Great Mischief.

"The Birth House" by Ami McKay. Takes place in Scots Bay, N.S.
"Audience of Chairs" by Joan Clark. Takes place in Cape Breton and also Halifax.

Do you like ghost stories? If you are spending time in Lunenburg area you might enjoy "Bluenose Ghosts" by Helen Creighton (not sure it's still in print).

Thank you very much. It's partly because of No Great Mischief that we're coming. I'm not a massive fan of short stories as a genre, but I may break my rule for this one. I think MacLeod said it took him 30 years to finish No Great Mischief so I'd better not wait for his next novel.

More please.

You might want to check out a new book that was released at the end of 2009: Atlantic Canada's 100 Greatest Books. Here's a Wikipedia link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlanti...oks_%28book%29

Thank you all so much. I don;'t suppose you know where I can get that list without buying the book? The top ten are listed in one of the links, but....


I will contact the Whirligig folk when they get back from their break next month

Maybe your local library would be able to help about the 100 Greatest Books - if they don't carry it, perhaps by inter-library loan?

The Ann of Green Gables books are not set in Nova Scotia - Green Gables in in PEI.

Duh! That's Anne with a "e", of course.

I knew that!

In Newfoundland:

The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx

Love the writing in this book. It was also made into a movie with Kevin Spacey

I've read, and loved "The Shipping News" long before the movie, tho' interestingly, I always think it has Judi Dench in it

Any good suggestions for Guide books? I've been given Exploring Nova Scotia for Christmas and I bought Atlantic Canada the last time we planned this.

Oh, and a map. I'll need a good road map, please?

I've done very well out of you all, but any more for any more?

Most anything I would have suggested has already been named...I totally agree with you about No Great Mischief, BTW and can endorse Ami McKay`s The Birth House (though it is `a book in search of an editor`).

You could check out Riptide (Mass Market Paperback) by Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child which, though not great literature, has the advantage of being based on a nearby much-sought-after treasure trove.

I did, a while back, look up a Nova Scotia mystery writer who wrote about Lunenburg, but it is just SO bad that I don`t have the ___ to name it.

Island is a collection of all MacLeod's short stories, which are excellent, in one volume.

I liked Down the Coaltown Road by Sheldon Currie--have not read his other novels

Another very good book set in Newfoundland is The Bird Artist by Howard Norman. His The Museum Guard is set in Halifax. Norman has also written a travel memoir, My Famous Evening: Nova Scotia Sojourns, Diaries and Preoccupations which I have not read.

Hi Sheila. A great historical fiction novel is "Call of a Distant Shore" by Corinne Hoebers

Check out Anne Emery's mystery series set in Halifax. There are also lots of 'ghost story' books available, hard to say whether they are fiction or not! On the non-fiction side, to get a sense of what the people are like, "The day the world came to town : 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland" by Jim DeFede and " Flight 111 : the tragedy of the Swissair crash" by Stephen Kimber.

This is probably too late for Sheila but maybe someone else might find it useful. Here is a website I came across with books relevant to the Atlantic Provinces.
http://www.nimbus.ns.ca