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A Punter’s Guide to the Giller
With the announcement of this year’s Scotiabank Giller Prize shortlist the annual game of guess-the-winner began in the media and in those social circles that still understand just how cool and exciting book talk can be. Trying to pick the Giller winner is always a bit of a mug’s game. Very occasionally a shortlisted book gathers so much public and critical adulation that the jury need only nudge the title over the finish line at the awards ceremony, but 2009 ain’t one of those years. Stocked with mid- and early-career authors and demonstrating no thematic or aesthetic principle, this shortlist will not offer up an obvious choice, no matter how many times you shake the Magic 8 ball.