The Canadian Urban Libraries Council (CULC) is excited to bring you Canada's largest bilingual book club, while highlighting the need for equitable access to digital books in Canadian libraries. Throughout April, public libraries across the country will participate in One eRead / Un livrel Canada, during which thousands of readers will borrow digital copies of Dimitri Nasrallah's novel Hotline from their public libraries with no waitlists.

Longlisted for the 2022 Giller Prize, and a Canada Reads selection in 2023, Hotline is the story of Muna, a mother starting a new life in Montreal after escaping devastation in war-torn Lebanon with her 8-year old son in the 1980s. Even as she struggles to find acceptance, healing, and purpose in a new city where she doesn't feel welcome, Muna finds herself providing solace and a sympathetic ear to fellow Montrealers via her job as a hotline operator for a weight-loss center.

Dimitri Nasrallah is the author of four novels. He was born in Lebanon in 1977, and lived in Kuwait, Greece, and Dubai before moving to Canada. His internationally acclaimed books have garnered nominations for CBC Canada Reads, the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and the Grand Prix du Livre de Montréal, and won the Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction and the McAuslan First Book Prize. He is the fiction editor at Véhicule Press.

Alan Neal is the award-winning host of the afternoon show All In A Day, heard 3 to 6 p.m. on CBC Radio One and CBC Listen. He has lived in Ottawa almost his entire life, and is known for his carefully researched interviews of authors and musicians.

This program is presented by the Canadian Urban Libraries Council, Ottawa Public Library, Library and Archives Canada, and the CBC.