Late last evening (Nov 7th), judges announced this year’s winner of the Scotiabank Giller Prize for Fiction. Before sharing the announcement, a couple housekeeping matters:
First, I would recommend all the books on the short list. They are very different, one from another, and each has something unique to commend it. From Noor Naga’s playful, almost experimental approach to story telling; to Suzette Mayr’s strictly linear account that suggests the strict limits of the rail line that carries her characters; to Rawi Hage’s intellectually fraught stories that take us from Berlin to Beirut, from Montreal to Predappio; to Tsering Yangsom Lama’s expansive novel of the Tibetan diaspora; to Kim Fu’s whimsical stories of suburban angst. Below, I have posted links to my thoughts about each of the works.
Much has been made of the fact that every author on the short list represents a visible minority and that is cause for celebration. I don’t suppose that fact alone is so strange given Canada’s shifting demographics and given (relative to most other countries) its accelerating immigration policy. And the Canadian literary establishment has many precursors. While Margaret Atwood and Alice Munro and Timothy Findley were making a name for themselves, so were Michael Ondaatje and Dionne Brand and Austin Clarke.
It’s no good talking about changing demographics and aspirational policies around representation if there is no systemic support to ensure that those voices get heard. That, I think, is why the current short list is cause for celebration: it offers tangible evidence that Canada’s aspirational policies might just be working. And if you read these books, I’m sure you’ll find, as I have, that it is to the enrichment of everyone.
Second, a note about my personal favourite, recognizing that personal bias colours my opinion. As a sometime photographer, I cannot help but be drawn to Rawi Hage’s short stories. Seven of his eleven short stories touch on photography in one way or another and each of those stories raise issues, sometimes admittedly erudite issues, that nag at me personally whenever I take up a camera.
And the winner is … Suzette Mayr for The Sleeping Car Porter. Congratulations!