The bestselling Canadian books for the week of Jan. 9-15, 2022

Here are the bestselling Canadian books for Jan. 9-15, 2022.

Bestseller lists are compiled by Bookmanager using weekly sales stats from over 260 Canadian independent stores.

Canadian fiction | Canadian nonfiction | Canadian kids

Canadian fiction

Five Little Indians by Michelle Good is the #1 Canadian fiction book this week.

In Five Little Indians, Kenny, Lucy, Clara, Howie and Maisie were taken from their families and sent to a residential school when they were very small. Barely out of childhood, they are released and left to contend with the seedy world of eastside Vancouver. Fuelled by the trauma of their childhood, the five friends cross paths over the decades and struggle with the weight of their shared past. 

Five Little Indians is on the Canada Reads 2022 longlist.

Five Little Indians won the 2020 Governor General's Literary Award for fiction and the 2021 Amazon Canada First Novel Award.

• Michelle Good's Five Little Indians is a fictional look at the real Canadian legacy of residential schools

See the full Canadian fiction list below.

1. Five Little Indians by Michelle Good
2. State of Terror by Louise Penny & Hillary Rodham Clinton
3. The Maid by Nita Prose
4. What Strange Paradise by Omar El Akkad
5. Fight Night by Miriam Toews
6. The Apollo Murders by Chris Hadfield
7. The Strangers by Katherena Vermette
8. The Madness of the Crowds by Louise Penny
9. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
10. Indians on Vacation by Thomas King

Canadian nonfiction

Finding the Mother Tree by Suzanne Simard is the #1 Canadian nonfiction book this week.

Biologist Suzanne Simard discovered the reality of the interconnection and intelligence of the forest. She's been able to find out that the trees are indeed whispering to each other — communicating not through the wind, but through the soil. Her scientific memoir, Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest, describes her life and research. 

• When the trees talk, we need to listen, Suzanne Simard reveals in Finding the Mother Tree

 See the full Canadian nonfiction list below.

1. Finding the Mother Tree by Suzanne Simard
2. Talking to Canadians by Rick Mercer
3. "Indian" in the Cabinet by Jody Wilson-Raybould
4. 21 Things You May Not Know About the Indian Act by Bob Joseph
5. Embers by Richard Wagamese
6. Permanent Astonishment by Tomson Highway
7. Richard Wagamese Selected, edited by Drew Hayden Taylor
8. People Change by Vivek Shraya
9. Talking to Strangers by Malcolm Gladwell
10. Off the Record by Peter Mansbridge

Canadian kids

The Barren Grounds by David A. Robertson is the #1 Canadian kids book this week.

The Barren Grounds is the first book of Robertson's new middle-grade series. It is set in Winnipeg where two Indigenous kids, Morgan and Eli, are placed in a new foster home. The pair feel out of place and disconnected in their new surroundings — until they uncover a secret portal in the attic that opens up to a magical reality. The frozen barren grounds they find set the pair on a mission of survival and self-determination.

• How David A. Robertson manages to write as much as he does

See the full Canadian kids book list below.

1. The Barren Grounds by David A. Robertson
2. The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline
3. Hunting by Stars by Cherie Dimaline
4. Beatrice and Croc Harry by Lawrence Hill
5. Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao 
6. I Love You More by Emil Sher, illustrated by Barbara Reid
7. The Great Bear by David A. Robertson
8. On the Trapline by David A. Robertson, illustrated by Julie Flett
9. One Eagle Soaring by Roy Henry Vickers, illustrated by Robert Budd
10. It Fell from the Sky by the Fan Brothers