Canada is a wildly creative country. We all know this, it is common knowledge, and no field is as filled with creativity as storytelling. What better way to reward that creativity than with glitzy awards and celebrations? The English-language writing world in North America is packed with literary awards that are handed out to the best of the best, showcasing the finest Canadian authors and the finest in Canadian fiction and non-fiction, from mysteries to memoirs. Literature awards are there to shine a light on everything from debut novels to veteran turns, with longlists and shortlists of nominees waiting in the wings for their time in the sun. Featuring iconic names like Margaret Atwood and Michelle Good and works from Ontario to British Columbia via Alberta, the Prairies, and more, these are the best award-winning Canadian audiobooks for a CanLit listening binge.
Ontario’s own Andrew Pyper is one of the great Canadian authors, and the Stratford native’s inimitable approach to mystery and thrill translates fabulously well to audiobooks. The Demonologist is another winner in the canon, a spellbinding piece of literary horror that deserves its place in the upper echelons of Canadian fiction. The Demonologist is about a Columbia University professor’s dramatic attempts to rescue his daughter from the Underworld, but it is about so much more than the surface battle of good versus evil. Great fiction is a complex beast, after all. You don’t win International Thriller Writers Awards without a good understanding of such things.
John Bedford Lloyd narrates The Demonologist with confidence and character, filling this otherworldly story with credibility and excitement at every turn, with no small amount of tension thrown in for good measure. It is a sterling job, one fitting a great story a modern titan of Canadian literature. Will Professor David Ullman save his daughter from the clutches of eternal damnation? You’ll have to listen to find out. Be sure to check out the audio-only and his new release too, for a little extra Andrew Pyper magic.
The sixth novel by Canadian writer Miriam Toews, All My Puny Sorrows has picked up award after award from a who’s who of Canada’s literary establishments and for good reason. This story of two close sisters trying to keep it all together is a story made for loving, and the Canadian public has more than held up its end of the bargain. Life is a fragile thing, and nothing tests that fragility like loving someone who has no desire to live it.
Manitoba-born Miriam Toews is no stranger to Canada’s literary awards (a 2015 Canadian Authors Association Award takes pride of place on the mantelpiece), and All My Puny Sorrows is one of her finest works. Erin Moon takes care of the narration and does a tremendous job, telling the story of sisters Elf and Yoli with the love and care that the relationship demands. It all makes for an award-winning listen, a book club favourite from one of the best Canadian authors of the modern age.
Toronto is arguably Canada’s great literary city, and Willowdale’s own Joseph Boydon is one of the best writers the city has produced in recent times. A novelist and short story author of Celtic ancestry and a past winner of the Canadian Authors Association Award, Boydon’s focus on First Nations people has produced some of the great Canadian books of the 21st century, and The Orenda is one of his finest. A historical story with plenty of bite, The Orenda is narrated by a full cast of fantastic voices, featuring Ali Ahn, Graham Rowatt, and others. When a Jesuit missionary is taken prisoner by warriors, the future looks bleak. What happens next is simply incredible.
One of Canada’s great historical authors, Joseph Boydon’s epic tales is a great way to immerse in First Nations history and culture, one audiobook at a time. Boydon’s Three Day Road is one of the great Canadian novels, and The Orenda could well be it's equal. This award-winning story is thrillingly narrated, making for a must-listen that is packed with information and more than 400 years of history. What more could listeners want?
Narrated by John Pruden, The Sisters Brothers is another excellent piece of fiction from Vancouver writer and Canadian Authors Association Award winner Patrick deWitt. Ostensibly a western, The Sisters Brothers is a triumph of Canadian fiction that grabs listeners by the heart and refuses to let go, from the first minute to the last, some seven hours and 42 minutes later. It is a tremendous listen, accentuated perfectly by Audible regular John Pruden.
The Sisters Brothers has been littered with awards since its release, including a Governor General’s Literary Award, the Roger Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize and many more. British Columbia’s Patrick deWitt is a titan of Canadian fiction, a talented wordsmith whose award-winning novels have been snapped up by the movie industry, one after the other. It is no great surprise that The Sisters Brothers is the audiobook triumph that it is.
A Giller Award winner in 2021, What Strange Paradise is another slice of magic from Omar El Akkad. Narrated by Dion Graham, What Strange Paradise is a gorgeously detailed tale of a child’s role and place in the global refugee crisis, where a nine-year-old boy struggles to adapt to the supposed paradise that he found himself in. A Book of the Year candidate the world over, What Strange Paradise is a must-listen for all, a relentless story of what it means to be human told through the eyes of two children making their way in the world.
