2007 Scotiabank Giller Prize for Fiction

LITERARY HEAVYWEIGHTS and former Giller Prize winners Michael Ondaatje and M.G. Vassanji are once again shortlisted for the highest Canadian literary honour. The Scotiabank Giller Prize is probably the leading Canadian prize for fiction and certainly the one with the most hoopla and dollars attached. Both novels and short-story collections are eligible for this prize. Ondaatje has won the Giller Prize once before while Vassanji has won it twice before. Ondaatje won in 2000 for Anil’s Ghost; Vassanji won in 1994 for The Book of Secrets and in 2003 for The In-Between World of Vikram Lall. Competing for the prestigious prize this year are the following authors and their novels:

1. Late Nights on Air (McClelland & Stewart, 2007) / Elizabeth Hay
2. Divisadero (McClelland & Stewart, 2007) / Michael Ondaatje
3. A Secret Between Us (trans. from the French by Donald Winkler) (Douglas & McIntyre, 2007) / Daniel Poliquin
4. The Assassin’s Song (Doubleday Canada, 2007) / M.G. Vassanji
5. Effigy (Random House Canada, 2007) / Alissa York

All novels on this year’s shortlist have a historical theme. “I certainly would by no stretch call every one of these novels historical fiction, but I think history plays a role in every one of them, even if it’s exploring a location or a place that has a historical memory,” novelist Camilla Gibb, one of the three Giller Prize jury members, said after the announcement of the shortlist on Tuesday, October 9, 2007.

The winner of the 2007 Scotiabank Giller Prize for Fiction will be announced on Tuesday, November 6, 2007