These five authors offered up hypnotic, mesmerizing stories to this year’s jury. Each one rare, each one unique. The jury agonized over the final five books, arguing passionately and forcefully for their choices. The list and the authors they ultimately arrived at showcases the depth and breadth of Canadian literature. Congratulations to all.
– Elana Rabinovitch, Executive Director, Scotiabank Giller Prize
This year's winner will be announced live on CBC on November 13, 2023, at 9 p.m. CBC Gem will stream the ceremony, with a livestream also available on cbcbooks.ca/gillerprize. Listeners can tune in to the broadcast special on CBC Radio One and CBC Listen at 9 p.m.
Study for Obedience by Sarah Bernstein
With a sharp, lyrical voice, Sarah Bernstein powerfully explores questions of complicity and power, displacement, and inheritance. Study for Obedience is a finely tuned, unsettling novel that confirms Bernstein as one of the most exciting voices of her generation.
Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton
Birnam Wood is Shakespearean in its drama, Austenian in its wit, and, like both influences, fascinated by what makes us who we are. It is an unflinching look at the surprising consequences of even our most well-intended actions and an enthralling consideration of the human impulse to ensure our own survival.
The Double Life of Benson Yu by Kevin Chong
A fresh, unique work of metafiction that follows a graphic novelist who loses control of his own narrative when he attempts to write the story of his fraught upbringing in 1980s Chinatown.
The Islands by Dionne Irving
The Islands follows the lives of Jamaican women — immigrants or the descendants of immigrants, who have relocated all over the world to escape the ghosts of colonialism. Dionne Irving reveals the intricacies of immigration and assimilation in this debut set in locations and times ranging from 1950s London to 1960s Panama to modern-day New Jersey, establishing a new and unforgettable voice in Caribbean-American literature.
All the Colour in the World by C.S. Richardson
The story of the restorative power of art in one man's life, set against the sweep of the twentieth century, from Toronto in the '20s and '30s, through the killing fields of World War II, to 1960s Sicily.
