Book cover of Five Wives

Book description

WINNER OF THE GOVERNOR GENERAL'S LITERARY AWARD FOR FICTION

A GLOBE AND MAIL, CBC BOOKS, APPLE BOOKS, AND NOW TORONTO BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

In the tradition of The Poisonwood Bible and State of Wonder, a novel set in the rainforest of Ecuador about five women left behind when…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Five Wives as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

I grew up with the true story of the missionaries to an isolated Indigenous tribe in Ecuador who, in 1956, were killed by the people they’d come to help. I loved Five Wives because it’s an incisive but compassionate interrogation of a story from my own religious background, but you don’t need to be familiar with the source material to find it riveting. 

As a religiously fervent teen, I was inspired by the courage of the wives of these martyred men, who later returned to bring the gospel to their husbands’ murderers. As an ex-Christian adult, I was awed by…

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The High House by James Stoddard,

The Victorian mansion, Evenmere, is the mechanism that runs the universe.

The lamps must be lit, or the stars die. The clocks must be wound, or Time ceases. The Balance between Order and Chaos must be preserved, or Existence crumbles.

Appointed the Steward of Evenmere, Carter Anderson must learn the…

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