Some folks have a talent for finding trouble, no matter how good they try to be, especially Randy Craig. Maybe she shouldn’t date a cop. Maybe she should have turned down the job at the Folkways Collection library—a job that became a nightmare when a rich benefactor’s belligerent heir turned up dead. Randy tried to be good—honest!—but now she’s a prime suspect with a motive and no alibi in sight.

Winner: McNally Robinson Book of the Year

During the summers of 1991 through 1994 Victoria Jason, grandmother of two and stroke survivor, and two companions--Fred Reffler and Don Starkell--set out to kayak from Churchill, Manitoba to Tuktoyaktuk on the Beaufort Sea.

When an ‘80s New Waver starts liking country music, is it a sign of maturity? More than just selling all his Depeche Mode and Flock of Seagulls records, stay-at-home dad Bill Angus has some serious house-cleaning to do. With his wife, Julie, bringing home the bacon and their son, Sean, flexing wings of independence, Bill tries to rescue his stay-at-home dad neighbours from their foibles.

Making awareness into language is the act that binds the elements of Sally Ito’s newest collection of poetry, Alert to Glory. Whether the focus is on parenting, biblical texts, or on creativity itself, Ito discerns the moment in which the word might become wondrous—moments when the mind-bell is struck dumb, and the hollow fills with shuddering sound, agog with itself.

Paardeberg, South Africa is far from the Canadian prairies. In 1899, best friends from the small town of Portage la Prairie, Will and Mason, sign up with the Winnipeg Rifles’ “A” Company to fight in the Second Boer War. Drift is about challenging and crossing borders and boundaries between and within countries, races, and individuals. History and fate have some hold over the characters but ultimately they have to make decisions in order to stop drifting. With breathtaking grace, Leo Brent Robillard delivers an unstoppable story.

Winnipeg artist and designer, Robert J. Sweeney, captures Winnipeg’s urban landscape in this remarkable ­collection of sketches, Portraits of Winnipeg: The River City in Pen and Ink. Each portrait brings to life in brilliant colour, the many faces of Manitoba’s “River City.”

Legends for a "New" Iceland

A land of volcanoes, geothermal pools, and barren wilderness, Iceland is full of mists and mystery. For a thousand years, its inhabitants passed down oral histories that included fantastical fables as a way to understand their strange land. For settlers escaping starvation in the wake of volcanic eruptions and economic hardship, Manitoba's Interlake area held further mystery.

WINNER: Governor General’s Award for Non-Fiction

A national bestseller for two years, the winner of the Governor General’s Award in 1993, and a New York Times Notable Travel Book of the Year in 2000, Touch the Dragon, A Thai Journal is a rare and dazzling exploration of a young writer’s brave new world. In Timothy Findley’s words, this book is "a splendid evocation of a place and people."

In this modern Icelandic saga, Baldur is ­buffeted by chance and opportunity in a ­competitive, ­unforgiving new world, seeking his one true love.

Autumn, One Spring is a humour-infused drama that takes truthfulness in relationships seriously. In the fallout of this strangest of romances, forgiveness emerges as the biggest challenge.