This highly acclaimed anthology is an unexpected and discerning mix of traditional short stories and untraditional tales, as selected by one of Canada's most beloved writers, Michael Ondaatje. He has chosen 49 stories by a wide array of writers including Alistair MacLeod, Margaret Laurence, Carol Shields, Dionne Brand, Mavis Gallant, Stephen Leacock, Glenn Gould, Alice Munro, Rohinton Mistry, David Adams Richards and many more. Full of diversity and surprise, these writings reveal the geographical, emotional and literary range of the country. Above all, Michael Ondaatje's personal selection offers good reading and great entertainment.

When a virulent flu epidemic sweeps through Moscow killing hundreds of thousands of inhabitants, Anya and her husband Sergey decide to flee to a lake in the far north of Russia where they hope to sit out the epidemic. But as the wave of infection expands from the capital, they encounter obstacles, hazards, and aggression, with near escapes from death as they try to navigate their way through a harsh Russian winter, with diminishing supplies of petrol and food. And their troubles multiply as Sergey agrees to takes on unwelcome guests and Anna struggles with her own feelings of hostility and jealousy.

'The silence pressed onto every inch of her body, squeezed her head, wrapped itself around her heart, pushed on her chest. She could no longer breathe, nor speak, nor anything else. Like in trance, her eyes wandered down to her hands and she saw a torrent of black fluid streaming from her vessel soundlessly. Across her fingers, down her dress, and down her legs, the black flooded the floor she was standing on.' * 'What strange place was this? Far and wide, nothing. Nothing at all. Only grey mist in this peculiar dimension, which seemed to be completely empty otherwise. For days on end, you would not encounter the slightest thing, no human, no animal, not even land or sea, not even a grain of sand. And absolute silence prevailed here. It was eerie, as if you had got lost in a vacuum.'

Cleaning his room and talking to his best friend while preparing to write what he knows will be an incredible story, little Ike discovers that he is missing just the right ink to get his project underway, a need that requires extraordinary effort to fulfill.

The first book of its kind to explore this magnificent creature, this collected volume captures many aspects of the remarkable Great Lakes sturgeon, from the mythical to the critically real. Lake sturgeon are sacred to some, impressive to many, and endangered in the Great Lakes. A fish whose ancestry reaches back millions of years and that can live over a century and grow to six feet or more, the Great Lakes lake sturgeon was once considered useless, then overfished nearly to extinction. Though the fish is slowly making a comeback thanks to the awareness-raising efforts of Native Americans, biologists, and sturgeon supporters, it remains to be seen if conservation and stewardship will continue to the degree this remarkable animal deserves. Blending history, biology, folklore, environmental science, and policy, this accessible book seeks to reach a broad audience and tell the story of the Great Lakes lake sturgeon in a manner as diverse as its subject.

Essays about the literary history of Saskatchewan.

"Dammed: The Politics of Loss and Survival in Anishinaabe Territory" explores Canada’s hydroelectric boom in the Lake of the Woods area. It complicates narratives of increasing affluence in postwar Canada, revealing that the inverse was true for Indigenous communities along the Winnipeg River. "Dammed" makes clear that hydroelectric generating stations were designed to serve settler populations. Governments and developers excluded the Anishinabeg from planning and operations and failed to consider how power production might influence the health and economy of their communities. By so doing, Canada and Ontario thwarted a future that aligned with the terms of treaty, a future in which both settlers and the Anishinabeg might thrive in shared territories. The same hydroelectric development that powered settler communities flooded manomin fields, washed away roads, and compromised fish populations. Anishinaabe families responded creatively to manage the government-sanctioned environmental change and survive the resulting economic loss. Luby reveals these responses to dam development, inviting readers to consider how resistance might be expressed by individuals and families, and across gendered and generational lines. Luby weaves text, testimony, and experience together, grounding this historical work in the territory of her paternal ancestors, lands she calls home. With evidence drawn from archival material, oral history, and environmental observation, "Dammed" invites readers to confront Canadian colonialism in the twentieth century.