Life has been a struggle for Toby Goodman. Her mother died by suicide five years ago, and her father left their small town before Toby was born. Now a teenager living on her grandparents' dairy farm, Toby has trouble letting people in....
Governor General's Literary Awards 2019
The Governor General’s Literary Awards are given annually to the best English-language and the best French-language book in each of seven categories:
- Fiction
- Literary Non-fiction
- Poetry
- Drama
- Young People’s Literature (Text)
- Young People’s Literature (Illustrated Books)
- Translation (from French to English, and English to French).
Check out some of the 2019 finalists, below! More titles will be added to this collection over the coming month, so feel free to check back to see what has been included. While we cannot produce all 70 longlisted titles, we encourage you to request the ones you would like to read, in whatever format you need. To access our request form, log into your NNELS account and search for the book you want; if you cannot find it, look for the link to the title request form above the filters on any page of search results.
For more great Canadian reading, please check out the winners and nominees from 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018.
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Author:Francis, BrianSummary: - Author:Werb, DanSummary:
For decades, American hungers sustained Tijuana. In this scientific detective story, a public health expert reveals what happens when a border city's lifeline is brutally severed. Despite its reputation as a carnival of vice, Tijuana...
- Author:Micros, MarianneSummary:
Myth, folklore, and magic permeate the stories in Marianne Micros' collection Eye. Set in ancient and modern Greece, and in contemporary Europe and North America, these tales tell of evil-eye curses, women healers, ghosts, a changeling...
- Author:Thomas, JoanSummary:
In the tradition of The Poisonwood Bible and State of Wonder, a novel set in the rainforest of Ecuador about five women left behind when their missionary husbands are killed. Based on the shocking real-life events In 1956, a small group...
- Author:Walker, AlanSummary:
A landmark biography of the Polish composer by a leading authority on Chopin and his time.Based on ten years of research and a vast cache of primary sources located in archives in Warsaw, Paris, London, New York, and Washington, D.C.,...
- Author:Benaway, GwenSummary:
In her third collection of poetry, Holy Wild, Gwen Benaway explores the complexities of being an Indigenous trans woman in expansive lyric poems. She holds up the Indigenous trans body as a site of struggle, liberation, and beauty. A...
- Author:Bruck, JulieSummary:
Both "grave and brave, serious and hilarious"-new poems from a Governor General's Award-winning poet.
- Author:Miller, K. D.Summary:
Linked short stories based on the paintings of Alex Colville and haunted by supernatural elements.
- Author:Boulerice, SimonSummary:
Elliot adore les nuages, mais il déteste les taches blanches qui sont apparues sur ses mains et grandissent un peu plus chaque jour. À l’école, ses camarades de classe, intrigués, commencent à poser des questions. Pourquoi changes-tu de...
- Author:Parris, AmandaSummary:
In this striking debut, Amanda Parris turns the spotlight on the Black women who organize communities, support their incarcerated loved ones, and battle institutions, living each day by a ride-or-die philosophy, strengthening their...
- Author:Harvey, Brian J.Summary:
"An adventure story set against the backdrop of a son trying to understand his father. After a 25-year break from boating, Brian Harvey circumnavigates Vancouver Island with his wife, his dog, and a box of documents that surfaced after...
- Author:Bow, ErinSummary:
Twelve--year-old Aisulu defies the expectations of her Kazakh family and tradition to train an eagle in order to save her brother, Serik, and prevent her family from giving up their nomadic life forever.
- Author:Caillé, Anne-Renée, Mullins, RhondaSummary:
He tells her about cases he remembers. The two young women found in the forest, the drowned boy whose organs were eaten by eels, the casket that caught on fire at the funeral. He reveals the secrets of his profession. The powder that...
- Author:Treggiari, JoSummary:
"D and Spider have always been close friends, and they are further united in their shared heartbreak: they both lost siblings in a horrific plane crash two years earlier. A chance sighting of a beloved cuddly toy in a photograph of the...
- Author:Crummey, MichaelSummary:
A brother and sister are orphaned in an isolated cove on Newfoundland's northern coastline. Their home is a stretch of rocky shore governed by the feral ocean, by a relentless pendulum of abundance and murderous scarcity. Still children...
- Author:Fagan, CarySummary:
"Set in Toronto, this short novel is a portrait of two pivotal times in the life of Miriam Moscowitz. The first section describes her experiences as a bright young university student in the 1950s and recounts the discrimination she...
- Author:Lewis, Naomi K.Summary:
When her marriage suddenly ends, and a diary documenting her beloved grandfather's escape from Nazi-occupied Netherlands in the summer of 1942 is discovered, Naomi K. Lewis decides to retrace his journey to learn about her family...
- Author:Gillmor, DonSummary:
An eloquent and haunting exploration of suicide in which one of Canada's most gifted writers attempts to understand why his brother took his own life. Which leads him to another powerful question: Why are boomers killing themselves at a...
- Author:Thuy, KimSummary:
The perfect complement to the exquisitely wrought novels Ru and MAn, Canada Reads winner Kim ThUy returns with Vi, exploring the lives, loves and struggles of Vietnamese refugees as they reinvent themselves in new lands. The daughter of...
