One of the most energetic, lively, funny, and sad novels of the year.”—Quill & Quire, Book of the Year“William’s imaginative, intricate tapestries are dazzling.”—The New York Times Book Review“Williams’s unsparing view on the past’s repetition is heartrending. This ambitious experiment yields worthwhile results.”—Publishers Weekly“Witty, playful, and disarmingly offbeat—even as it hums with serious themes.”—The Toronto Star“Williams creatively and masterfully intersperses poetry, dialog, humor, pregnant asides, music lyrics, and descriptive passages to reveal what is going on inside the characters’ heads and outside in the world around them.”—Library Journal (Starred Review)“Polyphonic and big-hearted.”—Electric Literature“A witty, formally thrilling family saga.”—Kirkus Reviews“A family saga like no other, with vivid characters and spectacular narrative twists . . . What makes it all work is Williams’s exquisite writing and his willingness to take risk with form. This is a fresh and exciting literary voice.”—NOW Toronto, Book of the Year“Williams brings the characters’ struggles and flaws to life with compassion and intelligence, and the novel deftly explores themes of inheritance, race, money, sex, and love.”—BookRiot“Both funny and poignant, powerful and playful.”—The Calgary Herald“Reproduction is an inventive and tender portrait of family life in all its forms.”—Rabble“Reproduction’s genius is its weaponized empathy, the precision-etched intensity of Williams’ gritty, witty, wholly unsentimental exploration of the collision of human hearts and the messy aftermath.”—Eden Robinson, author of Monkey Beach and Son of a Trickster“Reminiscent of Miriam Toews’s novel All My Puny Sorrows in its balance between grief and humour.”—Quill & Quire“Williams’s compassion for his characters transforms them from ordinary beings into uncommon souls. We know these people: their flaws, their foibles and their fuck ups. We recognize them because we share the same vagaries of living, wherever we are born.”—Aminatta Forna, author of The Memory of Love“The startling brilliance of Ian Williams stems from his restlessness with form. His ceaseless creativity in sussing out the right patterning of story, the right vernacular nuance, the right diagram and deftly dropped reference—all in service of vividly illuminating the intermingled comedy and trauma of family.”—David Chariandy, author of Brother“Reproduction is a brilliant modernist symphony, a truly unique blend of character, voice, sound, and style that shows the many different ways family can be made, and what the concept of family actually means in diverse contexts. A surprising, intriguing, and moving novel by a proven talent.”—Marion Abbott, Mrs. Dalloway's Bookstore, Berkeley CA“A daring and funny intergenerational family saga . . . Williams, a poet, brings a thrilling linguistic verve to this already-gripping story, and his restless experimental prose makes Reproduction fly off the page.”—Danny Caine, Raven Bookstore, Lawrence KS
“Williams’ Reproduction contains examples of the compromises and mutually agreed upon lies that bind families together. The ability of humans to wilfully ignore past misdeeds, to keep secrets for decades and forge on despite human frailty and failings are all clearly depicted in Williams’ story.”—Winnipeg Free Press
“In this novel about fathers who vanish and the families that spring up in their place, the Vancouver-based poet deftly weaves together the voices of a 14-year-old Black boy, a 16-year-old white girl and a motley crew of middle-aged parents who are all struggling to do right by their children—with mixed results.”—Chatelaine Magazine
