My Life In Books with Red Szell

Aaron Kreuter is a writer, poet and academic who lives in Toronto. His novel Lake Burntshore is a coming-of-age story, social satire, romance, and political commentary all in one. Set over a summer of momentous social and political change at a Jewish sleepover camp in Canada’s Cottage Country, it explores questions of Jewish identity and settler colonialism against a backdrop of nature trails, wat...

Nicholas Herring lives in Murray Harbour, on Prince Edward Island, where he works as a carpenter. His debut novel, Some Hellish, follows the fortunes of a hapless lobster fisherman lost in an unexceptional life and bored of thinking the same old thoughts. Then, one December day, following a hunch, he cuts a hole in the living room floor of his home, and installs a hoist, altering the course of eve...

Sean Farrell’s debut novel, Frogs for Watchdogs, has one of the most memorable titles of this year’s new publications. The story it tells, likewise, lingers long in the mind. Set in rural Ireland at the tail end of the 1980s, much of it is seen through the eyes of a young boy running wild in both his surroundings and his imagination. As he struggles to adapt to changing family circumstances, and e...

In 2017, Sarah Bax Horton was researching her family history when she made the chance discovery that her great great grandfather was a Metropolitan Police sergeant who worked on the Ripper case. Little did she suspect that this would lead her to the Ripper’s true identity. In One-Armed Jack: Uncovering the Real Jack the Ripper, Sarah combines painstaking research, recently declassified files, and...

David Bergen is widely regarded as one of Canada’s best writers. Most of his 11 novels and two short story collections have been in contention for major literary prizes, including The Time In-Between, which won the 2005 Scotiabank Giller Prize. His latest novel, Away from the Dead, was also longlisted for the Giller Prize, and is set in early-twentieth century Ukraine amidst the chaos and terror o...

Arjun Basu is a Canadian author and podcaster, whose novel Waiting for the Man was longlisted for the 2014 Giller prize. His latest book, The Reeds , is set in 2017, around Western Montreal, and follows the changing fortunes of a close-knit, middle-class family, across a single summer. By turns wry and poignant, the novel explores questions of work/life balance, identity, nostalgia and compulsive...

An Astonishment of Stars is Kirti Bhadresa’s debut volume of short stories. Many of the fourteen tales in the collection chart the lives of women of colour living in Canada, as they navigate relationships, aspirations, and cultural expectations. Like all good authors of short fiction, Kirti takes everyday situations and looks at them from unfamiliar angles, while also examining the emotional lives...

As a child, K.J. Aiello found hope and escape in magical stories of dragons, wizards, and fantasy. These tales provided a safe space where K.J. could reframe their battle with mental illness and trauma, and envisage the vanquishing of the darkness that haunted them. In The Monster and the Mirror: Mental Illness, Magic, and the Stories We Tell, K.J. blends memoir, research, and cultural criticism,...

Rachel Stark’s debut, Perris California, is a beautiful and heart-rending novel. Set in the 1990s in what one character calls ‘the land of momma’s boys’, it’s a story of violence, broken dreams, tenderness, and longing that shines a light on the resilience of women living in a mostly unseen America. In a style reminiscent of John Steinbeck and Annie Proulx, Rachel contrasts the vastness and beauty...

Tara Moss has much in common with the heroines of her internationally best-selling crime novels. The Canadian Australian former model is glamourous, tenacious, quick-witted, and committed to fighting for justice. She also relishes a challenge, has a Private Investigator license, and as we’ll hear, isn’t afraid of putting herself in the way of danger to learn what she needs to know. Her latest seri...

Alis Hawkins is a Welsh crime novelist with a keen eye for historical detail. Her latest series, The Oxford Mysteries, is set in the city of dreaming spires during the 1880s, at a time when the first women were being permitted to study there, albeit not on an equal footing. Her protagonist, Rhiannon Vaughan, is one of them, and is named after a fearless and put upon heroine from Welsh folklore. In...

For many of us, the coming of a new year is the time when we resolve to try and quit our bad habits and make a clean start. For most, overindulgence in the things we crave is relatively benign, but for some it is an addiction that causes untold harm to themselves and those around them. Sebastian Wocker is a journalist, musician and recovering addict. In his memoir The Joy of Addiction: Confessions...

