It’s that time of year again: the longlist for the Giller Prize has been announced.
The list comprises 10 novels and two short story collections by a mix of mainstream publishers and independent presses.
The list is as follows (hyperlinks take you to publisher websites):
- Mona Awad for her novel 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl, published by Penguin Canada
- Gary Barwin for his novel Yiddish for Pirates, published by Random House Canada
- Andrew Battershill for his novel Pillow, published by Coach House Books
- David Bergen for his novel Stranger, published by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
- Emma Donoghue for her novel The Wonder, published by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
- Catherine Leroux for her novel The Party Wall, published by Biblioasis International Translation Series, translated by Lazer Lederhendler
- Kathy Page for her story collection The Two of Us, published by A John Metcalf Book, an imprint of Biblioasis
- Susan Perly for her novel Death Valley, published by Buckrider Books, an imprint of Wolsak and Wynn Publishers
- Kerry Lee Powell for her story collection Willem De Kooning’s Paintbrush, published by HarperAvenue, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
- Steven Price for his novel By Gaslight, published by McClelland & Stewart
- Madeleine Thien for her novel Do Not Say We Have Nothing, published by Alfred A. Knopf Canada
- Zoe Whittall for her novel The Best Kind of People, published by House of Anansi Press Inc.
The shortlist will be announced on Monday 26 September, and the winner of the $100,000 prize named on Monday 7 November.
To find out more about the Scotiabank Giller Prize, please visit the official website.
KevinfromCanada 
September 8, 2016 at 1:22 pm |
It will be hard to read a few to read, but for me, Bergen is a must.
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September 8, 2016 at 2:32 pm |
Thanks for keeping me on your mailing list and for this post……………………Rose McIntyre
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September 8, 2016 at 4:55 pm |
Thanks for the list, and it’s nice to be reminded of Kevin this way. A lot of topical books on the list and as usual I haven’t read a single one.
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September 8, 2016 at 6:14 pm |
I’m please to see that I have a copy of Do not Say We Have Nothing, but I haven’t yet found a blog that reviews Canadian Lit to help us make sense of a list like this…
Kevin is irreplaceable.
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September 9, 2016 at 3:45 am |
Usually when the Giller longlist is announced I’ll have already read a few of them. This year has been so crazy busy that I’ve read only one (“William De Kooning’s Paintbrush”, which I found to be a bit of a mixed bag) though I hope at some point to get to Bergen and Page (both of whom I’ve read before and enjoyed) and Price and Whittall (both of which sound good).
I must say I haven’t even bought much CanLit this year, let alone read it. There just hasn’t been a whole lot that has caught my eye – I read Amy Jones’s “We’re All in This Together”, David Szalay’s “All That Man Is” and Kris Bertin’s “Bad Things Happen” and have copies of David Adams Richard’s “Principles to Live By” and Christy Ann Conlin’s “Memento”, but that’s it. Normally I’ll have bought at least twenty eligible books by this point in the year.
Lovely to see Kevin’s blog being used for this announcement, even if it is, as Lisa points out, a reminder of how irreplaceable he is and how much he is missed.
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September 9, 2016 at 10:20 am |
Surprising that the other Canadian novel on the Booker longlist, ‘All That Man Is’ by David Szalay, is not on the Giller longlist.
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September 9, 2016 at 3:24 pm |
Thank you for keeping me on your mailing list.
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September 11, 2016 at 4:07 pm |
It’s so true that Kevin is irreplaceable and we won’t be the same Shadow Giller without him. But we do want to carry on this year in his honour. Kimbofo will post about that soon. We won’t be able to read the full longlist before the shortlist announcement, but we will read the shortlist, post reviews and vote.
I’ll say this about the longlist — this is the first year I haven’t already read any books on it. Though I do have Madeleine Thien’s ready to go (waylaid by book club reading). I hear great things about the Bergen (I have high hopes for that, his last one didn’t for it for me) and am interested in the Whittall, Price and Awad.
We will have more to come soon!
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September 12, 2016 at 1:56 pm |
How wonderful that the blog is here as a vital reminder of past discussions about good stories. A lovely tribute. I’m looking forward to following the reviews here, hearing what other readers have to say about this year’s Giller list, recalling emails exchanged with Kevin in past years as this season rolled around.
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September 21, 2016 at 4:57 am |
Great to hear there will be a Shadow Giller this year. Glad Naomi will be reviewing too!
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