12 Canadian books make longlist for $100K Scotiabank Giller Prize

Twelve writers person been longlisted for the 2023 Scotiabank Giller Prize. The $100,000 grant annually recognizes the champion successful Canadian fiction. 

The announcement was hosted and livestreamed astatine an lawsuit successful St. John's by writer Suzette Mayr, who won the 2022 Giller Prize for her caller The Sleeping Car Porter.

Former CBC Literary Prize finalists diagnostic prominently connected the longlist. Winnipeg's David Bergen, writer of Away From The Dead, won the Short Story Prize successful 1999 for his communicative How tin men stock a vessel of vodka. Vancouver-based Kevin Chong was longlisted for the 2020 Nonfiction Prize for White Space. Nina Dunic, writer of The Clarion has been longlisted for the Short Story Prize 4 times, astir precocious successful 2023 for The Artist. The Rooftop Garden author Menaka Raman-Wilms was shortlisted for the Short Story Prize successful 2019 and We Have Never Lived connected Earth writer Kasia Van Schaik was a finalist for the Short Story Prize successful 2017 and made the 2021 CBC Nonfiction Prize longlist. 

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Two abbreviated communicative collections made the list: The Islands by Dionne Irving and We Have Never Lived connected Earth by Kasia Van Schaik.

Bergen is the lone erstwhile victor to person made the longlist. He won the Giller Prize successful 2005 for his caller The Time successful Between. He was subsequently shortlisted for The Matter with Morris successful 2010 and for his abbreviated communicative postulation Here the Dark successful 2020. He was longlisted for The Retreat successful 2008 and Stranger successful 2016. 

Two of the 2023 nominated writers person antecedently placed connected Giller longlists: Toronto's CS Richardson successful 2012 for his caller The Emperor of Paris and Calgary's Deborah Willis successful 2017 for her abbreviated communicative postulation The Dark and Other Love Stories.

Here is the afloat 2023 longlist:

• Away From The Dead by David Bergen
• Study For Obedience by Sarah Bernstein
• Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton
• The Double Life of Benson Yu by Kevin Chong
• The Clarion by Nina Dunic
• We Meant Well by Erum Shazia Hasan
• The Islands by Dionne Irving
• Wait Softly Brother by Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer
• The Rooftop Garden by Menaka Raman-Wilms
• All The Colour In The World by CS Richardson
• We Have Never Lived connected Earth by Kasia Van Schaik
• Girlfriend connected Mars by Deborah Willis

This twelvemonth the prize celebrates its 30th anniversary. The 2023 shortlist volition beryllium announced connected Oct. 11, 2023 and the victor volition beryllium announced connected Nov. 13, 2023.

Canadian writer and fabrication writer Ian Williams is chairing the five-person assemblage this year. Joining him are Canadian authors Sharon Bala, Brian Thomas Isaac and planetary authors Rebecca Makkai and Neel Mukherjee.

Last year's victor was Suzette Mayr for her caller The Sleeping Car Porter.

Other past Giller Prize winners see Omar El Akkad for What Strange Paradise, Souvankham Thammavongsa for How to Pronounce Knife, Esi Edugyan for Washington Black, Michael Redhill for Bellevue Square, Margaret Atwood for Alias Grace, Mordecai Richler for Barney's Version, Alice Munro for Runaway, André Alexis for Fifteen Dogs and Madeleine Thien for Do Not Say We Have Nothing.

Toronto businessman Jack Rabinovitch founded the prize successful honour of his precocious wife, literate writer Doris Giller, successful 1994. Rabinovitch died successful 2017 astatine the property of 87.

You tin larn much astir each 12 longlisted books below.

Away From The Dead by David Bergen

Away from the Dead follows the chaotic lives of 3 young radical successful aboriginal 20th-century Ukraine amidst revolts and war. Lehn is simply a bookseller southbound of Kiev, Sablin is simply a stableboy who stays with anarchists and Inna is simply a young peasant. Connected to the unit and authorities of the time, Lehn, Sablin and Inna's narratives weave unneurotic a analyzable communicative of humanity and hope.

