Scotiabank Giller Prize: Five finalists announced

TORONTO – Sarah Bernstein’s absurdist novel “Study for Obedience” landed on another shortlist Wednesday – this time for the $100,000 Scotiabank Giller Prize.

Bernstein is also in the running for the Booker Prize for her second work, about an unnamed narrator who moves to an unfriendly country to become her brother’s housekeeper.

The list of five finalists, announced Wednesday, also includes Eleanor Catton for “Birnam Wood,” which casts guerrilla gardeners in the path of a not-so-eccentric billionaire. Catton won the 2013 Booker for her second novel, The Luminaries, which also won the Governor General’s Literary Award.

Kevin Chong made the shortlist for The Double Life of Benson Yu, a metafictional work in which a graphic novel author reluctantly confronts his difficult childhood.

Dionne Irving’s The Islands: Stories, about the lives of Jamaican women and the forces that shape them, was the only short story collection to make the shortlist.

Rounding out the shortlist is Giller’s longlist veteran CS Richardson’s novel All the Colors of the World, about the remarkable life of an artist. He was longlisted for the prize in 2012 for “The Emperor of Paris.”

This year Giller is celebrating its 30th anniversary. It is awarded to the author of the best Canadian novel, graphic novel or short story collection in English.

The Giller was founded in 1994 by Jack Rabinovitch in memory of his late wife, the literary journalist Doris Giller.

“Over the last 30 years, the prize has become a cultural institution in Canada and, I would say, beyond, and is a beacon of Canadian literary talent around the world,” said Laura Curtis Ferrera, chief marketing officer of Scotiabank.

This year’s shortlist was compiled from 145 works. The prize – Canada’s largest fiction prize – will be presented on November 13 at a televised event hosted by Rick Mercer.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 11, 2023.