Heart Lamp
by Banu Mushtaq, translated by Deepa Bhasthi (And Other Stories, April 2025), $30.95
Originally written in the Kannada language, Heart Lamp explores feminism, gender, caste, class, religion, resistance and the patriarchy in Muslim communities in Southern India. In the titular story, a woman in the throes of postpartum depression douses herself in kerosene. In an attempt to stop her self-immolation, her infant child is placed at her feet. These stories took Mustaq 33 years to write, and at 76 years old, her stories are being collected in English for the first time.
— JOSH
The Natural Hustle
by Eva HD (McClelland & Stewart, 2023), $22.95
Hometown hero and butthead genius Eva HD writes of Toronto and NYC as the most clued-in tour guide a person can hope for, finding beauty and meaning in the plainest of places. Trinity Bellwoods and Roncesvalles are represented in this poetry collection, among other recognizable Toronto scenes. This book is the inspiration and companion piece to Charlie Kauffman’s 2023 short film Jackals & Fireflies. Perfect for entry-level and seasoned poetry readers alike.
— JOSH
Why Don’t You Love Me
by Paul Rainey (Drawn & Quarterly, March 2025), $29.95
This graphic novel starts off similarly to familiar comics like Blondie or Family Circus, with young parents Claire and Mark ending their fights with cutesy one-liners. But something darker and unreal starts puncturing their lives, and they cope via meanness, alcoholism and hate. Can they find their way back to love in the face of the world’s end? It’s a heartbreaking and also uplifting examination of a couple’s straining under catastrophe. It’s now out in paperback after coming out in hardcover in 2023.
It felt like the perfect book to look back on living through COVID. It’s just as good now for a world that seems even worse off.
— MAX
total: poems
by Aisha Sasha John (McClelland & Stewart, 2025), $22.95
This spring I’m looking forward to getting my hands on a copy of total, the latest poetry collection by Toronto-based dancer, choreographer and poet Aisha Sasha John. Sparse and playful, John’s poetry contains all the directness and profundity of a zen koan. Her 2017 collection, i have to live, was nominated for the Griffin Prize, and a dog-eared copy holds a special place on my bookshelf and in my heart.
— CASON
Arabic, Between Love and War
edited by Norah Alkharashi & Yasmine Haj (Trace Press, December 2024), $23
Arabic, Between Love and War is the result of a series of creative workshops and collaborations led by co-editors Norah Alkharashi and Yasmine Haj. Here, a cohort of translators working with or in Arabic gathered a range of poems, from the Palestinian feminist visionary Fadwa Tuqan to the Sudanese contemporary poet Najlaa Osman Eltom, that document lives shaped by war, occupation, displacement, conflict and migration alongside dreams of collective freedom. Through this anthology, translation becomes a liberatory practice; a process that enables us to meet across cultures, languages and liberation struggles.
— JESS
Health & Safety
by Emily Witt (Pantheon Books, September 2024), $37
This memoir documents the New York party scene in the 2010s through the lens of a reporter, but blooms open into the dissolution of U.S. politics, the COVID era and the end of a relationship. In turns fascinating, liberating and aggravating. Witt does a good job of describing the feeling of the nebulous world of parties and writes unflinchingly on the themes of a world in disarray.
— LUKE
This article appeared in the 2025 April/May issue.
