TORONTO – Lauded author Madeleine Thien could land another windfall as the glitzy Scotiabank Giller Prize takes place in Toronto Monday night.
The Vancouver-born, Montreal-based writer is up for the $100,000 honour for “Do Not Say We Have Nothing,” which is set in China before, during and after the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.
The top-selling novel recently won a $25,000 Governor General’s Literary Award for fiction, and was a finalist for the prestigious Man Booker Prize.
At a reception at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel held ahead of the televised Giller gala, Thien spent time meeting and greeting several guests who were effusive in their praise of their work.
Among them were former interim Liberal leader Bob Rae. His wife, Arlene Perly Rae, told Thien she spent a portion of their recent road trip in the U.S. reading the book aloud in the car on their journey.
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“I feel kind of like it’s a really wonderful night to celebrate everything that has happened for me, for the shortlisted authors,” Thien said in an interview. “These things don’t come along very often in a writer’s career. I think I just feel really at peace. Happy for the book. So happy for the book.
“Maybe that’s why I’m not nervous,” she added. “The book has found its way into the world. A prize can help that and it has already helped that, but that was the most important thing all along. I wanted it to be read.”
Other Giller finalists this year include Dublin-born, London-Ont.-based Emma Donoghue for “The Wonder” and Montreal-born author Mona Awad for “13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl,” which won the $40,000 Amazon.ca First Novel Award in May.
Hamilton-based Gary Barwin made the cut for “Yiddish for Pirates,” Toronto-based Zoe Whittall is on the list with “The Best Kind of People,” and Montreal’s Catherine Leroux is a finalist for “The Party Wall” translated by Lazer Lederhendler.
“They’re all such good people,” said Thien of her fellow Giller finalists.
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“They’ve all really struggled with their books and they’ve all worked so hard. I think we’re all in it together, and I think there’s a lot of love and support on the shortlist together.”
The six titles were chosen from 161 books submitted by 69 publisher imprints.
Award-winning author Lawrence Hill served as chair of this year’s jury, along with fellow Canadian writers Jeet Heer and Kathleen Winter, British author Samantha Harvey and Scottish writer Alan Warner.
Hill said he re-read all six of the shortlisted titles, and that the jury spent four hours deliberating earlier in the day ahead of the ceremony to select the winner.
“Certainly it’s a bonding experience with the other jurors… so I learned a lot,” Hill said in an interview. “I’m also in a rare position to learn as much as anybody this year about what Canadians are writing.
“It’s humbling to see the breadth of talent. I think Canadians can hold their own against writers around the world.”
CBC Radio host and comedian Steve Patterson will host tonight’s ceremony, which will air on CBC-TV.
Presenters include YouTube star Jus Reign, playwright Ins Choi, musician Tanya Tagaq, and actors Gordon Pinsent, Annie Murphy and Catherine Reitman.
The Giller awards $100,000 annually to the author of the best Canadian novel or short story collection published in English, and $10,000 to each of the finalists.
The prize’s founder, Toronto businessman Jack Rabinovitch, named it in honour of his late wife, literary journalist Doris Giller.
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