2026 Publications

Sirens

by Joseph Kertes

Forthcoming September 2026 • Fiction

"Sirens is that rarest of gifts—a novel that holds the whole world.” —Alyssa York, author of Far Cry

Hiding in a coffin beneath barn floorboards, a sixteen-year-old Roma boy named Gabriel evades Bulgarian and German marauders in wartime Greece. Phoebe, a Greek girl his age, keeps him alive by bringing him provisions, and the two inevitably fall in love. Their union is opposed by her family—especially by her father, who works in the Greek underground resistance.

Although they are caught in the violent currents of war and history, Gabriel and Phoebe remain enchanted by the small miracles around them and the possibilities of love and redemption. Sirens is Gabriel’s diary of his days in hiding and the weeks after. It is an indelible, deeply moving story of youth, love, and loss.

  • Joseph Kertes escaped from Hungary with his family as a child during the Hungarian Revolution. He founded Humber Polytechnic's creative writing and comedy programs, where he served as Dean of Creative and Performing Arts for many years and received numerous awards for teaching and innovation. His novels, among them Winter Tulips, Gratitude, and Last Impressions, have won or been finalists for a number of literary awards. His novel, The Afterlife of Stars, was a New York Times Book Review Editor's Pick. Kertes received the 2017 Harbourfront Festival Prize for his contribution to literature and the literary community.

  • "What if Romeo and Juliet were set in Greece during the German occupation in the Second World War? Original and moving, Sirens looks into dark corners and examines the resilience of the human spirit. Kertes illuminates a chapter of history that echoes our own troubled times. Generous and human and masterful."

    —Don Gillmor, winner of the Governor General's Literary Award and author of Breaking and Entering, On Oil, and To the River: Losing my Brother

    "Sirens is that rarest of gifts—a novel that holds the whole world. It brought home to me the glory of art, of being human, of love. It made me grateful I can read."

    —Alissa York, author of Far Cry

    "The love story at the heart of this novel is all the more heartbreaking and beautiful because, at every turn, it seems doomed. Sirens is a love story for the ages."

    —Anna Porter, celebrated publisher and the award-winning author of 12 non-fiction and fiction books

    "This powerfully moving novel understands that, in the darkest times, tenderness can be a profound defiance."

    —Anne Michaels, author of the Booker Prize shortlisted novel, Held

    • To be published by Stonehewer Books, September 23, 2026

    • 312 pages • Paperback • 9” x 6”

    • Available for pre-order through your local bookstore and Amazon

$24.95 CAD / $18.95 USD

Softcover: 9781069236289

eBook: 9781069236296

  • Sarah Ellis is the author of twenty books. She has received such honours as the Canadian Governor General’s award for Children’s Literature and the TD Canada Children’s Literature Award and her books have been included on the American Library Association’s list of notable books. She is the recipient of the British Columbia Lieutenant Governor’s Award for Literary Excellence. For thirty years she worked as a librarian in public libraries, and she taught for seven years at The Vermont College of Fine Arts. She has a master’s degree in children’s literature from Simmons College in Boston. When not writing stories, she lectures on Canadian books and writes book reviews for The Hornbook. Sarah lives in an old house in Vancouver with her cat, where she gardens, reads, cooks, doodles, zooms with far-flung friends, and plunks on the ukulele.

  • “[A] book that’s both strange and gorgeous…. It’s the sort of literary work whose pieces … all work together in perfect harmony.”

    —Anne Thériault for Quill & Quire

    “I've never read anything quite like this memoir, and I’m grateful to have done so now. It’s an unforgettable book—its own kind of miracle.”

    —Bill Richardson, CBChost and author of The Bachelor Brothers’ Bed and Breakfast

    “An unforgettable, very moving book.”

    —Susan Cooper, author of The Dark is Rising

    “Remember what it’s like to first train a pair of binoculars upon a bird perched in a distant tree? Sarah Ellis’s memoir returns to me that sense of discovery, as it focuses upon her idiosyncratic and necessary journey through grief. Sparely, with severe and tender honesty, My Year in Fairyland recounts several journeys laid transparently upon one another—through love, through childhood, through death and grief. And through story. A reader feels to be a discreet and ghostly presence at the necessary bedside, and grateful for the honor.”

