The Seaboard Review of Books September 1, 2025
Volume 2, Issue 33 of The Seaboard Review of Books, September 1, 2025
In this issue:
A Place For People Like Us by Danila Botha
The First Thousand Trees by Premee Mohamed
A Sense Of Things Beyond by Renée Belliveau
Coastal Healing by Bruce Graham
Also, in Poetry:
We’re Somewhere Else Now by Robyn Sarah
NMLCT: Poems by Paul Vermeersch
Review of the Week
A Place For People Like Us by Danila Botha
A Place for People Like Us follows Hannah, a traumatized young woman trying to build a responsible life out of the wreckage of her childhood in a cult led by her polygamous, pedophile father— a man she has testified against, wants no contact with, yet still occasionally craves love and affirmation from, having been conditioned to need it.
Fiction
The First Thousand Trees by Premee Mohamed
A matter-of-fact prose interlaced with lyrical turns, The First Thousand Trees is the third in Premee Mohamed’s series of post-apocalyptic novellas that began with The Annual Migration of Clouds, and We Speak Through the Mountains.
A Sense Of Things Beyond by Renée Belliveau
The Great War had stolen what Rose and Frederick knew of the world and themselves, and only through each other’s pain might they have a chance to find a new peace. Rose spent the war as a nurse at the Western Front. Seeing the devastation and trauma of the fighting firsthand, she patched up the boys whose lives she longed to preserve but was forced to r…
Coastal Healing by Bruce Graham
In his novel Coastal Healing, Bruce Graham tells a story of homecoming that captures the mood and spirit of the people of the Parrsboro shore, recalling the nostalgia and freedom of a way of life while acknowledging the often-harsh reality that nature is stronger than we are.
Poetry
NMLCT: Poems by Paul Vermeersch
Paul Vermeersch’s latest collection, NMLCT, presents readers with a close examination of digital consciousness, artificial intelligence, and the divide between human and machine experience. The title, we learn from the book’s pronunciation note, is pronounced “animal city.” This designation is contrasted with “MCHNCT” (machine city), establishing a fund…
Michael Greenstein Reviews:
Hot Takes: Brief Notes on Books Present & Past
(Note: clicking on the underlined link takes you to the book’s publisher page or Amazon.ca for more information or for purchasing purposes. Support your local bookseller or independent publisher if you can.)
In the introduction to The Kingdom of Heart: A Pet Loss Journal, Patty Luckenbach, M.A, D.D., notes, “When our animal companions die, we grieve; but our society does not give us permission to mourn.” The Kingdom of Heart addresses this issue by offering insights and exercises that can help us through the mourning process. Among other things, the book addresses topics like accepting an animal’s loss, the Grief Wheel, working with a child grieving the death of his or her animal, expressing your feelings of grief and loss through journalling, and celebrating your animal friend’s life. Space is provided in the book to write responses to the journalling prompts.
Though pet parents shouldn’t have favourites, when my border collie Emma died, it hit me hard. The Kingdom of Heart brought an easing of sadness, and some different perspectives and insights. Exercises like “A Letter to Your Pet” and “Your Animal Friend’s Letter to You” were particularly helpful. While, as the book notes, “emotional pain, known as grief, is different for each person,” anyone who has lost a pet and is open to exploring their feelings and seeking greater solace through journalling might find this book worth a look. (Contributed by Lisa Timpf)
News:
TSR Contributor Melanie Marttila is going to be reading in the Apposite Poetry Series in London, Ontario on September 10th.
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Thanks for reading this issue of The Seaboard Review of Books!
James M. Fisher, editor-in-chief