The novel tells the story of a Roman Catholic priest who is tasked with keeping his colleagues in line and stamping out sex abuse scandals before they go public.
MacIntyre, who is best known for his work with the CBC's "The Fifth Estate," beat out Kim Echlin, Annabel Lyon, Colin McAdam and Anne Michaels to take home the $50,000 prize.
Read more...http://scotiabankgillerprize.ca
If you read any of his books, we'd love to hear your views. Blog his writing...post a comment below
Joseph Boyden is a one-time punk-rocker and street kid who grew up in
suburban Toronto, but he also spent time on reserves in northern Ontario. Boyden
is part Metis, with family in the Ojibwa tribe. His roots have had a huge impact
on his work - especially his critically acclaimed novels: 'Three Day Road' and
the Giller-winning 'Through Black Spruce.' Today, Boyden splits his time between
Northern Ontario and the University of New Orleans, where he teaches writing. Up
next from Boyden is a biography of Louis Riel and he continues the story from
'Three Day Road' and 'Through Black Spruce' in a third novel, due out in
2012.(CBC)
Growing up in Willowdale, Ontario, in the 1970s, Joseph Boyden was a typical little boy. He loved the outdoors, and along with his seven siblings would play war games and cowboys and Indians and roughhouse in the schoolyard next door. They would chase the goats that their father, an old-fashioned doctor, occasionally accepted as payment for his medical services. Joseph Boyden is 38 years old. He teaches Canadian literature and creative writing at the University of New Orleans and splits his time between Louisiana and Canada, which remains home to his mother and most of his siblings, as well as his 14-year-old son Jacob, who lives in Toronto with his mother. Boyden has been married for nine years to an American who’s also a writer; Amanda Boyden’s first novel, Pretty Little Dirty, will be released by Vintage U.S. next year.
Boyden has published one previous book, the 2001 short-story collection Born with a Tooth.
Most of the stories unfold on reserves and examine the joys and
tribulations of native life. (Boyden’s ancestry is partly native.) The
book was well received, but readers may not be prepared for the
transformative, history-shaping power of Three-Day Road, which
hits bookstores next month. The novel was inspired by the life of
Ojibwa Francis Pegahmagabow, the legendary First World War sniper. It’s
told partly from the perspective of Xavier Bird, a Cree soldier who
returns to Northern Ontario after the war, wounded in body, crushed in
spirit, and addicted to morphine. Xavier is met in Moose Factory,
Ontario, by his aunt Niska, and as she paddles him back to her home in
the bush, he recalls the bloody experiences of the war. Meanwhile Niska
attempts to keep him alive by narrating her own life story. The novel
encompasses a myriad of themes, the motif of death being foremost, and
it parallels the brutal massacre known as the first modern war and the
destruction of native culture with subtle poignancy.( Quill-Quire)
Note: Nest Book: Biography of Louis Riel
