The top 20 Canadian books of 2024, so far
Here are the bestselling Canadian titles of the year, as determined by independent bookstore sales
Check out these Canadian books that have been flying off the shelves this year!
Starting with the top-selling title, here's a ranked list of the top 20 books Canadians have been trying to get their hands on so far in 2024.
This bestseller list is compiled by Bookmanager using weekly sales stats from over 260 Canadian independent stores between January 1 and June 30 of this year.
1. Denison Avenue by Christina Wong & Daniel Innes
Set in Toronto's Chinatown and Kensington Market, Denison Avenue is a moving portrait of a city undergoing mass gentrification and a Chinese Canadian elder experiencing the existential challenges of getting old and being Asian in North America. Recently widowed, Wong Cho Sum takes long walks through the city, collecting bottles and cans and meeting people on her journeys in a bid to ease her grief.
Denison Avenue was championed by former Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi on Canada Reads 2024.
Wong is a Toronto writer, playwright and multidisciplinary artist who also works in sound installation, audio documentaries and photography.
Innes is a multidisciplinary artist from Toronto. He works in painting, installation, graphic and textile design, illustration, sign painting and tattooing.
2. Bad Cree by Jessica Johns
Bad Cree centres around a young woman named Mackenzie, who is haunted by terrifying nightmares and wracked with guilt about her sister Sabrina's untimely death. The lines between her dreams and reality start to blur when she begins seeing a murder of crows following her around the city — and starts getting threatening text messages from someone claiming to be her dead sister.
Looking to escape, Mackenzie heads back to her hometown in rural Alberta where she finds her family still entrenched in their grief. With her dreams intensifying and getting more dangerous, Mackenzie must confront a violent family legacy and reconcile with the land and her community.
Athlete and CBC Sports broadcaster Dallas Soonias championed Bad Cree on Canada Reads 2024.
Johns is a queer nehiyaw aunty with English-Irish ancestry and a member of Sucker Creek First Nation. Johns won the 2020 Writers' Trust Journey Prize for the short story Bad Cree, which evolved into the novel of the same name. Bad Cree also won the MacEwan Book of the Year prize. Johns is currently based in Edmonton.
3. Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice
Moon of the Crusted Snow is a dystopian drama involving a protagonist named Evan Whitesky and a northern Anishinaabe community facing dwindling resources and rising panic after their electrical power grid shuts down during a cold winter. While the community tries to maintain order, forces from outside and within threaten to destroy the reserve.
Rice is an Anishinaabe author and journalist originally from Wasauksing First Nation. He is also the author of the short story collection Midnight Sweatlodge and the novels Moon of the Turning Leaves and Legacy. He used to be the host of CBC Radio's Up North.
4. The Future by Catherine Leroux, translated by Susan Ouriou
The Future is set in an alternate history of Detroit where the French never surrendered the city to the U.S. Its residents deal with poverty, pollution and a legacy of racism. When Gloria, a woman looking for answers about her missing granddaughters, arrives in the city, she finds a kingdom of orphaned and abandoned children who have created their own society. The Future is the translation of Leroux's French-language novel L'Avenir.
Leroux is a writer, translator and journalist from Montreal. She was shortlisted for the 2016 Scotiabank Giller Prize for The Party Wall, which is an English translation of her French-language short story collection Le mur mitoyen. Leroux won the 2019 Governor General's Literary Award for English to French translation for her translation of Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien.
Ouriou is a French and Spanish to English translator, a fiction writer and a playwright. She has previously won the Governor General's Literary Award for translation for her work. She lives in Calgary.
5. Meet Me at the Lake by Carley Fortune
Meet Me at the Lake finds 32-year-old Fern Brookbanks stuck — she can't quite stop thinking about one perfect day she spent in her 20s. By chance, she met a man named Will Baxter and the two spent a romantic 24 hours in Toronto, after which they promised to meet up one year later. But Will never showed up. Now, instead of living in the city like she thought she would, Fern manages her mother's Muskoka resort by the lake, a role she promised herself she'd never take on.