Born in Cairo, the 2021 Scotiabank Giller Prize-winning El Akkad moved to Canada in his teens and grew up in Montreal before completing university in Kingston, Ontario. El Akkad’s debut novel American War (featured on Canada Reads in 2018) won him a Kobo Emerging Writer Prize, and What Strange Paradise might be even better. A Canadian writer with his finger on the pulse of the planet, the future looks very bright for Omar El Akkad, and this title deserves all the accolades it gets.
First things first, great title. How to Pronounce Knife is an incredible collection of short stories from Laotian-Canadian writer Souvankham Thammavongsa, a debut publication that gobbled up awards from the get-go. The short stories within have been described as “emotional time bombs”, and those explosions have won Thammavongsa a variety of awards. Among them are the 2020 Scotiabank Giller Prize and a Trillium Book Award. At just under three hours, How to Pronounce Knife is a small but perfectly formed listen that will leave a real impression.
Canadian literature and Canadian authors are defined by diversity, and the Toronto-raised Thammavognsa is an integral part of any collection of award winners from this great nation. How to Pronounce Knife is a stunning listen, narrated by Kulap Vilaysang and James Tang, fourteen short stories that are a conveyor belt of literary excellence. This is Canadian fiction with a decidedly non-fiction soul.
Margaret Atwood is one of the great Canadian writers of all time, no matter the era, no matter the genre. The Handmaid’s Tale made the Ottawa writer a superstar, and The Testaments picks up where that iconic piece of dystopian literature left off. Narrated by a full cast of voices including Ann Dowd, Tantoo Cardinal, and Margaret Atwood herself, The Testaments builds on the shocking horror of The Handmaid’s Tale and twists the story in a variety of unbelievable directions. When it comes to Canadian fiction, Margaret Atwood is one of the best.
Atwood’s list of awards is as lengthy as it is varied. The Ottawa-born superstar has won literary awards across the globe, including two Booker Prizes and an Arthur C. Clarke Award. The Testaments itself was a joint winner of the 2019 Booker Prize, picking up a Goodreads Choice Award along the way. Margaret Atwood is a walking book award, and The Testaments is another fantastic listen from a titan of the form.
Written by Manitoba’s Joan Thomas and expertly narrated by Canadian actress Fiona Highet, Five Wives is a shocking tale of survival based on a very real story. A winner of the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction (2019) along with the CBC Books and Toronto Best Book of the Year awards for the same year, Five Wives is women’s fiction at its very best.
Highet’s narration is the perfect vehicle for the story of five women left behind in the Ecuadorian rainforest, faced with surviving in impossible circumstances following the murder of their missionary husbands. It is a heart-wrenching and life-affirming listen, another award-winning string to add to the busy bow of Joan Thomas. The five wives of the audiobook’s title sit in the centre of the story but Five Wives is as much about the legacy of evangelism as it is about survival and friendship. This is an incredible listen.
A winner of the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize (now known as the Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize), Days by Moonlight is an exercise in fantastical fiction in a most unusual land. Described as a Dantesque journey taken during the hour of the wolf, Days by Moonlight dives deep into the concept of limbo. What is real? How do we define reality? Such questions aren’t so simple to answer.
Ottawa-raised and Toronto-living writer Andre Alexis is better than most at muddying the waters between reality and fantasy. Days by Moonlight is Alexis at his best, accentuated brilliantly by the author’s narration in this audiobook adaptation. The Scotiabank Giller Prize award winner is one of the most popular Canadian writers of the modern age, and for good reason.
Winnipeg winters are legendary, for better or for worse, but the freezing climes of so-called ‘Winterpeg’ are the setting for Casey Plett’s tremendous Little Fish. An Amazon Canada First Novel Award winner and a finalist for the Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award, Little Fish is the story of a 30-year-old trans woman looking to unravel a family mystery that could change everything she has ever known. A thrilling listen, Little Fish is packed with contradictory emotions and a rollercoaster of real life, making it an extremely human listen. Narrated by A. Almeida, this audiobook is a sterling piece of Canadian fiction with roots in the real world, a must-listen for Canadians of all shapes and sizes.
Written and narrated by Manitoba-born First Nations poet and novelist Joshua Whitehead, Johnny Appleseed is an unpausable riot through the life of a young Two-Spirit/Indigiqueer finding a way to survive in the big city. Whitehead is one of the most compelling writers in Canada, and he proves himself equally as effective as a narrator in this tremendous tale, the winner of a Lambda Literary Award for Gay Fiction and a finalist and shortlist regular in everything from the Governor General’s Literary Award to the Indigenous Voices Award. As far as debut novels go, Johnny Appleseed is an absolute thriller. Brimming with modern life and ancestral twists. Where will Joshua Whitehead go next? Wherever he pleases, clearly. Listeners with an interest in Canada’s indigenous peoples should make a beeline for Johnny Appleseed.
