With her new book The Naturalist, the Toronto-based novelist Alissa York takes us to the river – the Amazon River of the mid-19th century, a place of loss, discovery and rain-forest love. We asked the author to let us in on what's been floating her boat these days.
What she's watching: "I've been catching up on Vera, the British crime drama centred on Detective Chief Inspector Vera Stanhope (Brenda Blethyn) and her sidekick, the bow-legged family man Joe Ashworth (David Leon). The writing is tight, Northumberland broods and shines, and Blethyn is thrilling as the brilliant-but-difficult detective in charge."
What she's reading: "I'm loving geobiologist Hope Jahren's new memoir Lab Girl. Jahren's honesty and insight drew me in from page one, but the book's core power lies in the brainy beauty of the prose itself – especially in those chapters that decode the secret lives of plants."
What she recently enjoyed: "I spent a blissful hour wandering through Song Dong's installation, Wisdom of the Poor: Communal Courtyard at the AGO. Who knew you could construct a labyrinth of idea and emotion out of vintage wardrobe doors scavenged from the back alleys of Beijing?"
Alissa York reads on May 1, 10 a.m., The Globe and Mail/Ben McNally Books & Brunch, King Edward Hotel; May 4, 7 p.m. Toronto Public Library (Beaches branch).
Brad Wheeler