Transatlantic is proud to see two of our clients recognized on the “Best Canadian Fiction” List of 2021 by CBC Books, which celebrates the top fiction works released each year.

Below are our listed clients and their celebrated releases:

THE STRANGERS by Katherena Vermette (Hamish Hamilton)

“In The Strangers, readers are brought into the dynamic world of the Stranger family, the shared pain of their past and the light that shines from the horizon. After spending time in foster homes, Cedar goes to live with her estranged father. Being separated from her mother, Elsie, and her sister, Phoenix, is painful, but she’s hoping for a new chapter in life. The three women diverge, reconnect and fight to survive in a system that expects them to fail.”

About the author:

Katherena Vermette (she/her/hers) is a Red River Métis (Michif) writer from Treaty 1 territory, the heart of the Métis Nation. She has worked in poetry, novels, children’s literature, and film.

Born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, her father’s roots run deep in St. Boniface, St. Norbert and beyond. Her mother’s side is Mennonite from the Altona and Rosenfeld area (Treaty 1).

Vermette received the Governor General’s Literary Award for Poetry for her first book, North End Love Songs (The Muses’ Company). The Break (House of Anansi) won several awards including the Amazon.ca First Novel Award, and was a bestseller in Canada. Her National Film Board documentary, this river won the Canadian Screen Award for Best Short. She holds a Master of Fine Arts from the University of British Columbia.

Her second novel, The Strangers (Hamish Hamilton) won the Atwood Gibson Writers Trust Fiction Prize and was named Chapters Indigo’s Book of the Year 2021. It was also longlisted for the Giller Prize.

Katherena lives with her family in a cranky old house within skipping distance of the temperamental Red River.

Katherena is represented by Marilyn Biderman.

THE SPECTACULAR by Zoe Whittall (Ballantine/PRH US and HarperCollins Canada)

“In The Spectacular, it’s 1997 and Missy’s band is touring across America. Every night, she plays the song about her absent mother that made the band famous. As the only girl in the band, she wants to party just as hard as everyone else, but a forgotten party favour strands her at the border. Carola is just surfacing from a sex scandal when she sees her daughter Missy for the first time in 10 years — on the cover of a music magazine. Ruth plans on returning to the Turkish seaside but then her granddaughter Missy crashes at her house. Ruth decides it’s time the women in her family try to understand each other again.”

About the author:

Zoe Whittall is the author of three previous novels, including the Giller-shortlisted The Best Kind of People, the Lambda-winning Holding Still for As Long As Possible, and her debut, Bottle Rocket Hearts. She has published three collections of poetry: The Best Ten Minutes of Your Life, Precordial Thump, and The Emily Valentine Poems. She is also a Canadian Screen Award–winning TV and film writer, with credits on the Baroness von Sketch Show, Schitt’s Creek, Degrassi, and others.

Zoe is represented by Samantha Haywood.

 To see the full list, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/books/the-best-canadian-fiction-of-2021-1.6275969

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