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The 25 greatest Canadian debut novels

Every writer has to start somewhere — and these 25 Canadian writers started at the top.

CBC Books · CBC · Posted: May 05, 2017 1:39 PM EDT | Last Updated: July 21, 2017

Every writer has to start somewhere — and these 25 Canadian writers started at the top. Here are the 25 greatest Canadian debut novels ever written.

The great Canadian reading list: 150 books to read for Canada 150

Lives of the Saints won the Governor General's Literary Award for fiction in 1990. (Vintage Books/Penguin Books/Cormorant Books)

Coming Through Slaughter by Michael Ondaatje
Obasan by Joy Kogawa
Lives of the Saints by Nino Ricci

Fugitive Pieces won the Books in Canada First Novel Award (now known as the Amazon.ca First Novel Award) in 1997. (St. Martin's Griffin/Emblem Editions/Emblem Editions)

Generation X by Douglas Coupland
Funny Boy by Shyam Selvadurai
Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels

Fall on Your Knees was a finalist for Canada Reads 2010, when it was defended by Perdita Felicien. (Vintage Canada/Grove Press/Emblem Editions)

Fall on Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald
Cereus Blooms at Night by Shani Mootoo
No Great Mischief by Alistair MacLeod

Three Day Road won the Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize in 2005. (Emblem Editions/Penguin Canada/Emblem Editions)

The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood
Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden
Certainty by Madeleine Thien

Ru won Canada Reads 2015 when it was successfully defended by Cameron Bailey. (Vintage Canada/House of Anansi Press/Vintage Canada)

Come, Thou Tortoise by Jessica Grant
Annabel by Kathleen Winter
Ru by Kim Thúy, translated by Sheila Fischman

Us Conductors by Sean Michaels won the Scotiabank Giller Prize in 2014. (Random House/Douglas & McIntyre/McClelland & Stewart)

Us Conductors by Sean Michaels
The Jade Peony by Wayson Choy
Childhood by André Alexis

What the Body Remembers won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best Book in the Caribbean and Canada. (Anchor Canada/Vintage Canada/McClelland & Stewart)

River Thieves by Michael Crummey
What the Body Remembers by Shauna Singh Baldwin
A Student of Weather by Elizabeth Hay

Stanley Park was a contender for Canada Reads 2007, when it was defended by Jim Cuddy. (Vintage Canada/House of Anansi Press)

Stanley Park by Timothy Taylor
De Niro's Game by Rawi Hage

Lullabies for Little Criminals won Canada Reads 2007, when it was championed by John K. Samson. (HarperCollins/Goose Lane)

Lullabies for Little Criminals by Heather O'Neill
Strange Heaven by Lynn Coady

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