The Giller Prize, the biggest literary prize in Canada, announced its longlist on September 8. Over the past couple years, it has become the most reliable of the major prize lists for pointing me to amazing books. So in today’s deep dive, I’ll look at my impressions of the list ten days in. But first, the roundup.
Roundup
Music
Last week was the calm before this week’s new music storm, which is well demonstrated by the fact that my favourite three songs of the week all came from soundtracks. But there were solid new album releases from This Is Lorelei (The Singer in My Band) and The Tubs (Hard Life) to keep me in new music for the week. But what a storm this week was, with new albums from Orville Peck (Mule), Carly Rae Jepson (Day and Night), beabadoobie (Pylon), Tove Lo (ESTRUS), Lizzy McAlpine (Angel), and Miley Cyrus (Bass Persuades). To be honest, none of the albums blew me away, but the Miley album was the most successful of the lot for me. It feels fresh but also very Miley, which is all one can ask for from an artist in their third decade of relevance.
Albums
- The Singer in My Band (This is Lorelei)
- Hard Life (The Tubs)
- Not Bad for New Jersey (Brian Fallon)
- Westside Whimsy (Jhené Aiko)
- Mule (Orville Peck)
- Pylon (beabadoobie)
- Bass Persuades (Miley Cyrus)
- Day and Night (Carly Rae Jepsen)
- Angel (Lizzy McAlpine)
Songs
- “Caught Myself Believing” (Bleachers)
- “Blur” (Aldae)
- “So Good (ft. Kendrick Lamar)” (Jhené Aiko)
- “LA Wants Me Dead” (Troye Sivan)
- “Big Ol’ House” (Orville Peck)
- “Let’s Get Married” (Miley)
- “That’s Just Me” (Carly Rae Jepsen)
Reading
- A Clubbable Woman (Reginald Hill, 1970)
- The Age of Calamities (Senaa Ahmad, 2026 🇨🇦)
- Troubles (J.G. Farrell, 1970)
- The Bookshop (Penelope Fitzgerald, 1978)
- Switzy (Emma Cline, 2026)
- The Vivisectors (Missouri Williams, 2026)
- The Novice of Holloway Hall (Wayne Johnston, 2026 🇨🇦)
- Wild People Quiet (Tara Gereaux, 2026 🇨🇦)
- The Golden Boy (Patricia Finn, 2026 🇨🇦)
- The Unravelling of Ou (Hollay Ghadery, 2026 🇨🇦)
- The Winter Witch (Jennifer Chevalier, 2026 🇨🇦)
- Riverwork (Lisa Robertson, 2026 🇨🇦)
- At Sea in a Sieve (Cordelia Strube, 2026 🇨🇦)
- Exit Party (Emily St. John Mandel, 2026 🇨🇦)
Focus on: Early Thoughts on The Giller Prize Longlist
As I said in the introduction, in recent years the Giller Prize longlist has become one of my most reliable recommendation sources. So naturally I was eagerly awaiting its announcement on September 8. Once again, they’ve produced a fun and diverse set of stories, ranging from accessible historical stories to dense philosophical fiction. A lot of the books were available in my various libraries so I’ve been able to make a great dent in the list already. Here are some early thoughts:
Books I’ve read and loved
- At Sea in a Sieve (Cordelia Strube): A judge’s wrestling with questions of justice leaks into her personal relationships. I wasn’t sure what I’d think about this one, but I ended up loving it. It’s a rich character study that was also very readable and entertaining.
- The Novice of Holloway Hall (Wayne Johnston): A staunchly Roman Catholic (by tradition and vocation if not in behaviour) family tries to maintain its iron grip over a small Newfoundland community. I thought this was nothing short of brilliant; it uses a delightful narrative voice to contrast the increasingly dark story.
- The Unravelling of Ou (Hollay Ghadery): A middle-aged woman is oddly tied to a sock-puppet. This was a delightful and insightful surprise of a novel and not at all what I expected.
Books I’ve read and liked
- Riverwork (Lisa Robertson): A journey along a lost Parisian river, meditating on those who worked along its waters. This is brilliant, but is more a series of philosophical vignettes with only the loosest narrative framing. Come looking for beautiful writing and to be made to think, not to be told a story.
- Wild People Quiet (Tara Gereaux): The secrets of a Métis woman passing for White in 1940s Saskatchewan catch up to her. This is a very good story with important things to say, but I found myself disappointed with the sentence-level writing.
- The Winter Witch (Jennifer Chevalier): Norman girls sent to New France as wives for colonists get caught up in witch-hunt. This is an accessible novel that does enough surprising things to set it apart from the typical witch-hunt story.
- The Golden Boy (Patricia Finn): A man is confronted by his past halfway across the world. This was a study in contrasts for me. It does amazing things with character, relationships, and literary detail, but there were pacing problems caused by extensive back-stories that didn’t seem to actually justify the present events.
Books I’m excited to read:
- Your Breath in Charcoal (Nicholas Herring): A small-town man’s adventures in the big city.
- Cleo Dang Would Rather Be Dead (Mai Nguyen): A winning story about resilience in the face of loss.
- Eliza Sunshine (Michelle Good): A multi-generational story of Indigenous lives.
Books I hope to read:
- Dodge City (Patrick DeWitt): A 1960s draft-dodger undertakes a desperate road trip.
- Daphnis and Chloe (Colin McAdam): A myth retelling focusing on beauty and love.
- The Small Ones (Nazanine Hozar): The story of child human shields in the Iran-Iraq War. This just sounds really hard. We’ll see.
- Good People (Patmeena Sabit): A story of immigration and assumptions. The only reason why I may not read this one is that I’ve heard so many people rave about it, I feel like I’ve already read it!
Matthew Root 