Disillusioned with her life, Fern is shocked when Will shows up at her door, suitcase in hand, asking to help. Why is he here after all this time and more importantly, can she trust him to stay? It's clear Will has a secret but Fern isn't sure if she's ready to hear it all these years later.
Fashion influencer Mirian Njoh championed Meet Me at the Lake on Canada Reads 2024.
Fortune is a Toronto-based journalist who has worked as an editor for Refinery29, The Globe and Mail, Chatelaine and Toronto Life. Meet Me at the Lake is her second novel. Her debut was Every Summer After, a romance about childhood summer friends who reunite years later.
6. Moon of the Turning Leaves by Waubgeshig Rice
Moon of the Turning Leaves takes place 10 years after the events of the post-apocalyptic novel Moon of the Crusted Snow and depicts an epic journey to a forgotten homeland. With food supplies dwindling, Evan Whitesky and his band of survivors need to find a new home. Evan volunteers to lead a group — including his daughter Nangohns and a great archer and hunter — to their ancestral home, the "land where the birch trees grow by the big water."
Along the way, they come across other survivors — not all of whom can be trusted.
Rice is an Anishinaabe author, journalist and radio host originally from Wasauksing First Nation. Rice's first short story collection Midnight Sweatlodge, which was about his life growing up in his Anishinaabe community, won an Independent Publishers Book Award in 2012. Moon of the Turning Leaves is the Sequel to Moon of the Crusted Snow, which was on the Canada Reads 2023 longlist.
7. Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults by Robin Wall Kimmerer, adapted by Monique Gray Smith, illustrated by Nicole Neidhardt
Braiding Sweetgrass for Young Adults brings Indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge and the lessons Kimmerer brought to the fore to a younger generation. Adapted by writer Monique Gray Smith and illustrated by Nicole Neidhardt, this new edition reinforces the importance of gaining ecological knowledge from earth's oldest teachers: the plants around us.
Wall Kimmerer is an American scientist, professor and enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation.
Gray Smith is a mixed-heritage — Cree, Lakota and Scottish — author who often writes and speaks about the resilience of Indigenous communities in Canada. She is also the author of the children's books Speaking Our Truth and You Hold Me Up and the novels Tilly and Tilly and the Crazy Eights.
Neidhardt is a Diné visual artist and illustrator.
8. This Summer Will Be Different by Carley Fortune
Vacationing one summer on Prince Edward Island, Lucy meets Felix in an electric, chemistry-filled night. Only one problem: Felix is her best friend Bridget's younger brother. On her annual return trips to P.E.I., Lucy vows to avoid Felix and his bed, that This Summer Will Be Different — easier said than done. When Bridget rushes home to P.E.I. in crisis a week before her wedding, Lucy can only follow and remind herself to protect her heart, but finally wonders if she really wants to do that after all.
Fortune is a Toronto-based writer and journalist who has worked as an editor for Refinery29, The Globe and Mail, Chatelaine and Toronto Life. Her previous books are Every Summer After and Meet Me at the Lake, which was a contender for Canada Reads 2024, championed by Mirian Njoh.
9. Shut Up You're Pretty by Téa Mutonji
Shut Up You're Pretty tells stories of a young woman named Loli coming-of-age in the 21st century in Scarborough, Ont. The disarming, punchy and observant stories follow her as she watches someone decide to shave her head in an abortion clinic waiting room, bonds with her mother over fish and contemplates her Congolese traditions at a wedding.
Actor Kudakwashe Rutendo championed Shut Up You're Pretty on Canada Reads 2024.
Mutonji was named a writer to watch in 2019 by CBC Books. Born in Congo-Kinshasa, she is also the editor of the anthology Feel Ways: A Scarborough Anthology. She currently lives in Toronto.
10. The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline
In the dystopian world of Cherie Dimaline's award-winning The Marrow Thieves, climate change has ravaged the Earth and a continent-wide hunt and slaughter of Indigenous people is underway. Wanted for their bone marrow, which contains the lost ability to dream, a group of Indigenous people seek refuge in the old lands.
