Book review by Daniel Gawthrop posted on British Columbia Review on March 1, 2024 The Invisible Hotel, by Yeji Y. Ham Toronto: Bond Street Books, 2024. $34.00 / 9780385698054 If you’ve never heard of Yeji Y. Ham, that’s about to change in a hurry. This young Korean Canadian writer, a UBC Creative Writing grad and Brown University MFA who divides her time between Vancouver and Seoul, has written a first novel that—on its own merits, and with…
Book review by Daniel Gawthrop posted on British Columbia Review on February 12, 2024 The Longest Shot: How Larry Kwong Changed the Face of Hockey, by Chad Soon and George Chiang, with illustrations by Amy Qi Victoria: Orca Book Publishers, February 13, 2024 $24.95 / 9781459835030 The story of Vernon’s Larry Kwong, the first professional hockey player of Asian descent to crack an NHL line-up, has been told many times. The Province’s Tom Hawthorn, CBC reports,…
Book review by Daniel Gawthrop posted on British Columbia Review on February 5, 2024 Races: The Trials & Triumphs of Canada’s Fastest Family, by Valerie Jerome Fredericton: Goose Lane Editions, 2023. $24.95 / 9781773102900 Last fall was the season of the sprinter for the sports memoir in Canada. In addition to the Ontario stories of Andre De Grasse (Ignite: Unlock the Hidden Potential Within) and Donovan Bailey (Undisputed: A Champion’s Life), there was a profoundly affecting B.C.…
Book review by Daniel Gawthrop posted on British Columbia Review on January 25, 2024 Zulaikha, by Niloufar-Lily Soltani Toronto: Inanna Publications, 2023 $24.95 / 9781771339568 For readers with little more than news cycle awareness of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Vancouver’s Niloufar-Lily Soltani offers an intriguing glimpse into a country whose people have endured no end of suffering from the dark legacies of colonial rule and religious extremism. The title character accounts for much of this…
Book review by Daniel Gawthrop posted on British Columbia Review on October 30, 2023. Outsider: An Old Man, a Mountain and the Search for a Hidden Past, by Brett Popplewell Toronto: Harper Collins, 2023, $25.99 / 9781443457859 British Columbia has long been a magnet for eccentric new settlers with mysterious backgrounds who come here seeking to reinvent themselves. Thanks to an investigative journalist from Ontario, we now have another whose fascinating back story has been captured for…