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How to Pronounce Knife by Souvankham Thammavongsa
In the title story, a young girl encounters the limits of her father’s ability to help her navigate life in Canada as he tells her “knife” is pronounced “kahneyff” and she is publicly humiliated as she reads the word aloud incorrectly in class. Each of these fourteen short stories about being Laotian in Canada poignantly illustrate the vulnerable ignorance and heartbreaking disadvantages of life in a new country, as well as the way Laotian immigrants cling to hope and find meaning their difficult circumstances.
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The Magic of Saida by M. G. Vassanji
Forty years after leaving his home in Kilwa Tanzania, Kamal Punja leaves his comfortable life as a doctor in Edmonton Canada, returning to his childhood village to find his first love, an African girl named Saida, and finds nothing is as simple as it first appears.  In this moving novel Vassanji’s writing grapples with the colonial history, racial identity, betrayal, and what it means to love. 
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The Boat People by Sharon Bala
As their ship approaches Vancouver, Tamil refugee, Mahindan wrongfully assumes that the trials he and his six-year old son have endured to escape the bloody Sri Lankin civil war are over.  This thought-provoking and at times heavy-handed narrative contrasts Mahindan’s story, both his underhanded path to escape Sri Lanka and his detainment in Canada with that of Grace Nakamura, the Japanese-Canadian appointed to arbitrate Mahindan’s case, highlighting the human cost of toughening up a country’s immigration reputation. 
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The Art of Leaving by Ayelet Tsabari
In her memoir, Ayelet Tsabari discusses her childhood growing up as a Yemeni Jew in Israel, the death of her father when she was only 10, her service in the Israeli army, and nomadic early adulthood.  Tsabari’s candid prose examines the meaning of home not as a physical place but “a place where love resides”. 
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Midnight at the Dragon Cafe by Judy Fong Bates
After leaving China with her mother to join her father in Canada, six year-old Su-Jen Cho quickly assimilates to life in 1950s small-town Ontario, taking the name “Annie”, but her mother remains both linguistically and relationally isolated. This beautiful narrative heartbreakingly explores the Chinese immigrant experiences by through Annie’s experience of navigating both the complexities of adolescence and the toll of unspoken secrets on a family. 
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The Hungry Ghosts by Shyam Selvadurai 
Shivan Rassiah plans to return to his childhood home, Colombo, Sri Lanka to bring his grandmother back with him to Toronto but as he prepares for the trip he is haunted by the memories of his previous trips to Sri Lanka, his complicated past with his grandmother, and the Buddhist tales she had told him as a child.  This lush and descriptive narrative grapples with how sexuality, history, and migration can impact a family (and a nation) as well as the possibility of redemption.
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Intolerable: a memoir of extremes by Kamal Al-Solaylee
When he was born Kamal Al-Solaylee’s family lived prosperously in Yemen but as cultural and political climates shift the family is forced to move to Beruit and later Cario, when the opportunity comes for them to move back home Kamal knows that as a gay man he will never be comfortable living in Yemen flees to England and later to Toronto.  A compelling writer, Kamal expertly weaves decades of middle-eastern history with his own coming-out story and the impact of both on his relationships with family members.  

All of Us in Our Own Lives by Manjushree Thapa
Ava Berriden leaves her life as a lawyer and wife in Toronto to take a job with an international aid organization in Nepal, her birth country but finds her new life becomes intertwined with others in surprising ways as she struggles to adjust both to her new role and the country from which she was adopted. Manjushree Thapa’s lyrical and moving narrative examines the interconnectedness of humans on a global level and the nature of international aid.  

Immigrant City by David Bezmozgis
In the title story, a father and his preschool-aged daughter, find themselves in immigrant an immigrant Toronto neighbourhood while searching for a quick, cheap fix for a busted car door and he finds himself inadvertently reminded of his own immigrant childhood. In this leisurely collection of seven short stories, Bezmozgis, in his subtly humorous way, explores the complex and often contradictory experiences of Jewish immigrants to Canada. 

The Amazing Absorbing Boy by Rabindranath Maharaj
When 17 year-old Sam’s mother dies he is sent from his home in Trinidad to live with his father, who abandoned the family years ago, in Toronto where he draws on his love of comic book superheroes to find the courage to live in this strange and lonely new city.   Maharaj’s storytelling allows readers to see Toronto with fresh eyes while exploring what it means to be an immigrant and the age old question of what it means to be Canadian. 

The Language We Were Never Taught to Speak by Grace Lau
In her debut volume of poetry, Grace Lau artfully explores the queer Chinese-Canadian experience in a light, nuanced way, despite the heavy subject matter.  Her poetry touches on the language of food, the dissonance between first and second generation immigrants, traditional Chinese history, and North American culture.  

Vi by Kim Thuy
In the chaos of the Vietnam war, Vi’s mother finds a way for the family to escape to a new life in Canada but her father stays behind, they each must build new lives for themselves. In snapshots Kim Thuy beautifully depicts how immigrants reinvent themselves and the pressures immigrants face from within their own community.