Your Giller Prize Shortlist

The shortlist for the 2009 Scotiabank Giller Prize was announced today, with the surprising omission of Margaret Atwood.  The winner will be revealed at a gala on November 10th, so the countdown is on!

  The Disappeared / by Kim Echlin
The third novel by Toronto author Echlin tells the story of a young Canadian woman who falls in love with a Cambodian refugee and follows him there when he goes to search for his missing family.

 The Golden Mean / by Annabel Lyon
A debut work of historical fiction that features the relationship between the philosopher Aristotle and his young pupil, Alexander, who grows up to become Alexander the Great. Lyon lives in New Westminster, B.C.

 The Bishop's Man / by Linden MacIntyre
MacIntyre is co-host of the CBC TV program The Fifth Estate, and has chosen a sensitive and timely topic for his novel.  Set in Cape Breton, the novel is narrated by a Catholic priest who has been given the unenviable task of dealing with the sexual abuses inflicted by priests on the children in their care.
 

 Fall / by Colin McAdam
Montreal author McAdam's second book is a psychological novel set in an exclusive Canadian boarding school.  The title character, Fall (short for Fallon), is the girlfriend of the handsome, popular ambassador's son, Julius.  Julius's roommate is Noel, an awkward and unpopular boy who develops an unhealthy fascination with Julius and an obsessive crush on Fall.  When she disappears, the two are forced to confront their own inner desires.

 The Winter Vault / by Anne Michaels
The long-awaited second novel by award-winning Toronto novelist Michaels is about loss, of place and of people.  Set in the 1960's, it uses the construction of the Aswan Dam in Egypt and of the St Lawrence Seaway to explore the changes wrought on the landscape and the people displaced by these projects.