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I Still Have a Suitcase in Berlin, by Stephens Gerard Malone

Local author Stephens Gerard Malone's first novel, Miss Elva, was nominated for a Dartmouth Book Award, but latest, I Still Have a Suitcase in Berlin, would be better suited on the Governor General's list.

Beginning on the shores of Point Pleasant Park in 1932, young Haligonian Michael von Renner watches the steamer roll in that will take him to Berlin to care for his ailing grandmother. The far-from-worldly boy with a "stupidly honest face" soon finds himself in cabarets drinking coffee and smoking, surrounded by a clique of bohemians complaining about Otto Dix. And nothing's more exciting than Berlin's queer community, especially Jan, the flamboyant "overpriced whore."

As Michael struggles with his sexuality, the SS marches in step---becoming louder and louder until marching turns to bombing and friendship to love. Pacing flippant descriptions of sending Mein Kampf and chocolate home for Christmas along with images of being anally raped with a metal pipe, Malone subtly explores the dangers and depth of denial. A love story at heart, Nazi Germany is a chilling metaphor and setting for one man's struggle with his sexuality. The only ting harder than putting the book down is trying to shake it of when you're finished.

The Ravine, by Paul Quarrington

If there’s anything harder than writing a good novel, it’s writing a bad novel well. But it’s this feat that Canada Reads 2008 winner Paul Quarrington accomplishes in his latest comedic romp. A book within a book, The Ravine is egomaniac Phil McQuigge’s attempt to write a memoir. An “enthusiastic amateur alcoholic” and “emotional imbecile,” McQuigge was disgraced out of Canadian television, is separated from his wife and stuck in the mentality of his 11-year-old self tied to a tree in a Toronto ravine listening to a friend being raped.

Quarrington makes it fun to read along as this shallow character with his banal problems tries to wow the reader with deep statements like, “Memory is a funny thing.” McQuigge’s silly literary pizzazz, like writing in a screenplay format, work because the reader laughs with Quarrington the whole way.

At heart, beyond McQuigge’s charming depravity and idiosyncrasies, The Ravine is a meditation on redemption in a world where “shit happens,” memories are lies and evil is everywhere. It’s with Mordecai Richler-like talent that Quarrington puts a smile on your face and leads you into ravines.

Quintet, by Douglas Arthur Brown

Quintet could refer to five separate strands of story: identical triplets (Rory, Cameron and Adrian) coping with the sudden death of their parents in a train wreck; the lasting effects of growing up in Cape Breton; a Halifax carpenter (and choir singer) struggling with 30 years of addiction and caring for a daughter born blind; a Toronto artist obsessed with the colour red questioning his life’s work as his wife battles cancer; a gay chef in Copenhagen watching his husband slowly dying of AIDS.

The three brothers share the stories of their lives in a journal they mail to each other. This way, Douglas Arthur Brown, who appears at the upcoming Halifax International Writers Festival, creates three distinct, fully formed characters. But there’s a reason the Cape Breton author called his novel Quintet---the triplets make the story’s melody, but their older brother Talbot provides the bass to drive the story forward.

Born 10 years before them, Talbot is omitted from the writing in the journal. He’s always been the odd man out, and the triplets think he’s a bully and “doesn’t count.” But his presence and the family secrets he carries with him complete this quintet and give it depth like the Sydney mines.

A Covenant of Salt, by Martine Desjardins (translated by Fred Reed and David Hormel)

Before nutritionists blackballed salt for causing high blood pressure, it was the most valuable and holy of dietary staples. Pure, incorruptible and potentially deadly, salt is the central theme in Montreal author Martine Desjardins' macabre historic thriller, A Covenant of Salt. The novel takes place in Armagh, Quebec, around a salt mine in the early 19th century. Protagonist Her Excellency Lilly McEvoy tells us salt is used for everything from cleaning porcelain to keeping fruits—all told, 4,000 uses. But drinking too much brings death and nothing is more bitter than Lilly's tears of resentment.

The story follows Lilly on the first day she welcomes a visitor in 10 years. From this looming mystery, subtle secrets unravel like the best episodes of Lost. Desjardins reveals the mysteries of Lilly's past with the expertise of a veteran striptease artist.

Don't let the fact this book is translated deter you. Fred Reed and David Homel translated Desjardins' Governor General-winning debut novel, The Fairy Ring, and her second novel. Like the natives working deep in Armagh's salt mine, Desjardins goes spelunking and finds, without beating you over the head with historical drama, how the past is always toiling unseen below daily life.