Author Esi Edugyan takes home the Giller Prize

Put a hold on Half-Blood Blues today!

John Barber
Globe and Mail Update
Published Tuesday, Nov. 08, 2011 10:06PM EST
Last updated Wednesday, Nov. 09, 2011 11:21AM EST

Calgary-born novelist Esi Edugyan has prevailed against almost 150 other Canadian novelists to win the 2011 Scotiabank Giller Prize, worth $50,000.

Clearly taken aback by her triumph, Ms. Edugyan acknowledged her fellow competitors and Patrick Crean of Thomas Allen Publishers, “who saved this book when it most needed saving” following the bankruptcy of Key Porter Books, her original publisher.

Esi Edugyan on her Giller prize win A new mother resplendent in a black gown and sparkling silver necklace, Ms. Edugyan offered special thanks to her father, Kweku, an immigrant from Ghana who brought his family to Canada in the 1970s.

“It's a great blessing to be nominated for four awards but there's also a lot of stress,” she said, adding that she hoped to relax before attending next week's ceremony to award the Governor-General's Literary Award, for which Half-Blood Blues was also nominated.

It's been just a miraculous year in all spheres of my life – an embarrassment of riches,” she said. “I could die tomorrow and everything is wonderful.”

Ms. Edugyan’s award-winning novel is narrated by a long-retired jazz sideman in 20th-century Baltimore who joins an old friend as they revisit Europe to attend the debut of a documentary film about a legendary German trumpet soloist with whom the pair toured the continent in the 1930s. Sid Griffiths deals with mixed emotions and harsh memories as he recalls the trauma of being a black musician in Hitler’s Germany, struggling to make what will become a legendary recording as war descends and fragile trumpeter Hieronymous Falk, the son of a German mother and French colonial soldier, disappears into the maw of the Nazi death machine.

Described by the Giller Prize jury as “a joyful lament,” Half-Blood Blues celebrates the persistence of genius even as it catalogues the sacrifices demanded by art, which in Sid’s case included a lifetime of guilt and regret.

Born in Calgary to Ghanian immigrants, Ms. Edugyan, 33, has enjoyed an eventful career. Currently teaching creative writing at the University of Victoria, she has also taught at Johns Hopkins University and held fellowships in Scotland, Iceland, Germany, Hungary, Finland, Spain and Belgium.

Ms. Edugyan’s first novel, The Second Life of Samuel Tyne, was published internationally to widespread praise in 2004. Its appearance set in doubt by the bankruptcy of publisher Key Porter Books earlier this year, the Canadian edition of Half-Blood Blues was revived from near-death by Thomas Allen Publishers, one of three independent Canadian publishers represented on the six-book Giller shortlist.

Ms. Edugyan won the Giller against an unusually strong list of finalists that included Patrick deWitt’s much-nominated and award-winning The Sisters Brothers, along with two other novels that have drawn glowing reviews internationally: Michael Ondaatje’s The Cat’s Table and David Bezmozgis’s The Free World. Also nominated for the 2011 Giller were Lynn Coady’s novel The Antagonist and Zsuzsi Gartner’s Better Living Through Plastic Explosives, a short-story collection.

Regarded as Canada’s pre-eminent literary prize, the well-promoted and televised Scotiabank Giller Prize routinely transforms winners into bestsellers. Originally published in an edition of a few hundred copies, last year’s winner – The Sentimentalists by Johanna Skibsrud – went on to become one of the best-selling novels of the year.

This year’s prize was awarded by a three-person jury comprised of Howard Norman of the United States, Britain’s Andrew O’Hagan and Canadian novelist Annabel Lyon.

Named for literary journalist Doris Giller, the prize was founded and endowed in 1994 by her husband, Jack Rabinovitch, with the intention of drawing greater attention to Canadian literature and stimulating sales. Co-sponsored by Scotiabank since 2005, the prize has so far generated more than $60-million in book sales, according to organizers.

November Top Ten

Adult Books

The Help by Kathryn Stockett
The Affair by Lee Child
Kill Me if You can by James Patterson
Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay
Lethal by Sandra Brown
Flash and Bones by Kathy Reichs
Shock Wave by John Sandford
Silent Girl by Tess Gerritsen
From This Moment On by Shania Twain (autobiography)
The Cats Table by Michael Ondaatje


Adult DVDs

Bridesmaids
The Kings Speech
Amish Grace
The Green Hornet
Thor
Limitless
Beastly
Jane Eyre
The Grace Card
The Tourist

Sense of an Ending

The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes has won the 2011 Man Booker Prize.

Put a hold on this title today!

October Adult Book Group

The October Adult Book Group has been cancelled. We will meet again on November 17 to discuss Three Cups of Tea.

Edugyan, deWitt shortlisted for Governor General literary award

Edugyan, deWitt shortlisted for Governor General literary award

Victoria Ahearn, The Canadian Press
Oct 11, 2011

The celebration continues for Canadian authors Esi Edugyan and Patrick deWitt.

The authors are now in the running for an astonishing four literary awards apiece this fall. The latest nomination came this morning when both made the short list for the Governor General's Literary Awards.

