Great Travel Reads: books set in Canada
Canada is the country I call home! I’ve lived from coast to coast and a few places in between yet this massive country continues to surprise and overwhelm me with it’s beauty and diversity. Trees, mountains, lakes, rivers and oceans make up my Canada, but so too does hockey, double-doubles, French, Indigenous culture and history, and four distinct seasons when nature shows off her glory. A short list of books can’t possibly capture all that is Canada, but I’ve included a sampling! As Carlo Goldoni said, “A wise traveler never despises his own country.” I know I have so much still to learn about Canada, it’s history, the land, and the people!
These book recommendations only include novels I’ve personally rated 4 (a great read!) or 5 (amazing) on Goodreads and stories that have helped me “travel” to other places.
The lists will continue to grow and be edited! Check back or subscribe to my email list for updates! Last updated April 2023
The List of Last Chances by Christina Myers
Fiction set in Canada - from coast to coast
4.19 ⭐️’s on Goodreads (I gave it a 5!)
Plot summary: At thirty-eight years old, Ruthie finds herself newly unemployed, freshly single, sleeping on a friend’s couch and downing a bottle of wine each night. Having overstayed her welcome and desperate for a job, Ruthie responds to David’s ad: he’s looking for someone to drive his aging mother, Kay, and her belongings from PEI to Vancouver. Heartfelt and humorous, The List of Last Chances follows a pair of reluctant travel companions across the country, into an unexpected friendship, new adventures, and the rare gift of second chances.
My thoughts: A lighthearted romp across the country. I’ve driven across the country as a teen and hope to repeat the adventure as an adult. This story is humourous and emotional and just plain fun to read! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Heaviness of Things That Float by Jennifer Manuel
Fiction set on Vancouver Island in a remote West Coast First Nation’s community
4.34 ⭐️’s on Goodreads
Plot summary: The book depicts the lonely world of Bernadette, a woman who has spent the last forty years living alone on the periphery of a remote West Coast First Nations reserve, serving as a nurse for the community. This is a place where truth and myth are deeply intertwined. Only weeks from retirement, Bernadette finds herself unsettled, with no immediate family of her own—how does she fit into the world? Her fears are complicated by the role she has played within their community: a keeper of secrets in a place “too small for secrets.” And then a shocking announcement crackles over the VHF radio of the remote medical outpost: Chase Charlie, the young man that Bernadette loves like a son, is missing. The community is thrown into upheaval, and with the surface broken, raw dysfunction, pain and truths float to the light.
My thoughts: This book is set in a place very close to where I live. The novel is emotionally complex and gets you thinking! I’ll borrow from a Goodread’s review that put words to my reactions to the book - The relationship between whites and Indigenous people is often fraught, and who gets to tell the story is debatable. [The author] bravely walks into the fray and, as someone who has lived in Indigenous communities for decades, she is more qualified than most white people. Here, her focus is on what blind spots non-Indigenous people have, how and why humans delude themselves. It's thought-provoking, and an important part of the conversation on reconciliation in Canada. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Woefield Poultry Collective by Susan Juby
Fiction, humour - (also called Home to Woefield) set on Vancouver Island, BC.
3.85 ⭐️’s on Goodreads
Plot summary: Woefield Farm is a sprawling thirty acres of scrub land, complete with dilapidated buildings and one half-sheared, lonely sheep named Bertie. It’s “run”—in the loosest possible sense of the word—by Prudence Burns, an energetic, well-intentioned 20-something New Yorker full of back-to-the-land ideals, but without an iota of related skills or experience. Prudence, who inherited the farm from her uncle, soon discovers that the bank is about to foreclose on the property, which means that she has to turn things around, fast. But fear not! She’ll be assisted by Earl, a spry 70-something, banjo-playing foreman, with a distrust of newfangled ideas and a substantial family secret; Seth, the alcoholic, celebrity-blogging guy-next-door, who hasn’t left the house since a scandal with his high-school drama teacher; and Sara Spratt, a highly organized eleven-year-old looking for a home for her prize-winning chickens, including one particularly randy fellow soon to be christened Alec Baldwin.
My thoughts: This laugh out loud story is set in a town about 45 minutes from my hometown on Vancouver Island and it was a hoot! I admit it may not teach you about Canada but it might give some insight to west-coast rural Canadian humour! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Forgotten Daughter by Joanna Goodman
Fiction, Historical fiction set in Quebec
3.91 ⭐️’s on Goodreads
Plot summary: 1992: French-Canadian factions renew Quebec’s fight to gain independence, and wild, beautiful Véronique Fortin, daughter of a radical separatist convicted of kidnapping and murdering a prominent politician in 1970, has embraced her father’s cause. So it is a surprise when she falls for James Phénix, a journalist of French-Canadian heritage who opposes Quebec separatism. Their love affair is as passionate as it is turbulent, as they negotiate a constant struggle between love and morals. At the same time, James’s older sister, Elodie Phénix, one of the Duplessis Orphans, becomes involved with a coalition demanding justice and reparations for their suffering in the 1950s when Quebec’s orphanages were converted to mental hospitals, a heinous political act of Premier Maurice Duplessis which affected 5,000 children. Véronique is the only person Elodie can rely on as she fights for retribution, reliving her trauma, while Elodie becomes a sisterly presence for Véronique, who continues to struggle with her family’s legacy.
My thoughts: I was about the same age as the main character (born in 1970) and was incredibly moved at how different my life unfolded growing up during the same time and in the same country. I learned things (ugly things) about Canadian history that I never knew. Consider this fair warning that the book is heavy with politics with a somber but important story to tell. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I would be remiss to exclude the following books set in Canada. I love them all!
Chief Inspector Gamache mystery series by Louise Penny (set in Quebec)
Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese
Anne of Green Gables by LM Montgomery
Please comment below any book suggestions set in Canada for me to read! THANK YOU!
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