In 2017, The Marrow Thieves won the Governor General's Literary Award for Young people's literature — text and the Kirkus Prize for young readers' literature. The national bestselling book is currently being adapted for television. The sequel, Hunting by Stars, was released in 2021.
The Marrow Thieves was a finalist on Canada Reads 2018.
Dimaline is a Métis author and editor. Her other books include Red Rooms, The Girl Who Grew a Galaxy, A Gentle Habit and Empire of Wild. The Marrow Thieves was named one of Time magazine's top 100 YA novels of all time.
11. Lightning Strikes the Silence by Iona Whishaw
In this Lane Winslow mystery, an explosion shakes King's Cove. Lane goes to check out what's going on and finds a young girl injured and mute, but alive. At the same time, Inspector Darling hears about a nighttime break at a local jeweller and finds the jeweller dead. Lightning Strikes the Silence follows Lane as she tries to find the girl's family and Inspector Darling as he tries to find the murderer.
Whishaw is a Vancouver-based author and teacher. She has published works of short fiction, poetry and the children's book Henry and the Cow Problem. Whishaw has published 11 novels in the Lane Winslow Mystery series.
12. A Year of Last Things by Michael Ondaatje
A Year of Last Things is Michael Ondaatje's long-awaited return to poetry. Drawing on his personal experiences, this collection goes back in time to all the borders that he's crossed with imagery at once witty, moving and wise.
Ondaatje is a Canadian literary icon. His novels and poetry have earned international acclaim, and he was the first Canadian ever to win the Man Booker Prize — in 1992, for the wartime story The English Patient. Born in Sri Lanka and educated in England, Ondaatje moved to Canada when he was 18 to attend university.
Ondaatje began his writing career in 1967 as a poet, winning two Governor General's Awards for poetry before turning to fiction. Over his career, he's won the Giller Prize, the Governor General's Literary Award and France's prestigious Prix Medicis among other prizes.
13. Greenwood by Michael Christie
Greenwood begins in the year 2038 when most of the world has suffered from an environmental collapse. Yet, on a remote island with 1,000-year-old trees, Jacinda Greenwood, known as Jake, works as a tour guide for the ultra-rich in one of the world's last remaining old-growth forests. From there, the novel jumps through time as you learn more about Jake, her family and how secrets and lies can have an impact for generations.
Greenwood was championed by actor and filmmaker Keegan Connor Tracy on Canada Reads 2023. It was also on the 2019 Scotiabank Giller Prize longlist and won the 2020 Arthur Ellis Award (now the Canadian Crime Writing Awards) for best novel. CBC Books named Greenwood one of the best works of Canadian fiction in 2019.
Christie is a novelist currently living in Victoria. His 2011 short story collection The Beggar's Garden won the Vancouver Book Award and was a finalist for the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize. His 2015 novel If I Fall, If I Die won the Northern Lit Award and was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize.
14. The Barren Grounds by David A. Robertson
In The Barren Grounds, Morgan and Eli befriend the Misewa hunter Ochek, who is in charge of keeping everyone from starving during the icy winter. Ochek teaches Morgan and Eli about traditional ways of survival, and embarks with them and a sassy Squirrel on an epic quest to save his community.
The book was a finalist for the 2020 Governor General's Literary Award for young people's literature — text.
Robertson is an author and graphic novelist based in Winnipeg. The multi-talented writer of Swampy Cree heritage has published 25 books across a variety of genres, including the graphic novels Will I See? and Sugar Falls, a Governor General's Literary Award-winning picture book called When We Were Alone, illustrated by Julie Flett and the YA book Strangers and the memoir Black Water.
15. Doppelganger by Naomi Klein
In Doppelganger, Klein blends political reportage and cultural analysis to explore the concept of the Mirror World, where elements of far-right movements attempt to appeal to the working class. The book examines issues such as the rise of anti-vaxxers, the implications of artificial intelligence in content curation and how society constructs identities to engage and interact on social media.