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Bergen is simply a Winnipeg-based fabrication writer. He is the writer of 8 novels and 2 abbreviated communicative collections, including his antecedently Giller-nominated publication Here the Dark successful 2020 and The Age of Hope, which was defended by Ron MacLean connected Canada Reads successful 2013. Bergen received the Writer's Trust Matt Cohen Award: In Celebration of a Writing Life successful 2018.

Study for Obedience by Sarah Bernstein

Study for Obedience explores themes of guilt, maltreatment and prejudice done the eyes of its unreliable narrator. In it, a pistillate leaves her hometown to determination to a "remote bluish country" to beryllium a housekeeper for her brother, whose woman precocious decided to permission him. Soon aft her accomplishment the assemblage is struck by antithetic events from corporate bovine hysteria to a murphy blight. When the locals nonstop their increasing suspicions of incomers astatine her their hostility grows much palpable.

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Bernstein is simply a Montreal-born writer and originative penning teacher. Her different books see her 2021 caller The Coming Bad Days and her postulation of prose poems Now Comes the Lightning. Study for Obedience is besides longlisted for the 2023 Booker Prize. Bernstein was named one of Granta's best young British novelists successful 2023. She presently lives successful Scotland.

Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton

Birnam Wood is an engaging eco-thriller acceptable successful the mediate of a landslide successful New Zealand. Mira, the laminitis of a guerilla gardening corporate that plants crops amid different transgression biology activities, sets her sights connected an evacuated workplace arsenic a mode retired of fiscal ruin. The lone occupation is the American billionaire Robert Lemoine has already laid assertion to it arsenic his end-of-the-world lair. After the aforesaid happening for polar other reasons, their paths transverse and Robert makes Mira an connection that would stave disconnected her fiscal concerns for good. The question is: tin she spot him? 

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Catton is simply a London, Ont.-born New Zealand author. She won the 2013 Booker Prize for fiction and the 2013 Governor General's Literary Award for fabrication for her 2nd novel, The Luminaries.

LISTEN | Eleanor Catton speaks with CBC's Gloria Macarenko earlier her sojourn to the Vancouver Writer's Fest:

The Double Life of Benson Yu by Kevin Chong

The Double Life of Benson Yu recounts the hard adolescence of the titular quality increasing up successful a lodging task successful 1980s Chinatown. The communicative takes a metafictional twist, erstwhile Yu's grip connected representation and world falters. The unsocial operation provides a layered and poignant look into however we travel to presumption with who we are, what happened to america arsenic children, and that uncovering anticipation and healing lies successful whether we take to suppress oregon process our experiences.

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Chong is simply a Vancouver-based writer and subordinate prof astatine the University of British Columbia Okanagan. His different books see the nonfiction publication Northern Dancer and fabrication titles similar The Plague and Beauty Plus Pity. He was longlisted for the 2020 CBC Nonfiction Prize.

LISTEN | Kevin Chong talks astir his caller caller with Ryan B. Patrick connected The Next Chapter summertime edition:

The Clarion by Nina Dunic

The Clarion is simply a debut caller astir 2 siblings struggling to find a consciousness of intent and belonging. Peter is simply a trumpet subordinate and room unit and his sister Stasi is making her effort to enactment successful firm which yet leads to therapy. As the siblings endure the galore trials and tribulations of their procreation similar promotions and absent lovers, tin they find their consciousness of aforesaid and support their transportation strong?

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Dunic is simply a freelance writer and writer surviving successful Scarborough, Ont. She has been longlisted for the CBC Short Story Prize 4 times: successful 2023 for The Artist, successful 2022 for Youth, successful 2020 for Bodies and successful 2019 for an earlier mentation of Bodies. The Clarion is her archetypal novel.

We Meant Well by Erum Shazia Hasan

We Meant Well is simply a caller that poses a hard motivation dilemma for its protagonist, Maya, an assistance idiosyncratic who indispensable determine who to judge erstwhile her coworker astatine the orphanage, Marc, is accused of assaulting her erstwhile protégé, Lele. Caught betwixt worlds with protests raging extracurricular the orphanage, Maya indispensable besides equilibrium the destiny of the enactment against the accusations. Navigating astir these variables provides some situation and penetration arsenic the complexity of the concern reveals the quality of everyone involved. 

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Hasan is simply a Toronto-based writer and a sustainable improvement advisor for assorted UN agencies. We Meant Well is her debut novel.

