martyrs

Ottawa writer and historian Suzanne Evans is captivated by stories of women, war, food, survival, and what we make of it all. Her most recent project, The Taste of Longing, available from Between the Lines, offers the first full biography of Canadian “force of nature” Ethel Mulvany, who while starving organized imaginary feasts at the infamous Changi Jail, Singapore during the Second World War. Suzanne Evans also features prominently in Alisa Siegel’s CBC radio documentary on Mulvany. The Taste of Longing is a Forward INDIES Book Award Gold Medalist (biography, 2020), Ottawa Book Awards winner (Nonfiction, 2021) and a Taste Canada Awards Gold Medalist (culinary narrative, 2021). The audio book features narration by Gwenlyn Cumyn. The Taste of Longing has also been optioned by documentary filmmaker Noura Kevorkian.

Mothers of Heroes, Mothers of Martyrs (McGill-Queen’s) looks at the way Canadian propaganda in the First World War pressured women to support the war effort by, among other things, dampening their grief over the loss of husbands and sons.

Suzanne Evans holds a Ph.D in Religious Studies from the University of Ottawa, and worked as a research fellow at the Canadian War Museum. She has traveled, lived, and worked in many countries including China, Indonesia, India and Vietnam. Her work has appeared in Canadian Military History, The Globe and Mail, The Ottawa Citizen, Ottawa Magazine, ActiveHistory.ca, and Canada’s History Magazine (formerly The Beaver), among others. She lives in Ottawa, Canada and is married to novelist Alan Cumyn.

Contact Suzanne Evans