BKonthescene

By Steph C

The Scotiabank Giller Prize, Canada’s most prestigious literary award, celebrated its 30th anniversary at the Four Seasons Hotel in Toronto on November 13, 2023. Established in 1994 by Jack Rabinovitch in honour of his late wife, Doris Giller, it recognizes outstanding works that captivate with narrative excellence.  This year’s televised star-studded gala was hosted by Canadian TV icon Rick Mercer and attended by over 300 guests, including distinguished authors John Irving and Margaret Atwood.

Sarah Bernstein won the 2023 Scotiabank Giller Prize for her novel Study for Obedience.

(Knopf Canada)

Of Bernstein’s book, published by Knopf, the jury wrote:

“The modernist experiment continues to burn incandescently in Sarah Bernstein’s slim novel, Study for Obedience. Bernstein asks the indelible question: what does a culture of subjugation, erasure, and dismissal of women produce? In this book, equal parts poisoned and sympathetic, Bernstein’s unnamed protagonist goes about exacting, in shockingly twisted ways, the price of all that the world has withheld from her. The prose refracts Javier Marias sometimes, at other times Samuel Beckett. It’s an unexpected and fanged book, and its own studied withholdings create a powerful mesmeric effect.”

Bernstein is from Montreal and is currently living in Scotland. She joined the evening virtually and could not make the trip to Toronto as she had given birth to a new baby only 10 days prior.

The authors on the 2023 Scotiabank Giller Prize shortlist were:

• Sarah Bernstein for her novel Study For Obedience, published by Knopf Canada
• Eleanor Catton for her novel Birnam Wood, published by McClelland & Stewart
• Kevin Chong for his novel The Double Life of Benson Yu, published by Simon & Schuster
• Dionne Irving for her short story collection, The Islands: Stories, published by Catapult
• CS Richardson for his novel All The Colour in the World, published by Knopf Canada

This year’s jury, made up of Canadian authors Ian Williams (jury chair), Sharon Bala and Brian Thomas Isaac, and American author Rebecca Makkai and Indian-British writer, Neel Mukherjee, narrowed down the 145 submitted works to five to create this year’s shortlisted authors.