The
shortlist for the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Award was announced today. Here are descriptions of the five nominees (from
http://www.amazon.ca/):
Fifteen Dogs by André Alexis
A bet between
the gods Hermes and Apollo leads them to grant human consciousness and language
to a group of dogs overnighting at a Toronto veterinary clinic. Suddenly capable of more complex thought, the
pack is torn between those who resist the new ways of thinking, preferring the
old 'dog' ways, and those who embrace the change. The gods watch from above as the dogs venture
into their newly unfamiliar world, as they become divided among themselves, as
each struggles with new thoughts and feelings.
Note: This novel also appears on the Scotiabank
Giller Prize longlist.
His Whole Life by Elizabeth Hay
Starting with
something as simple as a boy who wants a dog, His Whole Life takes us into a world where everything that matters
to him is at risk: family, nature, home.
At the outset ten-year-old Jim and his Canadian mother and American
father are on a journey from New York City to a lake in eastern Ontario during
the last hot days of August. What unfolds
is a story that spans a few pivotal years of his youth. Moving from city to
country, summer to winter, wellbeing to illness, the novel charts the deepening
bond between mother and son even as the family comes apart. Set in the mid-1990s, when Quebec is on the
verge of leaving Canada, this novel is an unconventional coming of age story.
Note: I
reviewed this novel on August 18.
Red Jacket by Pamela Mordecai
Growing up
on the Caribbean island of St. Chris, Grace Carpenter never feels like she
really belongs. Although her large, extended family is black, she is a redibo. Her skin is copper-coloured, her hair is red,
and her eyes are grey. A neighbour
taunts her, calling her “a little red jacket,” but the reason for the insult is
never explained. Only much later does
Grace learn the story of her birth mother and decipher the mystery surrounding
her true identity.
Confidence by Russell Smith
In the
stories of Confidence, there are
ecstasy-taking PhD students, financial traders desperate for husbands, owners
of failing sex stores, violent and unremovable tenants, aggressive raccoons,
seedy massage parlours, experimental filmmakers who record every second of
their day, and wives who blog insults directed at their husbands. There are cheating husbands. There are private clubs, crowded restaurants,
and psychiatric wards.
Note: This short story collection also appears on
the Scotiabank Giller Prize longlist.
The Jaguar’s Children by John Vaillant
Hector, a
young Zapotec fleeing Mexico for a better life in the U.S. with his friend
Cesar, a biotech researcher, pays to be smuggled across the border by
unscrupulous "coyotes," concealed in the tightly sealed, empty tank
of a water truck packed with illegal migrants. Abandoned by the smugglers in the desert, they
are left to die, their only lifeline Cesar's phone. When Cesar slips into unconsciousness, Hector
reaches out to the one name with an American code--AnniMac--that becomes his
lifeline to the world as he reveals what has brought him to this place, taking
us back to an older Mexico, to the lives of his Zapotec grandparents and the
ancient, mythic traditions, to the mystery behind the jaguar icon left to him
by a mysterious archeologist, and the power of the corn myth. The dangers Cesar is fleeing become apparent
as does the importance of his survival.
The winner
of the $25,000 prize will be announced on November 3, 2015.
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