The middle of the 20th century was a rich time for novels in Canada. A crop of novelists found realism a useful mode to write in -- a way to be honest about the hard parts of life and shed light on their communities. These novels are still what many people think of when they think about "Canadian literature."
Most of the books here were written in English, but I also included Gabrielle Roy and Roger Lamelin who wrote in French. This is mostly just due to my ignorance of French-language literature in Canada, something I'm trying to remedy.
At the end of the list I have three books by Indigenous authors, two of them memoirs. These books were written from the 70's to the 90's, but they are set in the period in question and help us understand it from an Indigenous viewpoint.
The cover image is "Une maison sur le talus" by William Kurelek.
