Books of the Year lists amid Madame Bovary weather
Above
Overhead we’ve been in a Madame Bovary weather cycle for 4 days: We began with dreary (gloomy drizzle), we were scheduled for passion (high winds), but instead went straight to regret this morning (Heavy rain & filthy sky slumping down on the mountains) so I predict this weekend we will end this cycle with a weather version of passionate regret! (Wind with flying mud and slugs?)
Below
Underneath the weather challenge, some very nifty inclusions of Martin John on Best Books of 2015 lists in newspapers and other medja.
To wit:
Martin John is No. 1 fiction pick in the Toronto Star’s Top 5 Fiction Books of the Year.
“The Toronto Star’s book reviewers read hundreds of books for our pages each year. So when it comes to choosing our top five books, we turn to them first. There was a wide range of books suggested this year — but the ones below are the ones that garnered the most votes each.
Martin John, Anakana Schofield
Anakana Schofield has hit the publishing world like a storm. This book was nominated for the Scotiabank Giller Prize despite being about an uncomfortable subject: inside the mind of a sexual deviant. Still, our reviewers picked this as one of the top five of the year with comments such as: “Formally audacious and incisive writing that’s also got plenty of heart and quirk;” “admiring the stylistic and thematic risks Schofield has taken with it;” “a novel that mirrors its protagonist’s obsessive and deviant behavior in its elastic prose;” “a case study in mother-son drama where mental illness and an overbearing parent collide … A dark, comic and moving portrait of the guilt, pain and suffering of the mentally ill.”
Martin John is the No. 3 pick in the National Post’s NP99 The Best Books of the Year (includes a perky orange sketch where I have new eyebrows and a haircut)
3. Martin John, Anakana Schofield (Biblioasis, 282 pp; $20)
Schofield’s breakout second novel puts readers in unpleasant places, like the mind of the title character, a mentally unstable man who is a molester and subway masturbator. The power of the book lies in the author’s trust in the empathy of her readers. The funniest, and possibly darkest novel of the year.
Martin John included in Wall Street Journal’s 2015 “Year’s Best Fiction“.
Thank you to Sam Sacks who wrote “Of course, it’s not length alone that produces indelible reading experiences, and some of the year’s finest books succeeded through the poetic arts of compression and omission.Anakana Schofield brilliantly reproduces the obsessive mental landscape of a sex offender in “Martin John”…”
Martin John included in the Globe & Mail’s “Globe 100“
Vancouver Sun’s Top 20 Books of the Year,
Toronto’s NOW Magazine’s Top 10 Books of 2015,
Edmonton Journal’s 5 Most Memorable Reads of 2015
Largehearted Boy Favourite Novels of 2015.
Thrilled to sit beside these very strong & diverse novels. Also doubly thrilled because Malarky was one of Largehearted Boy’s favourite novels in 2012. Many thanks to David for continuing to read and support my work and maintain his excellent “music notes” platform.
“Anakana Schofield’s second novel Martin John is a profound, innovative, and poignant meditation on identity.”
Quill and Quire Books of the Year
Pickle Me This Best Books of 2015
Thank you to all the reviewers & editors for so generously including my novel when there are many deserving works and thank you to anyone presently reading Martin John. I’m very grateful for the engagement, given how precious one’s reading time is.