I felt a little guilty perusing the list and realizing I hadn’t read any of these … there is a full list including the French choices (scroll down a bit) and here is the list of fiction choices:

David Chariandy, Vancouver, for Soucouyant
(Arsenal Pulp Press; distributed by Jaguar Book Group) (ISBN 978-1-55152-226-5)
David Chariandy’s Soucouyant tells us of enormous loss and beautiful memory. A son rediscovers the heritage he has rejected, as his aging mother’s mind disintegrates. The re-creation of the mother’s Caribbean past within the circle of her son’s growing love enfolds the reader in a magnificent story.

Barbara Gowdy, Toronto, for Helpless
(HarperCollins Publishers, an imprint of HarperCollins Canada; distributed by HarperCollins Canada) (ISBN 978-0-00-200846-4)
Barbara Gowdy looks at image and our application of violence, especially against women and girls. We are left writhing with the horror of it all, all the while realizing the ironical softness and accommodation to this urban disease. Helpless, we are left; almost forsaken in Gowdy’s explosive language.

Michael Ondaatje, Toronto, for Divisadero
(McClelland & Stewart; distributed by Random House of Canada) (ISBN 978-0-7710-6872-0)
The seductive, luminous characters populating Divisadero are pulled from the bleakness of their lives by Ondaatje’s astonishing lyricism and whimsical yet meticulous detail. His bold evocation of violence and obsession, regret and tenderness traces the heart with compassion and grace.

Heather O’Neill, Montreal, for Lullabies for Little Criminals
(Harper Perennial, an imprint of HarperCollins; distributed by HarperCollins Canada) (ISBN 978-0-06-087507-7)
In Lullabies for Little Criminals, Baby leads us into her thirteen-year-old life on the impoverished streets of Montreal. It is a world both terrifying and gentle, cruel and yet strangely tender and compassionate. Baby’s astonishing resilience, the way she finds beauty in so much ugliness, makes Heather O’Neill’s novel a triumph of imagination and sensitivity.

M.G. Vassanji, Toronto, for The Assassin’s Song
(Doubleday Canada, a division of Random House of Canada; distributed by Random House of Canada) (ISBN 978-0-385-66351-9)
M.G. Vassanji is accustomed to taking us down crowded, culturally-congested city streets strewn with the richness of people and flowers, people and animals, people and colour. And when we have the power of his narrative, natural as the landscape he describes, we are bestowed with wonder and love and passion.