The Canada Reads 2025 longlist is here! The panellists and the books they choose to champion will be revealed on Jan. 23.
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The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue
In Dublin, 1918, during the height of the great flu, expectant mothers stricken by the deadly virus are quarantined together in an understaffed maternity ward. Over three days, Nurse Julia Power witnesses how these women change each other's lives in unexpected ways.
The Whispers by Audrey Audrain
A propulsive page-turner about four families whose lives are changed when the unthinkable happens and what is lost when we give in to our own worst impulses.
Watch Out for Her by Samantha M. Bailey
Sarah Goldman is moving across the country to leave the past behind, especially Holly Monroe, the pretty twenty-two-year-old babysitter she and her husband, Daniel, hired to care for their son. When Sarah finds hidden cameras in her new home, she starts to wonder who's watching her now?
A Two-Spirit Journey by Ma-Nee Chacaby, with Mary Louisa Plummer
Ma-Nee Chacaby recounts her life as an Ojibwa-Cree lesbian, from her childhood, and addiction to alcohol to her social activism and career as a counsellor.
What I Know About You by Éric Chacour, translated by Pablo Strauss
A tight-knit Levantine Christian family in 1960s Cairo, Tarek's entire life is written in advance. He'll be a doctor like his father, marry, and have children —until a patient's son, Ali, enters his life. The two men's unsayable relationship sparks a series of events as dramatic as the Six-Day War and the assassination of President Anwar Sadat.
When the Pine Needles Fall by Katsi'tsakwas Ellen Gabriel, with Sean Carleton
The perspective of Katsi'tsakwas Ellen Gabriel, who was the Kanien'kehá:ka (Mohawk) spokesperson during the Oka Crisis. Written in a conversational style, it follows her work since then as an Indigenous land defender, human rights activist and feminist leader.
Etta and Otto and Russell and James by Emma Hooper
82-year-old Etta has never seen the ocean. One morning, she begins walking the 3,232 kilometres from Saskatchewan to Halifax. Her husband Otto wakes to a note left on the kitchen table. Russell, raised as a brother to Otto, has loved Etta from afar for years and sets out to find her.
The Other Valley by Scott Alexander Howard
Odile Ozanne lives in a town with a magical valley. To the east, the town exists 20 years forward in time. To the west, it's 20 years behind. Odile seeks to join the Conseil, who decides which of the town's residents may cross the border into the valley to see departed loved ones.
Jennie's Boy by Wayne Johnston
Wayne Johnston reaches back into his past to bring us a sad, tender and at times extremely funny memoir of a Newfoundland boyhood few thought he would survive, including him.
Becoming a Matriarch by Helen Knott
Knott returns with a chronicle of grief, love and legacy. Having lost both her mom and grandmother in just over six months and forced to navigate the fine lines between matriarchy, martyrdom and codependency, Knott realizes she must let go, not just of the women who raised her, but of the woman she thought she was.
Dandelion by Jamie Chai Yun Liew
An Asian woman traces her mother's past journey to learn who she really is and where she belongs in the world.
However Far Away by Rajinderpal S. Pal
However Far Away delves into love, compromise and family against the backdrop of a Sikh wedding. The story follows Devinder Gill as he navigates the emotional turmoil of having both his wife and his ex-girlfriend—whom he’s been secretly seeing—attend his nephew’s wedding.
Clyde Fans by Seth
Canadian cartoonist, Seth, lovingly shows the rituals, hopes and delusions of a middle class that has long ceased to exist in North America.
Girl Runner by Carrie Snyder
As a young runner, Aganetha Smart became a celebrity by winning a gold medal for Canada in the 1928 Olympics. Now, at age 104, she lives alone in a nursing home, all but forgotten by history until two young strangers appear asking to interview her.
All Our Ordinary Stories by Teresa Wong
Through a series of stories beginning with her mother's stroke in 2014, Teresa Wong takes us on a moving journey through time and place to locate the beginnings of the disconnection she feels from her parents.
