Arts·Video

Your life-changing reading list: Giller-nominated authors share the books that rocked their world

From The Hobbit to Slaughterhouse-Five, Scotiabank Giller Prize-shortlisted authors open up about the one book that changed their life.

From The Hobbit to Slaughterhouse-Five, the authors open up about the one book that changed their life

Your life-changing reading list: Giller-nominated authors share the book that rocked their world

7 years ago
Duration 2:18
This year's five Scotiabank Giller Prize-shortlisted authors — Rachel Cusk, Ed O’Loughlin, Michael Redhill, Eden Robinson, and Michelle Winters — reveal the one book by another author that changed their life.

This Monday night, the Scotiabank Giller Prize will be awarded to the author of the best Canadian novel or short story published in English. It's a monumental prize for any Canadian author with its $100,000 purse and an inevitable big bump in book sales. But before one of the five shortlisted author's life is changed on Monday, the five finalists — Rachel Cusk, Ed O'Loughlin, Michael Redhill, Eden Robinson and Michelle Winters — each revealed the one book by another author that has already changed their life.

Here are their life-changing reads:

Bear by Marian Engel, Seal Books; The Collected works of Billy The Kid by Michael Ondaatje, Vintage Canada; The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, George Allen & Unwin; Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Delta; The Rainbow by D.H. Lawrence, Penguin Classics

Rachel Cusk, author of  Transit: The Rainbow by D.H. Lawrence 

Ed O'Loughlin, author of Minds of Winter: Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

Michael Redhill, author of Bellevue Square: The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

Eden Robinson, author of Son of a Trickster: The Collected Works of Billy the Kid by Michael Ondaatje

Michelle Winters, author of I Am a Truck: Bear by Marian Engel

Dying to know who will take the prize? Here's how you can tune in!

ON TV: CBC TV will broadcast the gala at 8 p.m. local time (12:30 a.m. AT/1:00 a.m. NT).

ONLINE: CBC Books will livestream the gala at 8 p.m. ET.

ON THE RADIO: CBC Radio will air a broadcast special hosted by The Next Chapter host Shelagh Rogers and q columnist Jael Richardson at 8 p.m. (9 p.m. AT/9:30 p.m. NT).

Explore the 2017 Scotiabank Giller Prize shortlist: