Get the book for free when you join La Société Stella Artois. La Société Stella Artois provides its members with access to exclusive experiences, daily musings and much more. Because life is best served chilled, stylish and stimulating.

Grace O’Connell is the author of the award-winning novel Magnified World (Random House, 2012). Her work has appeared in The Walrus, Taddle Creek, and Quill & Quire, and will be published in The Journey Prize Stories 24 anthology (McClelland, 2012).

“Noisemakers” originally appeared in the June 2011 issue of The Walrus.

Praise for Magnified World:

“Grief is never easy to capture in fiction. O’Connell’s choice, meshing with the nature of this family, is to keep the tears mostly offstage. There is no plucking of heartstrings; her goal is to understand.”—Jim Bartley, Globe and Mail

Zsuzsi Gartner is the author of two critically acclaimed story collections, including the 2010 Giller Prize nominee Better Living Through Plastic Explosives (Hamish Hamilton Canada). She has won the National Magazine Award for Fiction, and has earned numerous awards for magazine journalism. She lives in Vancouver.

“Summer of the Flesh Eater” originally appeared in the September 2009 issue of The Walrus.

Praise for Better Living Through Plastic Explosives:

“Gartner’s attentiveness to the artificial gives her prose a laser-like sharpness and precision that nothing organic is capable of.”—Jeet Heer, National Post

Pasha Malla’s first collection of short stories, The Withdrawal Method, won the Danuta Gleed Literary Award and the Trillum Book Award; it was also shortlisted for the Commonwealth Prize and longlisted for the Giller Prize. Malla’s most recent novel, People Park, is from House of Anansi. He lives in Toronto.

“1999″ originally appeared in the May 2010 issue of The Walrus, and was included in Darwin’s Bastards: Astounding Tales from Tomorrow (D&M Publishers).

Praise for People Park:

“Malla’s language in this sweeping novel is perfectly suited to his quirky subject matter. He obviously loves words, and the surprising way he puts them together makes every sentence a thrill.”—Eric Boodman, Montreal Gazette

Margaret Atwood has written more than fifty books of fiction, poetry, and critical essays. Her most recent is In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination.

“I Dream of Zenia with the Bright Red Teeth” originally appeared in the July/August 2012 issue of The Walrus.

Praise for The Robber Bride:

“A remarkable achievement, constantly entertaining and intriguing.”—Ottawa Citizen

“Deserves every superlative we can muster from hilarious to wise … A genuine tour de force, witty and original, suspenseful and sagacious.”—Booklist

Joseph Boyden divides his time between Northern Ontario and teaching at the University of New Orleans. His novel Three Day Road made the short list for the Governor General’s Literary Award.

“Kikwaakew” originally appeared in the July/August 2012 issue of The Walrus.

Praise for Three Day Road:

“Three Day Road is as fine a novel as I have seen during the five years I have been reading first novels.”—W.P. Kinsella, Books in Canada

“A powerful tale of two young men numbed by the horrors and brutality of trench warfare. Boyden vividly portrays the chaos, fear, cowardice and courage of infantrymen condemned to wallow in the mud and blood of the Western Front.”—Publisher’s Weekly starred review

Heather O’Neill has written a new novel, The Girl Who Was Saturday Night. Her debut novel, Lullabies for Little Criminals, won the CBC‘s Canada Reads contest in 2007.

“And They Danced by the Light of the Moon” originally appeared in the July/August 2012 issue of The Walrus.

Praise for Lullabies for Little Criminals:

“This is a nuanced, endearing coming-of-age novel you won’t want to miss.”—Heather Birrell, Quill and Quire