Manda Scott is a novelist, podcaster and shamanist practitioner. After building a reputation as one of Britain’s leading crime writers, she achieved international recognition with her highly acclaimed series of historical novels about the warrior Queen Boudica, and a quartet of spy thrillers set in ancient Rome. More recently she had been devoting her time to her podcast Accidental Gods and believ...

Catherine Bush is a Canadian novelist who has spoken internationally about the importance of addressing the climate crisis through fiction.   Her latest novel, Blaze Island, is an ecological retelling of Shakespeare’s play The Tempest, set on a fictional island off Newfoundland.   Cut off from the rest of the world after a Category 5 hurricane devastates the East Coast of North America, the younge...

Join writer, broadcaster and blind adventurer Red Széll for the latest episode of AMI-audio’s My Life in Books. Each fortnight Red invites you to join him in conversation with a renowned author about their work and the books that inspired them to write. David Tatel is a recently retired US Federal Appeals Court judge who has spent a lifetime championing equal justice for all. During nearly 30 year...

Bestselling novelist Helen Simonson revels in setting strength of character against small-minded social convention. While her debut, Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand, was a contemporary romantic satire, her latest book, The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club, transports the reader back to the summer of 1919, and an English seaside town emerging from the trauma of World War One and the Spani...

Alissa York is a Canadian author whose novels and short stories have won her international acclaim. Her latest book, Far Cry, immerses the reader in the harsh conditions of a salmon cannery on the remote north west coast of British Columbia in 1922. It’s a haunting tale of survival, forbidden love, addiction, and jealousy, with a mystery at its heart and the Canadian wilderness all around. Join Al...

Throughout the history of talking books, the question of how to bring illustrations to life has posed problems for authors and audio producers. But it’s a challenge that artist James Norbury was eager to meet. Following the international success of his illustrated book Big Panda and Tiny Dragon, James set about adapting his story to bring its message of friendship, hope and acceptance to a listeni...

Valerie Jerome ’s grandfather John “Army” Howard was Canada’s first Black Olympian, and her brother Harry Jerome was one of the most recognizable Black athletes of the 1960s. He set a total of seven world records, earning him the title of the world's fastest man, and competed at three Summer Olympics, including Tokyo in 1964 where he won bronze in the 100m. Valerie herself became Canadian senior w...

Join writer, broadcaster and blind adventurer Red Szell for the latest episode of AMI-audio's My Life in Books. Each fortnight, Red invites you to join him in conversation with a renowned author about their work and the books that inspired them to write. Since the publication of her debut, The Secret of the Ninth Stone, Kylie Fitzpatrick has established a reputation as a historical novelist that h...

About AMI AMI is a media company that entertains, informs and empowers Canadians with disabilities through three broadcast services — AMI-tv and AMI-audio in English and AMI-télé in French — and streaming platform AMI+. Our vision is to establish AMI as a leader in the offering of accessible content, providing a voice for Canadians with disabilities through authentic storytelling, representation a...

About AMI AMI is a media company that entertains, informs and empowers Canadians with disabilities through three broadcast services — AMI-tv and AMI-audio in English and AMI-télé in French — and streaming platform AMI+. Our vision is to establish AMI as a leader in the offering of accessible content, providing a voice for Canadians with disabilities through authentic storytelling, representation a...

For this episode, Red is joined by Canadian author Erum Shazia Hasan, whose compelling debut novel, "We Meant Well," explores the complex moral and emotional landscape of international aid work.  Set in an unnamed post-colonial failed state, the book grapples with timely questions about what it means to be charitable, who deserves what, and who gets the power to decide. With her background as a Su...

PAGING ALL BOOK LOVERS! Join writer, broadcaster and blind adventurer Red Széll for the latest episode of AMI-audio’s My Life in Books. Each fortnight, Red invites you to join him in conversation with a renowned author about their work and the books that inspired them to write. Tyler LeBlanc was working as a bicycle tour guide when a chance encounter led him to look into the history of his name. G...

Join writer, broadcaster and blind adventurer Red Széll for the latest episode of AMI-audio's My Life in Books. Each fortnight, Red invites you to join him in conversation with a renowned author about their work and the books that inspired them to write. A week-long retreat on a beautiful country estate with no phones and no wi-fi might sound like the perfect getaway, but not in Rebecca Thorne's b...