February 2, 2026

Northern Bull, by Michelle Swallow

If you can’t beat the winter, you might as well pick up a copy of Michelle Swallow’s funny and heartfelt debut novel Northern Bull, and escape via fiction to Yellowknife, NWT, a place that is likely colder than wherever it is you happen to be. Where the snowpants are as obligatory as pants themselves, but things still get pretty hot, especially between next door neighbours Maggie and Jacques, each of whom is secretly longing for the other, but they can’t come out and say it, and meanwhile Maggie is struggling to write an erotic short story to read aloud at the local burlesque show, and keeps being infuriated by Jacques’ proclivity to steal from her wood pile. He tries to pay her pack with a bit of whitefish, but it all goes wrong after she sees two women leaving his house after an epic night out, a night out so epic that Jacques’ insane friend Craig’s prized moose head goes missing, and Craig tells Jacques that if he doesn’t get it back he’s going to burn Jacques’ house down. Even though Jacques’ house is already falling apart, so full of holes that a weasel’s moved in, and Jacques has no idea where the moose head is anyway, but what else can he do? Can he find the moose head and get to the show in time to hear Maggie read her story? Will Maggie ever actually finish her erotic story, or will she keep dampening the spice by having her characters drink tea?

And that’s only the beginning—the story moves between Jacques’ and Maggie’s points of view, and also includes those of Craig, his roommate Randy, and their friend Vic, an aspiring exotic dancer who hopes to make his big debut at the show Maggie’s reading at. There’s also a missing van, a group of Korean journalists hoping to see the aurora borealis, the story of the moose head itself and how it came to be, a snowmobile race, and a bag full of explosives.

Taking place over 24 hours on a freezing day in the darkness of January, Northern Bull is a romp, as wickedly fun as its weather is freezing.