    —Gregory Maguire, author of Wicked

    “An exquisitely written, brave, and honest depiction of a surreal time that ended with a loved one dying through medically assisted death. The searing sadness of this memoir is balanced by erudite and often amusing asides into the worlds of fairies, language, stories, and play. What shines through is Sarah Ellis's loving respect for her wife's decision.”

    —Kit Pearson, C.M. Winner of the 2025 George Woodcock Lifetime Achievement Award

    “The book is loving, thought-provoking, sad, beautiful and hopeful….”

    —Gail Kaneb, Co-Founder of Tostan Canada

$22.95 CAD / $16.95 USD

Softcover: 9781069236265

eBook: 9781069236272

My Year in Fairyland

by Sarah Ellis

illustrated by Libbie Blake

June 2026 • Memoir

“I've never read anything quite like this memoir, and I’m grateful to have done so now. It’s an unforgettable book—its own kind of miracle.” —Bill Richardson, CBChost and author of The Bachelor Brothers’ Bed and Breakfast

Sarah Ellis's wife had been toughing it out with MS for more than a decade when she finally received a date for a medically assisted death in Switzerland. The year of waiting brought astonishing moments of playfulness and joy. Ordinary concerns fell away. Ellis tells the story of her extraordinary sojourn in fairyland, the preparation, the journey, life in an altered state, and the return to the real world, forever changed.

Read an excerpt here.

$23.95 CAD / $17.95 USD

Softcover: 9781069236241

eBook: 9781069236258

Tell Me I Can’t

by James Piccoli

January 2026 • Memoir

“James Piccoli’s tale tells what can be done by talented self-starters who do what they do for love.” —Leslie Reissner in PezCycling News

James Piccoli barrelled through all the obstacles thrown in his way en route to the WorldTour. Unscrupulous European team owners, unimaginative Canadian sports bureaucrats, and even some unusually bad racing luck couldn’t stop him. Follow along as he meets cycling legends in Italy, encounters hostile police in Texas, surfs couches in New Mexico, gets stranded in Taiwan, and ultimately triumphs at the sport’s highest level. This is the story behind the headlines, a raw, unfiltered look at the underbelly of international cycling.

  • James Piccoli is a former professional cyclist known for his remarkable ascent to the peak of the sport. Born in Montreal, he discovered his passion for cycling while attending Concordia University. He began to train and compete while attending his engineering classes. But having started late in life compared to most high-performing cyclists, Piccoli was advised by experts that he would never succeed in reaching the top. His rollercoaster ride to the WorldTour is a testament to passion, determination, and grit, an inspiring story that has encouraged others to chase their own unlikely dreams. Piccoli now applies the lessons learned in his sports career to his wealth advisory practice in Montreal, where he lives with his wife and family.

  • “James was a gifted cyclist with an equally gifted mind for the sport and the world around it. Too often, he was misunderstood by archaic management teams simply because he was ahead of his time. In a brutal sport where non-conformists and outside-the-box thinkers are seen as threats, voices like James’s are more often quieted than celebrated. This book, however, lifts James up—and rightly so.”

    —Alex Dowsett, author of Bloody Minded: My Life in Cycling

    “Tell Me I Can’t is a terrific story. There is no easy path for anyone wanting to become a professional cyclist, and for a Canadian, with minimal support in a niche sport in unhelpful weather, it is even more so. James Piccoli’s tale tells what can be done by talented self-starters who do what they do for love.”

    —Leslie Reissner in PezCycling News

    “If you get results as a junior cyclist, teams find you, agents find you, national teams surround you with coaches and resources and equipment and education. But if you find out a couple years later that pro cycling (or some other highly competitive, bad risk/reward career) is in your soul, there is no ladder or guidebook or path. Most (rightly) give up. James Piccoli carved his way into the WorldTour.”

    —Phil Gaimon, professional cyclist and author of Draft Animals