Life
Esi Edugyan wins top Canadian literary prize
Less than a year ago, Esi Edugyan (pictured), was unsure if Half-Blood Blues would ever see the light of day. On Tuesday her sophomore novel was awarded the Scotiabank Giller Prize at a gala ceremony in Toronto, the latest curve in what has been a roller-coaster year for the 34-year-old author.
The CDN$50,000 (US$48,940) prize virtually guarantees that tens of thousands more copies of the novel, already a best-seller, will be sold in the coming months.
“It feels good,” said Ms. Edugyan, not long after accepting the award. “It feels like it’s now sort of necessary that I get back to my computer in the morning. Well, whenever I can get back to it.”
Half-Blood Blues tells the story of Sidney Griffiths, an elderly former jazz musician now living out his days in Baltimore. He is haunted by the disappearance of his friend and bandmate Hieronymus Falk, a black German trumpeter arrested by the Nazis in Paris at the start of the Second World War.
