Bookends with Mattea Roach
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Bookends with Mattea Roach
When the book ends, the conversation begins. Mattea Roach speaks with writers who have something to say about their work, the world and our place in it. You’ll always walk away with big questions to ponder and new books to read.
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142 episoder
Is it magic … or is it Siri?
In Michael Redhill’s new novel, The Trial of Katterfelto, the titular Katterfelto is a traveling magician and scientist in the late 1700s. One day, Ka...
Why status and power are currency in Pakistan
What does it mean to love a place that is so complicated? Pulitzer prize finalist Daniyal Mueenuddin’s new novel, This Is Where the Serpent Lives, div...
The last book Julian Barnes will ever write
Julian Barnes says his new novel is his final. It’s called Departure(s), and it’s about two people who fall in love when they’re young and then meet a...
Is there a soundtrack to your life?
For Michael V. Smith, the answer is a resounding yes … and he explores that in his new book, Soundtrack: A Lyric Memoir. It’s a collection of poems ab...
If at first you break up … try, try again?
This week, Bookends is celebrating libraries with a special Canada Reads event at the Hamilton Public Library.
Morgann Book truly...
How long could you lie about who you are?
In Tara Gereaux’s new novel, Wild People Quiet, a Métis woman works tirelessly to hide her identity for years … until everything starts to come crashi...
Why Tayari Jones fights for her stories
What does family mean to two motherless daughters? That question is at the centre of Kin, a new work of historical fiction by Tayari Jones. It’s about...
Inside Toronto’s most notorious women’s prison
Toronto’s most infamous women’s prison was meant to rehabilitate women … but its real history tells a much darker story. Heather Marshall dives headfi...
For Jeanette Winterson, stories are essential to survival
If you had to tell a story to stay alive … what story would you tell? Jeanette Winterson’s new book, One Aladdin Two Lamps, is a nonfiction exploratio...
What is boyhood to a Palestinian teen?
What does it mean to come of age in a place where violence is a daily fact of life? Ashraf Zaghal’s debut novel, Seven Heavens Away, is about a Palest...
Strip club … or culture hub?
What happens behind the closed doors of a strip club? Pole dancing, booming basslines … and in Nic Stone’s new novel, the chilling mystery of a missin...
Rage and love at the end of apartheid
Can you inherit fury? Kagiso Lesego Molope’s new novel, We Inherit The Fire, follows a mother and daughter at the end of apartheid in South Africa. Ke...
The beauty and despair of Appalachia
What do you know about Appalachia? Fancy Gap is the debut novel by Zak Jones, and it challenges the preconceptions we might have about the region. The...
Meth and murder in rural America
When Chris Kraus became fixated on a murder case in a Minnesotan town, she decided to try her hand at a true crime novel ... but the project soon evol...
Meet hockey’s greatest (fictional) goon
Did the Olympics get you in the hockey spirit? If not, here’s a book that certainly will. Searching for Terry Punchout by Tyler Hellard is a novel abo...
What does “worldly” mean to a Jehovah’s Witness?
Tamara Jong grew up going door-to-door for the Jehovah’s Witnesses … and her new memoir, Worldly Girls, is all about breaking away from the faith. For...
Justice for Murder Bimbo!
Murder Bimbo is a new book about a sex worker-turned assassin … and it’s the debut novel by Rebecca Novack, a former priest-in-training. The story fol...
Need cash fast? Become a corpse bride today
If you’re worried about being lonely in the afterlife, don’t worry. Just hire a corpse bride to keep you company in the coffin! In Lindsay Wong’s new...
Why an ADHD diagnosis had this author rethinking everything
Carla Ciccone was 39 years old when she was diagnosed with ADHD. That diagnosis changed everything for her ... and she shares her experience in her ne...
Capitalism, dating apps and why we love Edmonton
If you’re feeling jaded by money, politics and modern dating … you’re not the only one. Conor Kerr’s new novella, Beaver Hills Forever, follows the ev...
For this author, losing an eye was “kind of enlightening”
What would you do if there was a jellyfish in your eye? And what if it started multiplying, blocking your vision completely? That’s the premise of The...
This poem is straight out of a dream
The winner of the 2025 CBC Poetry Prize is the Vancouver poet Jordan Redekop-Jones. Jordan’s winning poem, Mixed Girl as Cosmogonic Myth, was inspired...
1 marriage, 2 mid-life crises … and a guy named Gluten
“You’ve changed” isn’t necessarily something you want to hear … especially when you’re trying to keep a marriage alive. That’s the premise of Ian Will...
How far would you go for your family?
Would you steal? Would you kill? In Megha Majumdar’s new novel, A Guardian and a Thief, a mother prepares to escape a city in the midst of climate col...
Buffoon or genius? What makes a cult leader?
To be a good cult leader, you’ll need some natural charisma and a pathological desire for control … and according to Rob Benvie, it might also help if...
For Louise Penny, stories come from hurt
Louise Penny is one of the biggest mystery novelists alive today … but it didn’t start out that way. Her latest novel, The Black Wolf, is the 20th in...
Revisiting Writers & Company: Happy 250th, Jane Austen!
Jane Austen is one of the most enduring novelists of all time. But what do we know about the woman behind the stories? To celebrate Austen’s 250th bir...
So your whole family thinks you’re reincarnated — what now?
After releasing her breakout hit My Sister the Serial Killer in 2018, Oyinkan Braithwaite struggled to write under the pressure of high expectations....
All I want for Christmas … is a fake boyfriend?
Christmas is a time for togetherness, good food … and lying to your family about your love life. At least, that’s the case in Uzma Jalaluddin’s new ho...
Video games are radical. Not in the way you think
Video games make you violent. Video games corrupt the youth. Video games rot your brain! You’ve probably heard that narrative before … but Kawika Guil...
Three writers on the monsters that made them
What’s more horrifying than slashers, monsters … and Vancouver real estate? This week, Bookends brings you on-stage at the Vancouver Writers Fest. Bac...
A priest and an artist walk into a bar
… and they can’t keep their hands off each other. That’s the premise at the centre of Brandon Taylor’s latest novel, Minor Black Figures. It’s about a...
Anarchists have bigger hearts than you think
What’s more romantic than planning an assassination together? You’d have to ask the radical activist Emma Goldman, who did just that with her revoluti...
John Irving’s new novel returns to a familiar orphanage
John Irving’s books are on many readers’ list of favourites. He’s written novels like The World According to Garp and The Cider House Rules, which you...
This poem took 16 straight hours to write
It’s a bit of an understatement to say that Canisia Lubrin has a way with words. Last year, she took home the Carol Shields Prize for her debut novel,...
Here’s what you have wrong about teen moms
Leila Mottley was only 17 years-old when she wrote her debut novel, Nightcrawling … and she was 20 when she became the youngest author ever to make th...
Chris Hadfield — from astronaut to author
You might know Chris Hadfield, decorated astronaut and former Commander of the International Space Station. But do you know Chris Hadfield, the pilot,...
A fictional ad agency — and its very real ghosts
In Aurora Stewart de Peña's debut novel, Julius Julius, ads are inescapable … which isn’t far off from real life. If you ever feel unsettled by the wa...
Kiran Desai’s novel is worth the 20-year wait
Not many people can say that a Booker prize nomination feels like deja vu … but Kiran Desai is one of those rare people. Twenty years after her first...
What is a stag dance?
Torrey Peters was in the woods building her own sauna when she came up with the titular story in her new collection, called Stag Dance. The story is a...