Few people have read as widely in the field of Canadiana as has John Robert Colombo. The curiosity of this Toronto writer, editor, and anthologist knows few if any bounds when it comes to the lore, literature, history, culture, and character of Canada. He has an inquiring mind and he seems able to find national and even international twists to subjects of interest or importance.

Fascinating Canada, his latest book, is the product of over half a century of research, reading, writing, and thinking. Some years ago the author produced a trilogy of question-and-answer books – 1,000 Questions about Canada, 999 Questions about Canada, 1,000 Questions about Canada. The first two were published by Doubleday Canada, the third one in 2001 by Dundurn Press. The same format is adapted to the material in the present book, but this time the majority of the questions are short whereas a good many of the answers are quite long discussions of the subjects at hand: concise questions followed by considered answers.
Here  is a book about the Canadian past, present, and future. The information in Fascinating Canada is organized under four headings (People, Places, Things, Ideas) and there is a detailed Index for ready reference. This book may serve as a work of popular reference, but it has been written to stimulate inquiry and spark the sense of surprise in the minds of readers who know something about this amazing country but perhaps not as much as the author. Open this book and begin to read ... and match wits with author and researcher John Robert Colombo.

John Robert Colombo, who edited and annotated Worlds in Small, is known as the Master Gatherer for his many compilations of the lore and literature of Canada. Colombo has complied, translated, and written over eighty books. He co-translated into English five books of Bulgarian literature, not to mention books of verse originally written in Hungarian, Romanian, Polish, etc. In the field of native studies he has compiled Windigo, Poems of the Inuit, Songs of the Indians, and Songs of the Great Land. Among his large-scale literary anthologies are The Poets of Canada and Colombo’s Book of Canada. He edited Other Canada, the country’s first anthology of science fiction and fantasy, and beginning with Mysterious Canada, he has written or complied six books of Paranormal Canadiana. These books, plus media appearances, have earned him the title "Canada’s Mr. Mystery."

John Robert Colombo's profile page

"This work represents more than half a century of research reading writing and thinking He’s unearthed tidbits about the literature, history, culture, and character of the true north..."

Lethbridge Herald