Though it hasn't always played itself in the movies (doubling often as other major cities instead), Toronto does have quite a literary legacy to call its own. It's the hometown of authors Margaret Atwood, Michael Ondaatje, and media theorist and writer Marshall McLuhan. McLuhan is famous for his maxim "The medium is the message," and his works include Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man and War & Peace in the Global Village. There's also a volume called The Essential McLuhan to consider if you're a fan.
Atwood's The Robber Bride pays homage to her hometown with a story that covers 3 decades of life in the city. Some of her other novels -- such as The Edible Woman, Cat's Eye, and The Blind Assassin -- also use Toronto as a backdrop. Her futuristic 2003 novel Oryx and Crake isn't set in any recognizable place, but it's such a brilliant read that it deserves a mention anyway. In the Skin of a Lion, by Michael Ondaatje, the celebrated author of The English Patient, is a moving love story that brings the city's landmarks to life. Carol Shields, who died in 2003, set her final novel, Unless, in Toronto's streets.
Another notable novel is Cabbagetown, by Hugh Garner, the story of the fight to survive in a Toronto slum in the 1930s. (Cabbagetown was famous as the largest Anglo-Saxon slum in North America.) Anyone who is partial to mysteries and thrillers should read Lawrence Block's The Girl with the Long Green Heart, in which two American con artists set up shop in Toronto to fleece a wealthy American in the 1960s. For those more interested in possible futures than the past, there's an Afrofuturist/sci-fi novel called Brown Girl in the Ring, by Nalo Hopkinson. Some other books to consider: Noise and How Insensitive, by Russell Smith; Headhunter, by Timothy Findley; Then Again by Elyse Friedman; Lost Girls, by Andrew Pyper; and The Origin of Waves, by Austin Clarke. Clarke has also written three novels that are collectively known as the Toronto Trilogy: The Meeting Point (1967), Storm of Fortune (1973), and The Bigger Light (1975). The literary legend Robertson Davies was working on the third novel in his own Toronto Trilogy when he died in 1995. The first two books, Murther and Walking Spirits and The Cunning Man, were published in 1991 and 1994, respectively.
If you're interested in architecture, an especially good read is Emerald City: Toronto Revisited, by John Bentley Mays. Emerald City explores all of Toronto's special places, from the majesty of Casa Loma to the colorful bedlam of Kensington Market. Speaking of craziness, another nonfiction book to check out is In the Mad Water: Two Centuries of Adventure and Lunacy at Niagara Falls, by T. W. Kriner. Finally, travel writer Jan Morris is always a delight to read, and her book O Canada! Travels in an Unknown Country is no exception.