Another piece of magic from Miriam Toews (and gorgeously narrated by Miriam and her daughter, Georgia), Fight Night walked away with several gongs in 2021, including the Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize and the vaunted Scotiabank Giller Prize. Surprised? Longtime fans weren’t. The ninth title from the Canadian author gives life to a nine-year-old living in Toronto with her pregnant mother, a tumultuous situation that finds clarity through love, life and family. It is a delightfully human listen, the sort of excellence we’ve come to expect from an award-winning genius like Toews. Fight Night is Miriam Toews at her very best, and that is a guarantee of audiobook amazement.
Winnipeg-born Katherena Vermette is no stranger to awards, and 2021’s The Strangers saw the Canadian pick up plenty more. This thrilling intergenerational saga walked off with the Indigo Book of the Year award and the Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Prize for Fiction along with a spot on the longlist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize. Narrated by Alberta actress Michaele Washburn, The Strangers picks up where The Break left off, showcasing the intimate connection that exists between all humans across the globe, no matter the current circumstances. The Strangers is a deep dive into race, class, trauma, and connectivity told through the many generations of one deeply connected family.
Debut novels don’t come much more impactful than Five Little Indians, the stunning opening statement from Cree writer, poet, and lawyer Michelle Good. The story of five children snatched from their families and sent to a residential school struck a chord on publication, winning a Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction and an Amazon First Novel Award along the way. A CBC Best Book of the Year, Kyla Garcia narrates Michelle Good’s words with real skill, adding a fresh layer to a tale of desperation, survival, and progress. From a residential school to east side Vancouver, Five Little Indians is a warts and all diamond of Canadian fiction. For a knowing look into the treatment of Canada’s indigenous peoples, look no further than Michelle Good’s Five Little Indians.
Indian-born and Canadian-bred, writer Rohinton Mistry is no stranger to literary prizes. Each of his first three novels found their way onto the shortlist for the Booker Prize, A Fine Balance among them. Narrated by Vikas Adam, A Fine Balance is Mistry at his best, a tale of compassion that pulls back the curtain on 1970s India and then some, a window into human emotions in a state of emergency that isn’t exactly teeming with humanity. The 1995 Scotiabank Giller Prize winner simply sparkles in audiobook form, as Adam’s glimmering narration brings the characters to life. For a listen filled with beauty in different places, A Fine Balance is the place to start.
The debut novel from Ian Williams scooped the 2019 Scotiabank Giller Prize, another gong to add to the shelf for the Canadian writer and poet. Reproduction is a telling of lives intertwining in a polyglot suburb of Toronto, a story of life and death in multiple tongues told across multiple generations. Tremendously voiced by Andrew Shaw, David Woodward, and Michelle Winters, Reproduction is a treatise into what makes a family, whether it is blood or something far more important. An incredibly creative audiobook, Reproduction is hilarious and heartbreaking in equal measure, the sort of listen that will have you laughing and crying until you aren’t entirely sure which is which anymore. An emotional rollercoaster? Reproduction is that and then some.
Can we please take a moment to appreciate the incredible narration skills of Dion Graham? The Broadway actor has a voice that was made for hour after hour of audiobooks, and his work on Esi Edugyan’s fantastic Washington Black is exactly that; fantastic. Longlisted for the 2018 Man Booker Prize and the winner of the Scotiabank Giller Prize in the same year, Washington Black is a deeply impactful novel of slavery and freedom from one of the best Canadian authors on the planet today. Calgary, Alberta-born Edugyan’s tale starts with two English brothers and an 11-year-old field slave but the journey goes on, from the cane fields of Barbados to the freezing Canadian Arctic. Awards? Washington Black is one of the great Canadian works of this time.
Owen Sound, Ontario’s finest takes on the narration herself in this audiobook adaptation of Late Nights on Air, the 2007 winner of the Scotiabank Giller Prize and a tremendous tale of a Toronto television failure returning to his radio roots in the Canadian North. Many have dreamt of falling in love with a voice, and that is exactly what happens to Harry Boyd, a moment that turns his life around in an instant. Dripping with dark humour and charm, filled with incredible characters and settings that set the imagination aflame, Late Nights on Air is a must-listen from start to finish, Elizabeth Hay at her very best. Start with Late Nights on Air and then line up All Things Consoled and Garbo Laughs for more of an award-winning Canadian author.
What better way to end than with one of the modern world’s great short story writers? Alice Munro won the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature for her short stories, and Runaway is one of the Ontario-native’s finest collections. These eight stories cover a whole lot of ground, focusing on women of all ages and all circumstances, a must-listen for Canadians old and young. Narrated by Kymberly Dakin, Runaway is Munro at her best, short stories filled with shimmering characters who positively jump out of the speakers. Runaway was first published by McClelland & Stewart in 2004 but this audiobook adaptation breathes new life into a famous collection, bringing the magic of a great Canadian writer to a whole new generation.
