Literary Review of Canada | A Journal of Ideas

Cover spread by Sarah Farquhar for September 2026.

This week with bookworm

Emily Mernin reviews David Homel’s I Made a Promise I Could Not Keep. John Casey takes a ride with Dale Martin Smith’s The Passenger.

Rerouted

A bit of welcome news

Kyle Wyatt

Homer on the Range

From Sophocles to Danielle Smith

Troy Nahumko

An illustration by Scot Ritchie for Spencer Morrison’s September 2026 review of “What Could a University Be?” by Robert B. Gibbs and “Knowledge Under Siege,” edited by Marc Spooner and James McNinch.

Poisoned Ivy

Where does higher education go next?

Spencer Morrison

An illustration by Dave Cutler for Michael Ledger-Lomas’s September 2026 review of “In Pursuit of Tomorrow,” by John Boyko

Man of the Hour

Sandford Fleming’s cables and clocks

Michael Ledger-Lomas

An illustration by Sandi Falconer for Rose Hendrie’s September 2026 review of “Vanilla: The History,” by Eric T. Jennings.

The Spice Is Right

Extracting the truth of real vanilla

Rose Hendrie

An illustration by Diana Bolton for Sarah E. Tracy’s September 2026 review of “Acquired Tastes,” by James Chatto, W.L. Martin, and Joseph Sproule.

Foods for Thought

Around the world in eight dishes

Sarah E. Tracy

An illustration by Adam Mazur for Mark Plotkin’s September 2026 review of “Interregnum” by Jordan Himelfarb.

Ranks and Files

The next move in championship chess

Mark Plotkin

An illustration by Dave Murray for Dan Rubinstein’s September 2026 review of “Buffalo Lessons,” by Karsten Heuer.

Back to Banff

Where the buffalo roam . . . again

Dan Rubinstein

An illustration by Karsten Petrat for Julie McGonegal’s September 2026 review of “Dog Days: A Memoir,” by Emily LaBarge and “The Silence of Falling Snow,” by Kristjana Gunnars.

Left Unsaid

When anguish upends narrative

Julie McGonegal

An illustration by Paul Kim for Ruth Panofsky’s September 2026 review of “The Lost Season,” by Stacey May Fowles.

The Next Chapter

On writing and motherhood

Ruth Panofsky

Mordecai’s Versions

In the archives of a literary great

Rod Moody-Corbett

An illustration by Silas Kaufman for Cecily Ross’s September 2026 review of “Pearl” and “Barefoot Gringo,” by George Bowering.

As the Matador Says

Two more books from George Bowering

Cecily Ross

An illustration by Gwendoline Le Cunff for Caroline Noël’s September 2026 review of “Literary Life After Death: Commemorations of Writers in English-Speaking Canada,” by Carole Gerson.

Statues, Stamps, and Souvenirs

What we want from dead writers

Caroline Noël

An illustration by Alexander MacAskill for Rosie Long Decter’s September 2026 review of “Ways of Listening,” by Rollie Pemberton.

Against the Stream

Rollie Pemberton asks us to listen up

Rosie Long Decter

An illustration by Alessio Rios for Mark Fried’s September 2026 review of “Selected Poems,” by José Emilio Pacheco and edited by George McWhirter.

Lately Lost in Translation

The strange worlds of José Emilio Pacheco

Mark Fried

An illustration by Matthew Daley for John Casey’s September 2026 review of “The Guilt Trippers,” by Philippe Mineau.

Keyboard Confessional

An angsty debut by Philippe Mineau

John Casey

Required Reading

Randy Boyagoda goes back to school

Catherine Khordoc

An illustration by Mateusz Napieralski for Emily Mernin’s September 2026 reviews of “The Furrow,” by Valérie Manteau and “Dying in Toronto,” by Daša Drndić.

Worlds Not Their Own

Views from Istanbul and Toronto

Emily Mernin

An illustration by Natàlia Pàmies Lluís for Marisa Grizenko’s September 2026 review of “Asha in Her Garden,” by Anita Rau Badami.

Branching Out

The latest from Anita Rau Badami

Marisa Grizenko

An illustration by Blair Kelly for André Forget’s September 2026 review of “The Longest Death,” by Kevin Jagernauth.

Masking for Trouble

Kevin Jagernauth’s small-town heist

André Forget

Their Long Liaison

A wartime thriller from John Delacourt

Allan Hepburn

Not the Same as Reading It

A lifetime of dipping in and out of Tristram Shandy

Gary Barwin

Water Log

State of the Unions

In a Word