Victoria-based Edugyan made the cut for Half-Blood Blues, about black jazz musicians trying to survive in Europe during the Second World War

DeWitt is a nominee for The Sisters Brothers, a comical western set amid the 1850s California gold rush.

Both books are already finalists for Britain's Man Booker Prize, the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize.

Toronto author and filmmaker David Bezmozgis is also on the Governor General's list with The Free World, which is also a finalist for the Giller. Other fiction authors up for this year's G-G literary awards include Edmonton's Marina Endicott for The Little Shadows and Alexi Zentner for Touch.

This is the 75th anniversary of the awards, which are administered by the Canada Council for the Arts and honour literature in seven categories, in both official languages.

Winners will be announced on Nov. 15.

A selection of English-language nominees for this year's Governor General's Literary Awards:

Fiction

David Bezmozgis, The Free World (HarperCollins Publishers)

Patrick deWitt, The Sisters Brother (House of Anansi Press)

Esi Edugyan, Half-Blood Blues (Thomas Allen Publishers)

Marina Endicott, The Little Shadow (Doubleday Canada)

Alexi Zentner, Touch (Alfred A. Knopf Canada)

Non-fiction

Charles Foran, Mordecai: The Life & Times (Alfred A. Knopf Canada)

Nathan M. Greenfield, The Damned: The Canadians at the Battle of Hong Kong and the POW Experience, 1941-45 (HarperCollins Publishers)

Richard Gwyn, Nation Maker: Sir John A. Macdonald: His Life, Our Times, Volume Two: 1867-1891 (Random House Canada)

J.J. Lee, The Measure of a Man: The Story of a Father, a Son, and a Suit (McClelland & Stewart)

Andrew Nikiforuk, Empire of the Beetle: How Human Folly and a Tiny Bug Are Killing North America's Great Forests (Greystone Books)

Poetry

Michael Boughn, Cosmographia: A Post-Lucretian Faux Micro-Epic (BookThug)

Kate Eichhorn, Fieldnotes, A Forensic (BookThug)

Phil Hall, Killdeer (BookThug)

Garry Thomas Morse, Discovery Passages (Talonbooks)

Susan Musgrave, Origami Dove (McClelland & Stewart)

October Top Ten

Books

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Kill Me if You Can by James Patterson

Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

The Affair by Lee Child

The Girl who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson

Now You See Her by James Patterson

Room by Emma Donoghue

The Silent Girl by Tess Gerritsen

Summer Rental by Mary Kay Andrews

Happy Birthday by Danielle Steel



DVDs

The Kings Speech

I am Number Four

The Green Hornet

Limitless

Bridesmaids

The Lincoln Lawyer

Just go with It

No Strings Attached

Source Code

The Adjustment

2011 Scotiabank Giller Prize Shortlist

ABOUT THE 2011 SCOTIABANK GILLER PRIZE FINALISTS
Bezmozgis, David | The Free World
published by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.
Click here to read the first few pages Excerpted from THE FREE WORLD by David Bezmozgis. Copyright © 2011 by Nada Films Inc. Excerpted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd. All Rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

Jury Citation:
"This chronicle of the Krasnansky family, Soviet-Jewish refugees are stranded in Rome, has the strange immediacy of a family album where the photographs light up and start talking. The narrative is so often pulled backward in time, it evokes Sholom Aleichem’s proverb that "In Jewish thought eternity resides in the past." But The Free World is also a very modern, very hip, intellectually intimate, electrically comic novel, all the while a passionate re-telling of the most ancient sort of immigrant story, full of vicissitudes, nerv-wracking doubt and unforeseen joys. David Bezmozgis has done the near impossible - given us a story with pointillist detail as well as historically operatic dimensions. A truly magical writer."

Biography:
David Bezmozgis was born in Riga, Latvia, in 1973. In 1980 he immigrated with his parents to Toronto. He received an Honours Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from McGill University and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Southern California School of Cinema-Television. His writing has appeared in magazines such as Harper’s, The New Yorker and The Walrus, and has been anthologized in Best American Short Stories, 2005. Natasha became a national bestseller and was published to widespread critical acclaim. David Bezmozgis lives in Toronto.
Coady, Lynn | The Antagonist
published by House of Anansi Press
Click here to read the first few pages Excerpted from THE ANTAGONIST by Lynn Coady. Copyright © 2011 Lynn Coady. Excerpted by permission of House of Anansi Press Inc. All Rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher. www.anansi.ca

Jury Citation:
"Lynn Coady’s novel The Antagonist is perfectly titled. Its main character, Rank, is hassled, cajoled and bullied by his hockey coach, classmates and most relentlessly by his own outlandish lout of a father into becoming a nearly twisted psychopath. Yet deep down he’s nothing of the sort. In middle age, Rank discovers a secret novel written by his university friend Adam, in which he is harshly depicted. Rank becomes a cyber-stalker, trying to correct in emails all wrongful indictments set forth in the novel. This zany epistolary life comprises one of the most eccentric and memorable autobiographies you’re likely to read. In this antagonistic tour-de-force, Ms. Coady shows us betrayal up close and personal. This author is a virtuoso of sympathetic edginess."

