Championed by Ojibway journalist and Vogue fashion writer, Christian Allaire,
Five Little Indians by Michelle Good, defeated Catherine Hernandez’s Scarborough,
defended by actor and activist Malia Baker
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CANADA READS, CBC’s annual book debate, concluded today with a live elimination vote, and Five Little Indians by Michelle Good has been voted Canada’s must-read book for 2022. Over four days of spirited debate, moderated by six-time host Ali Hassan, five celebrity panellists championed their chosen Canadian books that speak to the theme, ‘One Book to Connect Us.’ Each day of the competition, one book was eliminated by the panellists until Good’s acclaimed novel was crowned the winner, in a broadcast that was available on CBC Radio One, CBC TV, CBC Listen, CBC Gem, CBCBooks.ca, YouTube and Facebook.
The winning book’s champion is Ojibway journalist and Vogue fashion writer, Christian Allaire, from Nipissing First Nation in Ontario.
“I think it's a story all Canadians need to read. Like I said on the show, I think a lot of Canadians struggle with the idea of reconciliation, and the best first step towards doing that is just having a better understanding of the experiences that residential school survivors have had,” said Allaire. “Michelle's book so beautifully illuminates that through five complex characters that we can all relate to. Representing the indigenous community at large, I felt a responsibility to get this book right and to convey it right, so it means so much to me that I was able to do that. As the grandson of a residential school survivor, it's really important for me that Canadians understand this history.”
Good is a Cree writer and lawyer, as well as a member of Red Pheasant Cree Nation in Saskatchewan. Five Little Indians is her first book. CBC Books named her a writer to watch in 2020.
“The awards are nice and are deeply satisfying as an author but most important to me, awards elevate the profile of the book so more hearts and minds are exposed to the story that I felt compelled to tell,” said Good “I wrote this book to expose the truth of intergenerational trauma, and how there is so little support in Canada for survivors to truly be able to heal, both on an individual level and at a community level. The primary relationship in this country is the one between Indigenous people and the rest of Canada, and this relationship must be reconciled before we can really consider Canada the country we want to be."
“Having the profile of the book elevated, it moves that desire forward, that necessity of reconciliation, meaningful and substantive reconciliation; it moves forward.”
In Five Little Indians, Kenny, Lucy, Clara, Howie and Maisie are taken from their families and sent to a residential school when they are very young. Barely out of childhood, they are released and left to contend with the seedy world of eastside Vancouver. Fuelled by the trauma of their childhood, the five friends cross paths over the decades and struggle with the weight of their shared past. Five Little Indians won the 2020 Governor General's Literary Award for fiction and the 2021 Amazon Canada First Novel Award.
The CANADA READS 2022 debates took place from March 28 - 31, 2022. It was a lively week on the socially-distanced Toronto-set, with day three ending in a tense tie-breaker.
This season, and for the past six seasons, every CANADA READS finalist has appeared on the Canadian bestseller lists following the announcement of the shortlist, and many titles have spent months on these lists.
The books voted off this week in order of elimination are:
- Life in the City of Dirty Water (Allen Lane, an imprint of Penguin Random House Canada) by Clayton Thomas-Müller, was championed by forest ecologist, Suzanne Simard
- What Strange Paradise (McClelland & Stewart, an imprint of Penguin Random House Canada) by Omar El Akkad, was championed by entrepreneur and former Syrian refugee, Tareq Hadhad
- Washington Black (Patrick Crean Editions, an imprint of HarperCollins Canada) by Esi Edugyan, was championed by Olympian and 2SLGBTQ advocate, Mark Tewksbury
- Scarborough (Arsenal Pulp Press) by Catherine Hernandez, was championed by actor and activist, Malia Baker
- WINNER: Five Little Indians (Harper Perennial, an imprint of HarperCollins Canada) by Michelle Good, was championed by Ojibway journalist and Vogue fashion writer, Christian Allaire
Catch up on the week’s debates on the free CBC Gem streaming service and CBC Listen. Teachers guides for each of the books are available to subscribers on Curio.ca
The CANADA READS conversation continues on CBCbooks.ca, @CBCbooks on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram using the hashtag #CanadaReads.
Photos are available here and on the CBC Media Centre.
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