EACH WEEK, over one million people make her Globe and Mail column their first read of the day. Even more regularly seek her out on the Internet, placing her name on Google’s Top Ten search list of Canadian women. Robert Fulford calls her “a voice all her own, quite possibly the best newspaper columnist in the country.” Clearly, Margaret Wente connects with Canadians.
But the columns that receive the most letters from readers—and are frequently seen on bulletin boards or fridge doors nation-wide—are her wise and witty essays on the way we live now. Whether she’s writing about marriage or menopause, hockey or home-owning, Margaret Wente makes readers feel that, finally, someone is able to articulate— candidly and with humour—exactly what everyday life is like for them.

And it’s that special connection with readers that will make An Accidental Canadian such a sought-after title this fall. Not just a compendium of newspaper columns (though fans will be pleased to see some of their favourites included), this book features a very personal narrative in which Margaret Wente tells her own story—from her girlhood in “a wonderbread suburb of Chicago,” through her early careers and marriage, to her life today as a chronicler of Canada and Canadians. She combines new writing with existing work to create an absorbing text that is richly leavened with reflections on our country, on navigating the 21st century, and on the small pleasures and big questions in life.