Canadian Family

Kerstin Ostheim, a journalist, and P. J. Banner, a freelance photographer, have been together six months after meeting on a dating website. They are getting married in two weeks and as the wedding fast approaches, they question their compatibility while investigating mysterious horse killings that are taking place in Ogweyo's Cove, the Pacific tourist haven where they live.

The Second World War had been under way for a year when Marie and John Williamson welcomed two English brothers to join them and their two children in their small house in north Toronto for the duration of the conflict. Marie wrote over 150 letters to the boys’ mother, Margaret Sharp, imagining that she could make Margaret feel she was still with her children. She shepherded the boys through education decisions and illnesses, eased them into a strange new life, and rejoiced when they embraced unfamiliar winter sports.

Un homme aux racines emmêlées entame la quête de son identité alors que sur la terre qu’il vient d’acheter, sa pelle bute sur une pierre impossible à extraire du sol. Entre un père basque fantomatique, une mère sorcière, un frère surgi des limbes, une fille qui est et n’est pas la sienne et une femme qui après tout n’est peut-être pas la sienne non plus, le protagoniste fait le récit de sa vie.

Nightmares still haunt Chloe 13 years after she lost her baby sister. Her mother, Jules, with a busy tech career and long history of chronic pain, has little time for Chloe. After Chloe drops out of university to travel for a year, Jules’s OxyContin dependency quickly becomes a problem. Aftershock follows their parallel journeys: Jules struggles to regain control of her life and come to terms with the emotional pain that has so long manifested itself in her body. Chloe, after a rocky visit with her estranged father in New Zealand, resolves to go off the map....

The recipient of the Journey Prize and Edna Staebler Award, Heather Birrell made a splash in the literary world with her first collection, I Know You Are But What Am I? In Mad Hope, Birrell employs her keen insight into the human condition to present tales featuring a complex array of characters, including a gay man caring for a friend and a science teacher faced with a shocking request.

À 10 ans, Xiomara Kirsch, alias Mara, sait que la vie a son côté sombre: prise entre les problèmes financiers de ses parents, les déménagements et la naissance imminente de ses frères jumeaux, la fillette en proie à des sautes d’humeur étouffe sous le poids des responsabilités qu’elle s’impose. Mais elle va découvrir que, comme la lune, la vie a aussi un côté brillant.

Qui se cache dans le bedon de madame Loubidou? Tout le monde se pose la question. Perché sur sa branche, l’oiseau du voisinage croit que ce sera un chat. Le chat, lui, s’imagine que ce sera une belle grosse souris appétissante. Le ballon, délaissé depuis quelques temps, espère que ce sera un ballon, pour lui permettre d’avoir un peu de compagnie. Le grand frère veut que ce soit un garçon, la grande soeur souhaite l’arrivée d’une fille.

Niko Kiriakos, tentative heir to the ailing Calypso Shipping fleet, always suspected he was cursed. Following his sudden disappearance, his wife, Anna, and daughter, Zoe, are left adrift. Unmoored, they begin to test the boundaries of their lives, struggling with issues of loyalty, identity and what it means to be a family. Spanning years and tracing a route from Niagara Falls to Greece, Escape Plans is an unblinking look at the ties that bind us together and the things that pull us apart.

Growing up with a menacing drunk for a father and a grief-stricken mother, a girl spends her 1980s childhood staring at the television to escape the depression and looming violence that fill her suburban home. After winning a modelling competition, she dedicates herself to becoming a placid image onto which anything can be projected, a blank slate with a blank stare. Earning enough in Paris to retire in her 20s, she buys a studio in Montreal and retreats from the world, cultivating her existence as an image through her virtual reality avatar. But then her mother develops cancer.

L'idée du siècle de mes parents? Avoir un autre enfant! Non mais, comme si on était pas déjà beaucoup trop dans notre famille! Dire que je passerai très certainement en bas du 25 % d'attention parentale. Aussi bien dire presque zéro! Pire idée du monde. Heureusement que j'ai aussi pour me réconforter un brin de cette nouvelle style bombe nucléaire.

Siddhartha était le fils d’un roi puissant qui vivait dans un immense palais aux pieds de l’Himalaya. Son père le tenait jalousement prisonnier, pour le préserver des souffrances du monde. À partir de cette enfance murée dans le silence et traversée de questions et de peurs, se construira une personnalité exemplaire toute entière tendue vers l’accomplissement et le don de soi.

To Stephanie, Andrew Simmons seemed like the perfect man. He was smart, handsome, tall, and athletic. And best of all, he was interested in her. As their romance begins to blossom, the truth about Andrew's past comes to light. A misguided choice made many years before hung over him. When they start a family together, Andrew tries to move on from the past and enjoy his family life, but the past still haunts him.

Donner la vie, devenir parent, cela bouscule une existence. Notre manière de voir la vie, d’envisager l’avenir, d’organiser nos journées évolue au gré de la croissance du petit être aimé qui accapare tant de notre énergie. Pas toujours facile de concilier vie de famille et spiritualité...mais à y voir de plus près, la parentalité est assurément un lieu privilégié pour apprendre à aimer, et donc pour grandir intérieurement.

Audio Journeys are exploring Quebec City, Quebec in early February during their Annual Winter Carnival, the largest winter carnival in the world.