The Islands: Stories by Dionne Irving

Set crossed the United States, Jamaica and Europe from the 1950s to contiguous day, The Islands details the migration stories of Jamaican women and their descendants. Each abbreviated communicative explores colonialism and its interaction arsenic women acquisition the on-going tensions betwixt individuality and the spot they agelong to telephone home. 

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Irving is simply a writer and originative penning teacher from Toronto. She released her archetypal novel, Quint in 2021 and her enactment has been featured successful journals and magazines similar LitHub, Missouri Review and New Delta Review. The Islands is her debut abbreviated communicative collection.

Wait Softly Brother by Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer

After Kathryn leaves her agelong and tumultuous matrimony she returns to her puerility location to constitute astir her stillborn brother. Wait Softly Brother is simply a caller which weaves unneurotic household histories and traumas arsenic Kathryn unearths the communicative of an ancestor who fought successful the American Civil War. As she begins to question her representation and that of her parents, Kathryn weaves unneurotic stories of astonishing quality and hope. 

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Kuitenbrouwer is simply a writer and teacher astatine the University of Toronto. Her different novels see All Broken Things and The Nettle Spinner which was shortlisted for the 2005 Amazon First Novel Award. She presently lives successful Prince Edward County, Ont.

The Rooftop Garden by Menaka Raman-Wilms

The Rooftop Garden follows Nabila and her puerility person Matthew, who played connected Nabila's rooftop plot successful an imaginary satellite that has flooded from clime change. Nabila comes from an educated, middle-class family, portion Matthew had been abandoned by his begetter and was often near to woody with things connected his own. Their puerility experiences uncover however their lives are connected antithetic trajectories, adjacent astatine an aboriginal stage.

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Raman-Wilms is simply a writer and writer based successful Toronto. She's the big of The Decibel, the regular quality podcast from the Globe and Mail. She's besides worked arsenic a parliamentary newsman for the Globe and arsenic an subordinate shaper astatine CBC Radio One. Raman-Wilms was shortlisted for the 2019 CBC Short Story Prize for her story Black Coffee.

All The Colour In The World by CS Richardson

All the Colour In the World is simply a communicative of a young lad named Henry who discovers a passionateness for creation which carries him done the galore misadventures of his beingness successful the 20th century. From his archetypal acceptable of colouring pencils helium is talented astatine his grandmother's spot to the worlds of academia, warfare and sweeping romance, Henry's creation stays alongside his enduring story.

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Richardson is simply a Toronto-based writer and award-winning publication designer. His erstwhile novels see The End of the Alphabet which won the 2008 Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First Book and The Emperor of Paris which was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize successful 2012. 

LISTEN | CS Richardson takes The Next Chapter's Proust questionnaire:

We Have Never Lived connected Earth by Kasia Van Schaik

We Have Never Lived connected Earth is simply a abbreviated communicative postulation pursuing the communicative of Charlotte Ferrier, raised by a azygous parent successful tiny municipality B.C. aft immigrating from South Africa. Focusing connected themes of ecological situation and womanhood, Charlotte and her parent endure wood fires, disappearances and memories which alteration them.

Van Schaik is simply a South African writer and writer surviving successful Montreal. We Have Never Lived On Earth is her archetypal communicative collection. In 2021, she was named one of the CBC Quebec Writers' Federation writers-in-residence.

Girlfriend connected Mars by Deborah Willis

Girlfriend connected Mars is simply a communicative astir emotion successful the property of commercialized abstraction travel. Amber Kivinen is 1 of 23 world TV contestants vying for 2 spots aboard the archetypal commercialized travel to Mars aboard MarsNow, a abstraction shuttle commissioned by the billionaire Geoff Task. Amber is surrounded by a formed of improbable characters, including an Israeli worker and societal media influencers, portion her semipermanent partner, Kevin, stays astatine location with the plants and starts to wonder: wherefore does his woman consciousness specified a tendency to permission the planet?

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Willis is simply a writer from Calgary. She debuted successful 2009 with Vanishing and Other Stories which was shortlisted for the Governor General's Literary Award. She followed it up with a postulation of abbreviated fabrication entitled The Dark and Other Love Stories successful 2017, which was longlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize and won the Georges Bugnet Award for champion enactment of fabrication published successful Alberta.