Unconventional novels can have unique histories all their own, according to two prominent Canadian authors.
On Sept. 21, authors Ian Williams and Maria Reva met onstage at the 2025 Kingston WritersFest, discussing the unique approaches to writing fiction in their recent, critically acclaimed novels. Around 100 people filled the Kingston Marriott’s Limestone Ballroom to listen to the authors speak without a moderator. The authors’ conversation at WritersFest’s “Wild Rides” event reveals the diligent research and profound vulnerability that accompanies unconventional narratives in fiction.
Both authors began by giving some background information on their new works. You’ve Changed, Williams’ new book, tracks the dissolution of a marriage and the sometimes-absurd shapes a relationship can take. The book was longlisted for the 2025 Giller Prize. “You’ve Changed is a departure from Reproductions,” Williams said onstage, referencing his 2019 Giller Prize-winning novel. “I wanted to write something on a small and intimate scale, which asks the question, ‘how much pressure can a marriage withstand?’” he said.
Endling, Reva’s 2025 Booker Prize longlisted novel, tells the offbeat story of a scientist, her snails, and the Ukranian bride-tourism industry. Reva, originally born in Ukraine, said Endling “[explores the] motivations of the men to come to [Ukraine], but also whether or not the women want to be married”. In the case of Endling’s misanthropic, hilarious protagonist Yeva, these women do not. Of course, “they’re not all like this—not all men,” Reva joked onstage.
Williams asked Reva how her book “works” with a smile. The conversation felt casual, as if the audience caught them chatting over coffee. This intimacy made room for questions which flowed organically between Reva and Williams, and from the audience during a Q&A session. Reva described Endling as a train derailing. “It’s a wild ride,” she said onstage. According to Williams, You’ve Changed breaks down more precisely, “[pivoting] at every third” with twists in storytelling.
Both authors did extensive research to make their books work. You’ve Changed’s protagonist, Beckett, is a contractor. Williams took an eleven-week course on how to build a house to get inside Beckett’s mind, which culminated in him helping to build an actual house inside a warehouse space.
For Reva, Endling wasn’t only about the fictional characters she was creating. Telling the story became difficult as its “setting [was] being destroyed in real time” during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Reva said. She grappled with questions like the role of fiction as a response to reality, and her role as a storyteller in reflecting real-life narratives.
To understand the men who participate in bridal tourism, Reva read books by American men which promised “the secret to unlock Slavic women,” she said onstage. “I learned a lot about my own species,” she joked to applause from the audience.
By contrast, You’ve Changed is more character-driven. The novel is set in Vancouver, Canada, but it’s the excruciating tension between the characters that gives the story purpose. “This is a book of marriage from a man who’s not married,” Williams said onstage. For him, writing is vulnerable; Williams said if he could write under a pen name, he would.
“We live for a long time, for years, just you and the novel,” he said onstage. It can be difficult to bring others into such a specific relationship, similar to how You’ve Changed invites readers into the messy heart of a such a marriage gone awry. But the success of this effort secured Williams the Giller longlist.
“I didn’t envision it at all,” Reva said of Endling being longlisted for the Booker Prize. “If you’ve expectations when you publish, you’re setting yourself up for disappointment.”
She heard the announcement in a text from her editor while house-sitting in Montreal. “Whatever the awards, nothing changes the deep relationship you have with your art,” Reva said.
Through accolades and audience’s interpretations, novels can take on a life of their own after publishing. But Williams and Reva demonstrate the wild rides that got these stories to print are worth telling, too.
Tags
Ian Williams, Literature, Maria Reva, novels, WritersFest
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