Biography:
Lynn Coady is an award-winning author, editor, and journalist. Her previous novels include Saints of Big Harbour, which was a national bestseller and a Globe and Mail Top 100 book, and Mean Boy, a Globe and Mail Top 100 book. Her popular advice column, Group Therapy, runs weekly in the Globe and Mail. Coady is originally from Cape Breton Island, NS, and is now living in Edmonton, Alberta.
deWitt, Patrick | The Sisters Brothers
published by House of Anansi Press
Click here to read the first few pages Excerpted from THE SISTERS BROTHERS by Patrick deWitt. Copyright © 2011 Patrick deWitt. Excerpted by permission of House of Anansi Press Inc. All Rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher. www.anansi.ca

Jury Citation:
"If you fear that Canadian literary fiction is becoming mortally po-faced, Patrick deWitt’s The Sisters Brothers might be the perfect antidote. Combine equal parts slapstick brutality, howling humour, and prose grace; slug it back neat, brush your teeth for the first time ever with the bemused wonder of a hired assassin on a half-blind horse; and repeat. deWitt has thrown the Western up in the air and brought it down new and strange and ferociously alive."

Biography:
Patrick deWitt was born on Vancouver Island in 1975. He is the author of the critically acclaimed novel Ablutions, which was named a New York Times Editors’ Choice book. He lives in Portland, Oregon, with his wife and son.
Edugyan, Esi | Half-Blood Blues
published by Thomas Allen Publishers
Click here to read the first few pages Excerpted from HALF-BLOOD BLUES by Esi Edugyan. Copyright © 2011 Esi Edugyan. Excerpted by permission of Thomas Allen Publishers. All Rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

Jury Citation:
"Imagine Mozart were a black German trumpet player and Salieri a bassist, and 18th century Vienna were WWII Paris; that’s Esi Edugyan’s joyful lament, Half-Blood Blues. It’s conventional to liken the prose in novels about jazz to the music itself, as though there could be no higher praise. In this case, say rather that any jazz musician would be happy to play the way Edugyan writes. Her style is deceptively conversational and easy, but with the simultaneous exuberance and discipline of a true prodigy. Put this book next to Louis Armstrong’s "West End Blues" - these two works of art belong together."

Biography:
Esi Edugyan has degrees from the University of Victoria and Johns Hopkins University. Her work has appeared in several anthologies, including Best New American Voices 2003. Her debut novel, The Second Life of Samuel Tyne was published internationally to critical acclaim. She lives in Victoria, British Columbia.
Gartner, Zsuzsi | Better Living Through Plastic Explosives
published by Hamish Hamilton Canada
Click here to read the first few pages Excerpted from BETTER LIVING THROUGH PLASTIC EXPLOSIVES by Zsuzsi Gartner. Copyright © Zsuzsi Gartner, 2011. Excerpted by permission of Hamish Hamilton Canada/ Penguin Group (Canada). All Rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

Jury Citation:
"Readers who doubt the modern world is grotesque and hilarious, heart‐stopping and wild, may discover they are delighted with Zsuzsi Gartner’s wonderful collection of stories, Better Living Through Plastic Explosives. From the specifications of covetable stereo equipment to the worries of the former terrorist, from the language of IKEA to gardening as warfare, this book shows the short story form at its savage best, each story capturing, with brilliant economy and grace, not only entire worlds but whole mindsets as they explode into eloquence. Gartner is one of the supreme noticers in contemporary fiction, and with this book she has produced a rare work of wisdom and laughter"

Biography:
Zsuzsi Gartner is the author of the critically acclaimed and bestselling story collection All the Anxious Girls on Earth and the editor of Darwin’s Bastard’s: Astounding Tales from Tomorrow. She is the winner of a 2007 National Magazine Award for Fiction and the recipient of numerous awards for her magazine journalism. She lives in Vancouver.
Ondaatje, Michael | The Cat's Table
published by McClelland & Stewart
Click here to read the first few pages Excerpted from THE CAT’S TABLE by Michael Ondaatje. Copyright © 2011 by Michael Ondaatje. Excerpted by permission of McClelland & Stewart. All Rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

Jury Citation:
"A beautiful mingling of memory and imagination takes place in Michael Ondaatje’s novel The Cat’s Table. It is the early 1950s, and a passenger ship, the Oronsay, makes its way to England over the Indian Ocean and the Arabian Sea, through the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean. On board is our 11-year-old narrator Michael, who eats his meals at the unglamorous cat’s table, where he joins a group of boys and adult eccentrics, all of whom have stories to tell and lives to live, or live down. The journey will change them all in ways that only time will tell. A mature, shimmering work of fiction, Ondaatje’s novel is rich in images, precise in its language, and wise about the way people can be haunted by their own experience."

Biography:
Michael Ondaatje is the author of novels, a memoir, a non-fiction book on film, and 11 books of poetry. His novel The English Patient won the Booker Prize; another of his novels, Anil’s Ghost, won the Irish Times International Fiction Prize, the Giller Prize, and the Prix Medicis
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