8 Canadian books to read if you loved Shut Up You're Pretty by Téa Mutonji
Fans of the Canada Reads short story collection will enjoy these other titles
Actor Kudakwashe Rutendo championed Shut Up You're Pretty on Canada Reads 2024. The linked short story collection made it to the final day of debates.
Téa Mutonji's 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.
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.
Here are eight books to check out if you loved Shut Up You're Pretty.
Brother by David Chariandy
Set in Scarborough, Ont., in the 1990s, Brother is a coming-of-age story that follows Francis and Michael, two brothers of Trinidadian origin, as they come up against the prejudices and low expectations that confront them. A mystery unfolds when escalating tensions set off a series of events which changes the course of the brothers' lives forever.
Brother was on Canada Reads 2017, when it was championed by actor Lisa Ray. It also won the 2017 Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, the 2018 Toronto Book Award and the 2018 Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize.
David Chariandy is a Vancouver-based writer and university educator. His first novel Soucouyant was nominated for both the Governor General's Literary Award and the Giller Prize. His most recent book is his memoir I've Been Meaning to Tell You: A Letter to My Daughter.
The Whole Animal by Corinna Chong
The Whole Animal is a collection of short stories that examines the power, strangeness and attributes of human and animal bodies. Chong exposes themes of loneliness, loss and self-discovery through stories like that of a child fixating on the hair growing out of her mother's eyelid or a linguist's attempts to connect with a boy who cannot speak.
Originally from Calgary, Corinna Chong lives in Kelowna, B.C., and teaches English and fine arts at Okanagan College. She published her first novel Belinda's Rings in 2013. Her short fiction has been published in magazines across Canada, including The Malahat Review, Room, Grain and The Humber Literary Review.
In 2021, she won the CBC Short Story Prize for Kids in Kindergarten, which appears in The Whole Animal.
The Music Game by Stéfanie Clermont, translated by JC Sutcliffe
The Music Game is a collection of short fiction that compiles stories from the lives of three friends, Céline, Julie and Sabrina. The three friends have drifted apart since their elementary school days in Montreal. As their adult lives unfold, their sense of idealism is worn down by dead-end jobs, break ups, unaffordable housing and a desire for political change that goes unanswered.
Stéfanie Clermont is a writer from Quebec. The original French version of The Music Game, Le jeu de la musique, was defended on Combat des livres in 2018. This is her first novel.
JC Sutcliffe is a translator who has lived in England, France and Canada. Some of her other translations include Mama's Boy by David Goudreault and Worst Case, We Get Married by Sophie Bienvenu.
The Islands by Dionne Irving
Set across the United States, Jamaica and Europe from the 1950s to present day, The Islands details the migration stories of Jamaican women and their descendants. Each short story explores colonialism and its impact as women experience the on-going tensions between identity and the place they long to call home.
The Islands was shortlisted for the 2023 Scotiabank Giller Prize.
Dionne Irving is a writer and creative writing teacher from Toronto. She released her first novel, Quint, in 2021 and her work has been featured in journals and magazines like LitHub, Missouri Review and New Delta Review. The Islands is her debut short story collection.
Junie by Chelene Knight
Junie is a novel about Junie, a creative and observant child, who moves to Hogan's Alley in the 1930s with her mother. Hogan's Alley is a thriving Black immigrant community in Vancouver's east end and Junie quickly makes meaningful relationships. As she moves into adulthood, Junie explores her artistic talents and sexuality, but her mother sinks further into alcoholism and the thriving neighbourhood once filled with potential begins to change.
Junie won the 2023 City of Vancouver Book Award. It was on the Canada Reads 2024 longlist.
Chelene Knight is a writer and poet from Vancouver, now living in Harrison Hot Springs, B.C. She is the author of Braided Skin and the memoir Dear Current Occupant, which won the 2018 Vancouver Book Award.
The Private Apartments by Idman Nur Omar
The Private Apartments is a series of stories about Somali immigrants and their will to survive despite the racism, displacement, trauma and isolation they endure. From a wife who escapes her broken marriage by attending weddings to a young mother who forms friendships in her community housing project, each character showcases the hope, persistence and beauty of these people.
Idman Nur Omar is a Calgary-based writer who also teaches at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology in the communication and liberal arts department.
How to Pronounce Knife by Souvankham Thammavongsa
How to Pronounce Knife is a collection of idiosyncratic and diverse stories that capture the daily lives of immigrants. From a young man painting nails in a salon, to a housewife learning English from soap-operas, the stories navigate tragedy and humour and explore the characters' hopes, disappointments, trauma and acts of defiance.
How to Pronounce Knife won the 2020 Scotiabank Giller Prize.
Thammavongsa is a Toronto writer and poet. She was born in the (Lao) Nong Khai refugee camp in Thailand and was raised and educated in Toronto. Her stories have won an O. Henry Award and appeared in Harper's, Granta, The Paris Review and Noon. She has published four books of poetry, including 2019's Cluster.
That Time I Loved You by Carrianne Leung
In That Time I Loved You, residents of a small suburban neighbourhood in Scarborough, Ont., take turns describing the aftermath of a series of shocking suicides in their community. These interconnected short stories explore a wide range of experiences — racism, homophobia, domestic and sexual abuse — revealing that hard truths can be hidden within a well-kept home.
Carrianne Leung is an educator and writer from Toronto. She is also the author of the YA book The Wondrous Woo.
