The top 10 Canadian books of 2022
Count down the top 10 Canadian titles of 2022, as determined by independent bookstore sales
CBC Books is counting down the top 10 bestselling Canadian titles of 2022! These are the 10 bestselling Canadian titles of the year, as determined by book sales from close to 300 independent Canadian bookstores, courtesy of Bookmanager.
You can listen to the countdown special hosted by Ali Hassan below or keep scrolling to see which books made the cut!
10. The Sleeping Car Porter by Suzette Mayr
The Sleeping Car Porter tells the story of Baxter, a Black man in 1929 who works as a sleeping car porter on a train that travels across the country. He smiles and tries to be invisible to the passengers, but what he really wants is to save up and go to dentistry school. On one particular trip out west, the train is stalled and Baxter finds a naughty postcard of two gay men. The postcard reawakens his memories and longings and puts his job in jeopardy.
The Sleeping Car Porter won the 2022 Scotiabank Giller Prize.
Suzette Mayr is a poet and novelist based in Calgary. She is the author of the novels Dr. Edith Vane and the Hares of Crawley Hall, Monoceros, Moon Honey, The Widows and Venous Hum.
LISTEN | Suzette Myer reacts to winning the Scotiabank Giller Prize:
9. Ducks by Kate Beaton
Ducks is an autobiographical graphic novel that recounts author Kate Beaton's time spent working in the Alberta oil sands. With the goal of paying off her student loans, Kate leaves her tight-knit seaside Nova Scotia community and heads west, where she encounters harsh realities, including the everyday trauma that no one discusses.
Kate Beaton is a cartoonist from Nova Scotia who launched her career by publishing the comic strip Hark! A Vagrant online. The sassy historical webcomic gained a following of 500,000 monthly visitors and was eventually turned into a bestselling book. Beaton's success continued with the book Step Aside, Pops, which won the 2016 Eisner Award for best humour publication. Beaton has also published two children's books: King Baby and The Princess and the Pony.
LISTEN | Kate Beaton discusses her time in the Alberta oilsands:
8. Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
Sea of Tranquility is a novel about time travel and metaphysics that spans from Vancouver Island in 1912 to a colony on the moon 500 years later. When detective Gaspery-Jacques Roberts is hired to investigate an anomaly in the North American wilderness, he uncovers a series of lives upended — from an exiled son driven mad by beauty and mystery in a Canadian forest to a writer living in a colony on the moon as a pandemic ravages Earth. Through his work, Gaspery has the chance to do something extraordinary that will disrupt the timeline of the universe.
Emily St. John Mandel is a bestselling author currently based in New York. Her other novels include The Glass Hotel, which was a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and Station Eleven. Station Eleven was adapted for television for HBO.
LISTEN | Emily St. John Mandel discusses Sea of Tranquility with Piya Chattopadhyay:
7. The Barren Grounds by David A. Robertson
The Barren Grounds is the first book of a new middle-grade series by David A. Robertson. It is set in Winnipeg where two Indigenous kids, Morgan and Eli, are placed in a new foster home. The pair feel out of place and disconnected in their new surroundings — until they uncover a secret portal in the attic that opens up to a magical reality. The frozen barren grounds they find set the pair on a mission of survival and self-determination.
The other books in the Misewa series are The Great Bear and The Stone Child.
Robertson is a Cree writer from Winnipeg who writes books for readers of all ages. He has published several books across a variety of genres, including the graphic novels Breakdown, Will I See? and Sugar Falls; the picture books When We Were Alone and On the Trapline, both which were illustrated by Julie Flett; the Misewa YA series; the memoir Black Water; and the novel The Theory of Crows.
LISTEN | David A. Robertson on how to talk to your kids about reconciliation:
6. The Maid by Nita Prose
In the mystery novel The Maid, hotel room maid Molly Gray relies on her gran to interpret the world for her, as she struggles with social skills and misreads the intentions of others. When her gran dies, Molly is left to navigate life's complexities all by herself and dives deep into her work as a hotel maid. But her orderly life is upended when she enters the suite of the infamous and wealthy Charles Black, only to find him dead. Caught up in a web of deception and suspicion, Molly unites with her friends to find out what really happened to Mr. Black.
Nita Prose is an Toronto author and editor. She is currently the Canadian vice president and editorial director for publishing company Simon & Schuster. The Maid is her debut novel.
LISTEN | How Nita Prose went from book editor to bestselling writer:
5. Scarborough by Catherine Hernandez
Scarborough is a novel full of characters who are facing struggle but find support and grace in their community. Scarborough is a love letter to Hernandez's own Ontario community — and readers loved it right back. It was shortlisted for the 2017 Toronto Book Award, the 2018 Trillium Book Award and the 2018 Edmund White Award for debut fiction.
Scarborough was adapted into a feature film that premiered at TIFF in 2021. The film won eight Canadian Screen Awards including Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Adapted Screenplay. Scarborough was also the runner-up on Canada Reads 2022, when it was championed by the actor and activist Malia Baker.
Catherine Hernandez is a Canadian writer, author and playwright who was named by CBC Books as a writer to watch. She is the author of several books, including the dystopian novel Crosshairs and the upcoming novel The Story of Us, as well as children's books I Promise and M is for Mustache. She is also the creator and star of the Audible Original sketch comedy podcast Imminent Disaster.
LISTEN | Catherine Hernandez discusses Scarborough with Shelagh Rogers:
4. 21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act by Bob Joseph
Based on a viral article, 21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act is the essential guide to understanding the 1876 Indian Act and its repercussions on generations of Indigenous Peoples. It also explores how the legal document's legacy has shaped the lives of Indigenous people from 1876 until now.
Bob Joseph is a member of the Gwawaenuk Nation and is an initiated member of the Hamatsa Society. He is the founder of Indigenous Corporate Training Inc. and is the author of several books about Indigenous history and relations, including Indigenous Relations and Working Effectively with Indigenous Peoples.
LISTEN | What Bob Joseph wants you to know about the Indian Act:
3. 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. It is currently being adapted for television. The sequel, Hunting by Stars, was released in 2021. The Marrow Thieves was also defended by Jully Black on Canada Reads 2018.
Cherie 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. Dimaline won the 2021 Writers' Trust Engel Findley Award. The $25,000 recognizes the accomplishments of a fiction writer in the middle of their career.
LISTEN | Cherie Dimaline reflects on writing The Marrow Thieves:
2. Finding the Mother Tree by Suzanne Simard
Biologist Suzanne Simard discovered the reality of the interconnection and intelligence of the forest. She's been able to find out that the trees are indeed whispering to each other — communicating not through the wind, but through the soil. Her new scientific memoir, Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest, describes her life and research.
Suzanne Simard is a B.C.-based author and academic who grew up in Canadian forests as a descendant of loggers. She is a professor in the department of forest and conservation sciences at the University of British Columbia. Simard was a panellist on Canada Reads 2022 when she defended Life in the City of Dirty Water by Clayton Thomas-Müller.
LISTEN | Suzanne Simard reflects on her career and what's she's learned from a life in the forests:
1. Five Little Indians by Michelle Good
In the novel 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 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 the 2020 Scotiabank Giller Prize longlist.
The novel won Canada Reads 2022, when it was championed by fashion journalist Christian Allaire.
Michelle Good is a Cree writer and retired lawyer, as well as a member of Red Pheasant Cree Nation in Saskatchewan. Good holds an MFA and a law degree from the University of British Columbia and, as a lawyer, advocated for residential school survivors. Five Little Indians is her first book. CBC Books named her a writer to watch in 2020.
LISTEN | Michelle Good and Christian Allaire reflect on winning Canada Reads:
