The Scotiabank Giller Prize, which awards C$100,000 prize for the best Canadian novel or short story published in English, has announced its shortlist. The shortlisted books are:
French Exit by Patrick deWitt (House of Anansi Press)
Songs for the Cold of Heart by Éric Dupont, translated by Peter McCambridge (QC Fiction/Baraka Books)
Washington Black by Esi Edugyan (Patrick Crean Edition/HarperCollins Canada)
Motherhood by Sheila Heti (Knopf Canada)
An Ocean of Minutes by Thea Lim (Viking Canada)
In addition to the C$100,000 ($78,000) prize going to the winner, C$10,000 ($7,800) goes to each of the finalists.
The shortlist was taken from a longlist of 11 titles. In all, 104 titles were submitted from publishers across the country for consideration. Among this year's shortlist are two authors who were previously shortlisted: Esi Edugyan, who won the prize in 2011 for her novel Half-Blood Blues, and Patrick deWitt, who was shortlisted in 2011 for his novel The Sisters Brothers.
This year the award celebrates its 25th anniversary. The shortlisted authors will tour Canada throughout October and will visit New York and London in November. The winner will be announced at a gala prize ceremony in Toronto on Monday, November 19.
