Rogers Writers Trust of Canada has announced its shortlist for this year's prize. This award. From the website, "One of Canada’s premiere literary events, the Writers’ Trust Awards
feature the presentation of six awards and more than $100,000, making it
one of the richest awards nights in the country. This year marks the event’s 12th anniversary and will be a celebration
of the year’s best books and the achievements of Canada’s supreme
literary talents."
The Tinsmith (M)
by Tim Bowling
"During the bloodiest single-day battle in
American history, Anson Baird, a surgeon for the Union Army, is on the
front line tending to the wounded. As the number of casualties rises, a
mysterious soldier named John comes to Anson's aid. Deeply affected by
the man's selfless actions, Anson soon realizes that John is no ordinary
soldier, and that he harbors a dangerous secret. In the bizarre
aftermath of the Battle of Antietam, this secret forges an intense bond
between the two men. Twenty years later
on the other side of the continent, Anson discovers his old
comrade-in-arms is mysteriously absent, an apparent victim of the
questionable business ethics of the pioneer salmon canners. Haunted by
the violence of his past, and disillusioned with his present, Anson is
compelled to discover the fate of his missing friend, a fate
inextricably linked to his own." publisher
by Tim Bowling
"During the bloodiest single-day battle in
American history, Anson Baird, a surgeon for the Union Army, is on the
front line tending to the wounded. As the number of casualties rises, a
mysterious soldier named John comes to Anson's aid. Deeply affected by
the man's selfless actions, Anson soon realizes that John is no ordinary
soldier, and that he harbors a dangerous secret. In the bizarre
aftermath of the Battle of Antietam, this secret forges an intense bond
between the two men. Twenty years later
on the other side of the continent, Anson discovers his old
comrade-in-arms is mysteriously absent, an apparent victim of the
questionable business ethics of the pioneer salmon canners. Haunted by
the violence of his past, and disillusioned with his present, Anson is
compelled to discover the fate of his missing friend, a fate
inextricably linked to his own." publisherby Tamas Dobozy
"In December of 1944, the Red Army entered Budapest to begin one of
the bloodiest sieges of the Second World War. By February, the siege was
over, but its effects were to be felt for decades afterward. Siege 13
is a collection of thirteen linked stories about this terrible time in
history, both its historical moment, but also later, as a legacy of
silence, haunting, and trauma that shadows the survivors.Set in both
Budapest before and after the siege, and in the present day -- in
Canada, the U.S., and parts of Europe -- Siege 13
traces the ripple effect of this time on characters directly involved,
and on their friends, associates, sons, daughters, grandchildren, and
adoptive countries." publisherCarnival (M)
by Rawi Hage
"In the Carnival city there are two types of taxi drivers — the
spiders and the flies. The spiders patiently sit in their cars and wait
for the calls to come. But the flies are wanderers — they roam the
streets, looking for the raised hands of passengers among life's
perpetual flux. Fly is a wanderer and a knower. Raised in the
circus, the son of a golden-haired trapeze artist and a flying carpet
pilot from the East, he is destined to drift and observe. From his taxi
we see the world in all its carnivalesque beauty and ugliness. We meet
criminals, prostitutes, madmen, magicians, and clowns of many kinds. We
meet ordinary people going to extraordinary places, and revolutionaries
trying to live ordinary lives. Hunger and injustice claw at the city,
and books provide the only true shelter. And when the Carnival starts,
all limits dissolve, and a gunshot goes off." publisherInside (M)
by Alix Ohlin
"When Grace, a highly competent and devoted therapist in Montreal,
stumbles across a man in the snowy woods who has failed to hang himself,
her instinct to help immediately kicks in. Before long, however, she
realizes that her feelings for this charismatic, extremely guarded
stranger are far from straightforward. At the same
time, her troubled teenage patient, Annie, runs away and soon will
reinvent herself in New York as an aspiring and ruthless actress, as
unencumbered as humanly possible by any personal attachments. And Mitch,
Grace's ex-husband, a therapist as well, leaves the woman he's
desperately in love with to attend to a struggling native community in
the bleak Arctic. We follow these four compelling, complex characters
from Montreal and New York to Hollywood and Rwanda, each of them with a
consciousness that is utterly distinct and urgently convincing. With a
razor-sharp emotional intelligence, Inside poignantly explores the
manifold dangers and imperatives of making ourselves available to, and
indeed responsible for, those dearest to us." publisherThe Purchase (M)
by Linda Spalding
"In 1798, Daniel Dickinson, a young Quaker father and widower, leaves his
home in Pennsylvania to establish a new life. He sets out with two
horses, a wagonful of belongings, his five children, a 15-year-old
orphan wife, and a few land warrants for his future homestead. When
Daniel suddenly trades a horse for a young slave, Onesimus, it sets in
motion a struggle in his conscience that will taint his life forever,
and sets in motion a chain of events that lead to two murders and the
family's strange relationship with a runaway slave named Bett. Stripped
down and as hard-edged as the realities of pioneer life, Spalding's
writing is nothing short of stunning, as it instantly envelops the
reader in the world and time of the novel, and follows the lives of
unforgettable characters. Inspired by stories of the author's own
ancestors, The Purchase is a resonant, powerful and timeless novel." publisher
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