So far this year, Penguin Random House Canada is seeing an uptick in sales across multiple categories. CEO Kristin Cochrane attributes success to the surge in Canadian pride that has taken hold since President Donald Trump took office in the U.S.
“Since February, we have seen an incredible rise of national pride in all sectors of the economy,” Cochrane told PW. For books, this has manifested in an increased consumer interest in Canadian-authored titles.
One book in particular has been a standout: Values, by Canadian prime minister Mark Carney, originally published in 2021, leaped back onto the bestseller list after the publisher reissued the book with a new preface. It is one of PRHC’s bestselling books of the year, second only to romance superstar Carley Fortune’s One Golden Summer.
In nonfiction, Cochrane says the company is seeing a socially and politically engaged readership picking up such memoirs as Omar El Akkad’s One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This and David A. Robertson’s 52 Ways to Reconcile, both published by McClelland & Stewart. A paperback reprint of CBC host Carol Off’s At a Loss for Words, a national bestseller, will be released in October. In it, Off looks at the current interpretation of six words: freedom, democracy, truth, woke, choice, and taxes.
“In fiction, romance has been hot for the last few years, and we’re seeing no signs of that changing,” Cochrane says, pointing to Fortune’s sustained success. “That Carley is Canadian and the books are set in Canada has been an extra boon to sales.”
Fantasy and horror represent other growth areas, particularly with Random House Canada’s publication of Imani Erriu’s Heavenly Bodies romantasy series. Cochrane is particularly looking forward to Final Orbit, the fiction debut of Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, famous for his 2013 rendition of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” on the International Space Station.
This year, the publisher championed two major Indigenous-focused initiatives. David A. Robertson’s Indigenous children’s imprint Swift Water Books has launched at Tundra Books, and McClelland & Stewart introduced Kanata Classics, described by Cochrane as “a backlist series that explores the Indigenous–settler dialogue.” This series features a half dozen titles so far, including Nishga by Jordan Abel, Bear by Marian Engel, and Medicine Walk by Richard Wagamese. “Canadian and American readers continue to seek knowledge and be educated about Indigenous history and its impact and influence on Canada through books,” Cochrane says.
PRHC’s fall list also includes two collections of letters from Indigenous writers, activists, and thinkers co-edited by sisters Sara Sinclair and Stephanie Sinclair (the publisher of McClelland & Stewart): one for adults, A Steady Brightness of Being, and another for children, You Were Meant for This World. Also coming in fall are memoirs from two of the country’s best-known writers: A Truce That Is Not Peace by Miriam Toews and Book of Lives by Margaret Atwood. Atwood’s novels The Edible Woman and The Heart Goes Last, the MaddAddam Trilogy, and others have all been repackaged by the publisher.
Topical nonfiction includes Smartphone Nation by Kaitlyn Regehr and We Breed Lions by Rick Westhead and Stephen Brunt. “We’re also publishing several books that reveal aspects of our country that others might not see—for example, Vanished Beyond the Map, a true exploration of the Arctic wilderness by Canada’s greatest modern explorer, Adam Shoalts,” Cochrane says.
Canada’s cultural diversity is one of its key strengths and differentiators. To capitalize on this resource, Cochrane says, “each imprint at Penguin Random House Canada is broadening the perspectives of its editorial teams with new hires, our Read Canada cross-platform marketing campaign, and new imprints and programs to ensure as many Canadians as possible see themselves in the books we publish.”
