September 1984, Thornton College private school. After 15-year-old Zahabiya's father remarries, she can't wait to leave home and convinces him to send her away to boarding school. But will she fit in? She joins a clique of smart students but isn't sure if she measures up or how to read the mixed messages from a guy she's crushing on. Seventeen-year-old Leesa has been at Thornton since middle school after her parents' messy divorce. She's been climbing the school's social ladder with equal measures of meanness and manipulation. She's also guarding a big secret that she has to work overtime to keep from her friends. Fresh out of university, this is Nahla's first real teaching job, and she's drowning. She has her distractions though: the flirty art teacher and a cryptic notebook left behind by her deceased predecessor, Mademoiselle Leblanc. Zahabiya and her friends — all racialized girls and victims of Leesa's bullying — uncover Leesa's...

AN INDIGO BEST BOOK OF 2020 A GLOBE AND MAIL BEST INDEPENDENT READ FOR FALL 2020 AN APPLE BOOKS BEST BOOK OF 2020 A NOW MAGAZINE TOP TEN BOOK OF 2020 A CBC BOOKS BEST CANADIAN FICTION 2020"Be prepared for this novel to stay with you for a long time, especially its ending."—GLOBE AND MAIL"[An] extraordinary book... packed with discovery and jarring emotional arcs."—TORONTO STAR"Penetrating and subtle ... [An] immersive, absorbing portrait."—EDEN ROBINSON"Explores with courage and storytelling finesse the harsh truths within the ideals of kinship and community." —DAVID CHARIANDY"An urgent and passionate read." —VIVEK SHRAYA"Visceral and emotional... a courageous feat."—QUILL & QUIRE (starred review)A brave, soulfully written feminist novel about inheritance and resistance that tests the balance between kinship and the fight against customs that harm...

"This is a lovely piece of work, comely in its appeal, confident in its address. It's a work of love and longing and loss, and also of reconciliation and rejuvenation. In a voice that is completely assured of itself, Farzana Doctor weaves a tale of new and old immigrants in the impersonal and impervious megapolis that is Toronto." -Herizon Stealing Nasreenis a novel about the lives of three very different people, all of whom belong to the same small religious community. Set in Toronto with back story in Mumbai, Nasreen Bastawala, an Indo-Canadian lesbian and burnt-out psychologist, becomes enmeshed in the lives of Shaffiq and Salma Paperwala, new immigrants from Mumbai. While working in the same Toronto hospital as Nasreen, Shaffiq develops a persistent and confusing fascination with Nasreen, causing him to bring home and hide things he "finds" in her office. Salma, his wife, discovers some of these hidden treasures and suspects that...

A story about one all-inclusive resort, the ghost of an unknown father, and the tragedies we can't forget.What's it like when everyone's dream vacation is your job? Ameera works at a Mexican all-inclusive resort, where every day is paradise — if "paradise" means endless paperwork, quotas to meet, and entitled tourists. But it's not all bad: Ameera's pastime of choice is the swingers scene, and the resort is the perfect place to hook up with like-minded couples without all the hassle of having to see them again.Despite Ameera's best efforts to keep her sideline a secret, someone is spreading scandalous rumours about her around the resort, and her job might be at stake. Meanwhile, she's being plagued by her other secret, the big unknown of her existence: the identity of her father and why he disappeared. Unbeknownst to Ameera, her father, Azeez, is looking for her, and they both must come to terms with the reason why he abandoned her.A moving new work...

Winner of the 2012 LAMBDA Literary Award for Best Lesbian Fiction and of the 2011 Rainbow Awards Ismail Boxwala made the worst mistake of his life one summer morning twenty years ago: he forgot his baby daughter in the back seat of his car. After his daughter's tragic death, he struggles to continue living. A divorce, years of heavy drinking, and sex with strangers only leave him more alone and isolated. But Ismail's story begins to change after he reluctantly befriends two women: Fatima, a young queer activist kicked out of her parents' home; and Celia, his grieving Portuguese-Canadian neighbour who lives just six metres away. A slow-simmering romance develops between Ismail and Celia. Meanwhile, dangers lead Fatima to his doorstep. Each makes complicated demands of him, ones he is uncertain he can meet.