Giller Shortlist Announced

The countdown to the 19th Scotiabank Giller Prize continues with the announcement of the five finalists this morning.

The shortlist was selected from the previously announced longlist of 13 titles and includes: Will Ferguson’s 419, a “global novel” that takes the reader from North America to Nigeria; Alix Ohlin’s Inside, which starts with a therapist stumbling across a failed suicide; Nancy Richler’s  The Imposter Bride, a tale of identity theft in postwar Montreal; Kim Thuy, for her debut novel Ru, which was translated from French and explores the immigrant experience; and Russell Wangersky for his short story collection Whirl Away, vignettes on what happens when peoples coping skills go awry.

The prize jury — consisting of Irish author and screenwriter Roddy Doyle, Canadian publisher, writer and essayist Anna Porter and American author and satirist Gary Shteyngart — read over 145 books to determine the shortlist. Porter and Shteyngart were at the press conference to read out the finalists.

The winner will be announced at a gala hosted by CBC’s Jian Ghomeshi on Oct. 30 at Toronto’s Ritz-Carleton Hotel and will be broadcast nationally.

The Scotiabank Giller Prize awards $50,000 annually to the author of the best English Canadian novel or short story collection, and $5,000 to each finalist. It is named in honour of the late literary journalist Doris GIller and was founded in 1994 by her husband, Toronto businessman Jack Rabinovitch.

-Athena McKenzie