The Reading List

My long-term plan to read more Canadian Literature. It begins with a cockamamie scheme to read every winner of the Governor General’s Literary Award in Fiction since 1936, except when there is no English translation for the fiction winner of a given year (my French isn’t that good).

  1. Think of The Earth – Bertram Brooker (1936)
  2. The Dark Weaver – Laura G. Salverson (1937)
  3. Swiss Sonata – Gwethalyn Graham (1938)
  4. The Champlain Road – Franklin D. McDowell (1939)
  5. Thirty Acres (translation) – Ringuet (pseud.) (1940)
  6. Three Came to Ville Marie – Alan Sullivan (1941)
  7. Little Man – G. Herbert Sallans (1942)
  8. The Pied Piper of Dipper Creek – Thomas H. Raddall (1943)
  9. Earth and High Heaven – Gwethalyn Graham (1944)
  10. Two Solitudes – Hugh MacLennan (1945)
  11. Continental Revue – Winifred Bambrick (1946)
  12. The Tin Flute (translation) – Gabrielle Roy (1947)
  13. The Precipice – Hugh MacLennan (1948)
  14. Mr. Ames Against Time – Philip Child (1949)
  15. The Outlander (translation) – Germaine Guèvremont (1950)
  16. The Loved and the Lost – Morley Callaghan (1951)
  17. The Pillar – David Walker (1952)

  18. Digby – David Walker (1953)

  19. The Fall of a Titan – Igor Gouzenko (1954)
  20. The Sixth of June – Lionel Shapiro (1955)
  21. The Sacrifice – Adele Wiseman (1956)
  22. Street of Riches (translation) – Gabrielle Roy (1957)
  23. Execution – Colin McDougall (1958)
  24. The Watch that Ends the Night – Hugh MacLennan (1959)
  25. The Luck of Ginger Coffey – Brian Moore (1960)
  26. Hear Us O Lord from Heaven Thy Dwelling Place – Malcolm Lowry (1961)
  27. Running to Paradise – Kildare Dobbs (1962)
  28. Hugh Garner’s Best Stories – Hugh Garner (1963)
  29. The Deserter – Douglas LePan (1964)
  30. A Jest of God – Margaret Laurence (1966)
  31. Dance of the Happy Shades – Alice Munro (1968)
  32. The Studhorse Man – Robert Kroetsch (1969)
  33. The New Ancestors – Dave Godfrey (1970)
  34. St. Urbain’s Horseman – Mordecai Richler (1971)
  35. The Manticore – Robertson Davies (1972)
  36. Painters in a New Land – Michael Bell (1973)
  37. The Diviners – Margaret Laurence (1974)
  38. The Great Victorian Collection – Brian Moore (1975)
  39. Bear – Marian Engel (1976)
  40. The Wars – Timothy Findley (1977)
  41. Who Do You Think You Are? – Alice Munro (1978)
  42. The Resurrection of Joseph Bourne – Jack Hodgins (1979)
  43. Burning Water – George Bowering (1980)
  44. Home Truths: Selected Canadian Stories – Mavis Gallant (1981)
  45. Man Descending – Guy Vanderhaeghe (1982)
  46. Shakespeare’s Dog – Leon Rooke (1983)
  47. The Engineer of Human Souls – Josef Skvorecky (1984)
  48. The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood (1985)
  49. The Progress of Love – Alice Munro (1986)
  50. A Dream Like Mine – M.T. Kelly (1987)
  51. Nights Below Station Street – David Adams Richards (1988)
  52. Whale Music – Paul Quarrington (1989)
  53. Lives of the Saints – Nino Ricci (1990)
  54. Such a Long Journey – Rohinton Mistry (1991)
  55. The English Patient – Michael Ondaatje (1992)
  56. The Stone Diaries – Carol Shields (1993)
  57. A Discovery of Strangers – Rudy Wiebe (1994)
  58. The Roaring Girl – Greg Hollingshead (1995)
  59. The Englishman’s Boy – Guy Vanderhaeghe (1996)
  60. The Underpainter – Jane Urquhart (1997)
  61. Forms of Devotion – Diane Schoemperlen (1998)
  62. Elizabeth and After – Matt Cohen (1999)
  63. Anil’s Ghost – Michael Ondaatje (2000)
  64. Clara Callan – Richard B. Wright (2001)
  65. A Song for Nettie Johnson – Gloria Sawai (2002)
  66. Elle – Douglas Glover (2003)
  67. A Complicated Kindness – Miriam Toews (2004)
  68. A Perfect Night to Go to China – David Gilmour (2005)
  69. The Law of Dreams – Peter Behrens (2006)
  70. Divisadero – Michael Ondaatje (2007)
  71. The Origin of Species – Nino Ricci (2008)