By referencing thinkers such as Sigmund Freud and bell hooks, Klein also connects to greater social themes to share how one can break free from the Mirror World.
Doppelganger won the inaugural Women's Prize for Nonfiction.
Klein is the author of international bestsellers including This Changes Everything, The Shock Doctrine, No Logo, No Is Not Enough, and On Fire, which have been published in more than thirty-five languages. She is an associate professor in the department of geography at the University of British Columbia and the founding co-director of UBC's Centre of Climate Justice.
16. Health for All by Jane Philpott
From medical doctor and former federal Minister of Health, Health for All is a call to action for a disruption of a health care system that's broken — but that doesn't mean it can't be fixed. Philpott outlines a revitalization of public health care that offers universal access to primary care teams and the political will necessary to make it happen.
Philpott is a medical doctor and former member of the Canadian government and has served as federal Minister of Health, Minister of Indigenous Services, President of the Treasury Board and Minister of Digital Government. She is currently the Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences and Director of the School of Medicine at Queen's University and CEO of the Southeastern Ontario Academic Medical Organization.
17. The Mystery Guest by Nita Prose
The Mystery Guest is a sequel to the bestseller The Maid. The Mystery Guest sees Molly now risen through the ranks to become the Head Maid at the five-star Regency Grand Hotel. Things are looking great until world-renowned mystery author J.D. Grimthorpe drops dead in the hotel. Molly must look deep into her past to unlock clues that reveal her connection to Grimthorpe — and hopefully solve his murder.
Prose is a Toronto author and editor. She was the Canadian vice president and editorial director for publishing company Simon & Schuster.
18. The Myth of Normal by Gabor Maté with Daniel Maté
In The Myth of Normal, Gabor Maté examines why chronic illness and general health problems are on the rise in Western countries with good healthcare systems. Maté explains how Western medicine, while technologically advanced, fails to treat the whole person and ignores cultural stressors. With his son Daniel, Maté untangles common myths about what makes us sick and offers a guide on health and healing.
Gabor Maté is a doctor and an expert on topics such as addiction, stress and childhood development. He's the author of several other books, including In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts, When the Body Says and The Cost of Hidden Stress.
Daniel Maté is a composer and lyricist whose musicals include The Longing and the Short of It, Hansel & Gretl & Heidi & Gunter and Middle School Mysteries. He's received the Kleban Prize for Lyrics and the ASCAP Foundation Cole Porter Award.
19. Five Little Indians by Michelle Good
In Five Little Indians, Kenny, Lucy, Clara, Howie and Maisie were taken from their families and sent to a residential school when they were very small. Barely out of childhood, they are released and left to contend with the seedy world of eastside Vancouver. Fuelled by the trauma of their childhood, the five friends cross paths over the decades and struggle with the weight of their shared past.
Five Little Indians won Canada Reads 2022, defended by Christian Allaire, the 2020 Governor General's Literary Award for fiction and the 2021 Amazon Canada First Novel Award. It was also on the 2020 Writers's Trust Fiction Prize shortlist and 2020 Scotiabank Giller Prize longlist.
Good is a Cree writer and lawyer, as well as a member of Red Pheasant Cree Nation in Saskatchewan. Her other book is nonfiction essay collection Truth Telling: Seven Conversations about Indigenous Life in Canada.
20. Fire Weather by John Vaillant
In May 2016, Fort McMurray, the hub of Canada's oil industry and America's biggest foreign supplier, was overrun by wildfire. The multi-billion-dollar disaster melted vehicles, turned entire neighbourhoods into firebombs, and drove 88,000 people from their homes in a single afternoon.
Fire Weather explores the legacy of North American resource extraction, the impact of climate science and the symbiotic relationship between humans and combustion.
Fire Weather won the 2023 Baillie Gifford Prize for Nonfiction and the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing and was a finalist for the 2024 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction, the 2023 National Book Award for Nonfiction and the 2023 Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction.
