Fiction
Oei is the daughter of a famous Japanese painter Hokusai, living in 19th centry Edo, Japan. Despite being from a large family, Hokusai picks Oei as his apprentice and she is obviously his favourite child. The two paint and travel together, coming up with new ideas for paintings. When the North Star school is opened, they start taking students to ghost brush under similar names as Hokusai. As Oei grows older, her paintings become more beautiful. Some think that she could surpass her father, yet she is too loyal to her father to take the steps to make that happen.
The art and the culture of Japan are an important part of the book but the relationships are equally important. Oei falls in love with those she can't have or can't hold on to for long. She has relationships with a prostitute, other artists, actors, novelists, but most important is her father. She endures his abuse and love, helps him with his money and commissions, goes in his place to talk to foreigners, and takes care of him while his health declines. Can Oei move past her relationship with her father to live with one brush or will her work forever be known as Hokusai's work?
I find that most books that are based in Japan have a certain grace to them, that this book also possesses. The story doesn't move quickly but it is elegantly told and even though the characters are different from a normal fiction book, you can't help but pull for Oei and hope that she's given the recognition she deserves.
I loved the way the paintings were described. I could imagine the vivid colours that Oei prided herself in and could picture what those paintings looked like. It's obvious that a lot of research was put into this book and that Govier has seen thousands of Japenese paintings to be able to describe them as she did.
This book will be one I still remember by the end of the year.
Browse Inside
Buy Online
First Line: "Hey, You!"
Rating: 
(4/5)
Shep Knacker has had a dream for his 'Afterlife'. He wants to settle down in a third world country , relax and have a wonderful life on a few dollars a day. In preparation he has sold his home repair business and his house. His wife Glynis has always found reasons not to go but Shep has finally reached the end of his patience and has booked a one way ticket for his family. He is going no matter what.
Less than a week after the 'close' of their last case Jack Caffery and Flea Marley are at it again. Both are searching for a missing celebrity's wife. Jack stumbles upon an apparent suicide by the railway tracks. But is it a suicide? Or is it the monster from the 'Ritual' case, someone who seems to be able to do what he/she wishes and enter houses at will.
Louis Drax is an accident-prone boy. He's also much more intelligent than a child of his age is usually, which earns him the nickname of "Wacko Boy" at school. Louis has a therapist Fat Perez, whom notices that Louis is stuck on the idea that his father is not his real father. Several encounters with his father and mother seem to confirm this idea in Louis' head. During a family picnic, a fight occurs and Louis falls off a cliff, almost killing him and Louis' dad disappears. Louis is brought to Dr. Dannachet who specializes in coma patients, but Dr. Dannachet starts to unravel what really happened during that picnic and both his family and the Drax family start to fall apart. 
Haven Moore is a troubled young woman. She has had visions all her life although she has had some counseling to try to control them. Her visions are of a man named Ethan in New York and herself in a fire.
Fauziya Kassindja grew up in Togo and was very close to her father. Her family did not believe in tribal practices of polygamy or female genital mutilation. Kassindja is very close to her father, who makes sure she gets a proper education. When Kassindja's father dies though, things change. According to local tradition, the father's family takes over the home and family. Her aunt and uncle kicked her mom out of the home and then sold her into a marriage as a forth wife, with the promise that she would be circumsized. 
This story is told from the prospective of a group of elephants. Mud is a young female elephant orphaned at birth but blessed with visionary powers. She and her fellow elephants are forced to remain at a watering hole by drought. There, the herd is ambushed by a group of ivory poachers and decimated. They then set out to find the White Bone which will lead them to the Safe Place, an Eden for elephants.
This is a Canadian story about two very different brothers in a rural Northern Ontario town. Arthur, the eldest brother, is shy, retiring, loyal and dutiful. His father approves of him and sets him up to inherit the farm. Jake is outgoing, egotistical and self-absorbed. His mother thinks he can do no wrong and makes Arthur protect him even when it goes against Arthur's best interests. So is set an antagonistic relationship.
The five Lisbon girls live in suburbia Detroit in the seventies. The book is narrated by the group of boys interested in these girls and what occurred. What occurred is that each of the girls committed suicide. The boys go back and try to discover what happened to allow such a tragedy.