12 Nov 08 Congratulations to Joseph Boyden – winner of the 2008 ScotiaBank Giller Prize for Through Black Spruce

Despite being about 100 books behind on my reading list, I’m still quite interested in good books and so I have to congratulate Joseph Boyden for his work Through Black Spruce. He has Metis roots and, in a quote to CTV News, he spoke of the silver lining that surrounds the oft-reported sad reality of life in Aboriginal communities in Canada;

…We always hear about the diabetes and the suicide rates among Canada’s Native peoples. But there is such a beauty in them - and in the land. I wanted to get that across to people in this book…

I usually tend to gravitate towards more escapist reading (when it comes to fiction at least) to give my mind a break from the technical and business literature, but in this case it sounds like it’s worthwhile reading.

He gets $50,000 from ScotiaBank as part of the prize, but the true reward (business wise) is no doubt in the widespread exposure his books will now get.

If you’re looking to buy the book (in hardcover only for now) it’s US $17.79 on Amazon.com, $21.42 at both Amazon Canada and Chapters / Indigo.

A suggestion though: if you are a member of Costco Wholesale you may want to hold off purchasing until they get it in a Costco warehouse store – while Costco has very limited numbers of books they generally offer huge discounts (often cheaper than both Amazon and Chapters / Indigo) off the cover price of new books.

Tags: Books, Giller Prize, Joseph Boyden, Shopping, Through Black Spruce