Fiction by "Obscure" Canadian Authors

As the title eludes to, I am looking for suggestions of fiction by Canadian authors. However, I am looking for the more obscure. I am not looking for suggestions by Guy Gavriel Kay, or Margaret Atwood, or any other well known Canadian author. I am looking for those that you don't find on the best seller lists.

I don't know if these folks have made the bestseller lists or not, but I enjoyed them:

David Adams Richards: I read Lines on the Water: A Fly Fisherman's Life on the Miramichi I am not, nor am I likely ever going to be a flyfisherwoman, but the book is about a lot more than 'just' flyfishing.

Wayne Johnston: A Canadian friend urged me to read A Colony of Unrequited Dreams; he was right..a fine book.

You might check here for the latest Canada Reads info; I'm sure you'll find something good.

The Reading Canada group at Library Thing might yield some good leads as well. For that matter, just do a tag search for Canada or Canadian while you're browsing Library Thing.


[on edit: Oops, Sorry! I didn't notice you wanted just fiction..Lines on the Water is a memoir, but Richards other works are fiction.]

How's this for obscure: The Torontonians by Phyllis Brett Young?

Other names that spring to mind are Joy Kogawa, Brian Moore, Mavis Gallant, Kenneth J. Harvey, Timothy Findley, Mordechai Richler, Rohinton Mistry, Robertson Davies, Rawi Hage, and Gaétan Soucy. Some more obscure than others; at least to this non-Canadian.

Stewart said:

How's this for obscure: The Torontonians by Phyllis Brett Young?

Other names that spring to mind are Joy Kogawa, Brian Moore, Mavis Gallant, Kenneth J. Harvey, Timothy Findley, Mordechai Richler, Rohinton Mistry, Robertson Davies, Rawi Hage, and Gaétan Soucy. Some more obscure than others; at least to this non-Canadian.

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I can vouch for Mistry's A Fine Balance...wonderful book.

Stewart said:

Other names that spring to mind are Joy Kogawa, Brian Moore, Mavis Gallant, Kenneth J. Harvey, Timothy Findley, Mordechai Richler, Rohinton Mistry, Robertson Davies, Rawi Hage, and Gaétan Soucy. Some more obscure than others; at least to this non-Canadian.

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To most people in Canada, Mordechai Richler and Robertson Davies are fairly well known authors. I'm not sure about outside the country though.

The others on your list are pretty obscure, at least to this Canadian. A couple of the names are familiar, but don't know much about them.

One name I can add though is Donald Ward. He wrote a good collection of short stories called Nobody Goes to Earth Any More

Alice Munro is an excellent writer. She specializes in short stories and one of them has been made into a film (Away From Her). The story I read was "The love of a good woman"; excellent story.

Also you may want to read Jane Urquhart; she mainly writes historical fiction. She wrote an amazing book (The Stone Carvers) about the carvers who carved the monument at Vimy during the late 1920s, early 1930s.

You might also look at Carol Shields; she wrote an amazing collection of novels and short stories. I don't know if you would consider Michael Ondaatje as obscure, but he does have other works besides The English Patient.