Canada Reads: Why Lisa Ray is championing David Chariandy's Brother

Canada Reads, CBC's annual battle of the books, has unveiled its five finalists for 2019. This year's theme is "one book to move you."

Over the next couple of weeks on q, each of the five panellists will defend their book choices. First up is actor, model and philanthropist Lisa Ray, who you may know from Deepa Mehta's film Water or as a former host on Top Chef Canada. She tells us why she wanted to participate in the great Canadian book debate and why Brother by author David Chariandy should win. 

• Canada Reads 2019: Meet this year's contenders

You can catch the Canada Reads debates starting on March 25 on CBC Radio One and at cbc.ca/books. You'll hear a lot more from the remaining 2019 panellists in the coming weeks on q.

— Produced by Vanessa Greco