Vincent Lam, a Toronto doctor and author of Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures,
a short story collection that has not been published in the U.S.,
won the Scotiabank Giller Prize, presented Tuesday night in Toronto.
The C$40,000 (about $35,400) prize is one of the most prestigious in
Canada.
Margaret Atwood, who presented Lam with the award, had helped him become a published author after they met on an Arctic nature cruise (where Lam was the ship's doctor). She called Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures "subtle in emotion and occasionally gruesome in humor," the Toronto Star reported.
For his part, Lam, whose family are ethnic Chinese from Vietnam, said, "My parents came to this country when multiculturalism was just beginning to be acknowledged. As their son and as the second generation, I am proud to be here."
The Star described the linked stories in Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures as "a door into the world of successful, assimilated young Chinese-Canadian professionals, written with the authority of an insider. The 12 tales in Lam's book follow these characters' path from medical school at the University of Toronto to the city's crowded hospitals where, as physicians, they face a variety of difficult patients."
Margaret Atwood, who presented Lam with the award, had helped him become a published author after they met on an Arctic nature cruise (where Lam was the ship's doctor). She called Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures "subtle in emotion and occasionally gruesome in humor," the Toronto Star reported.
For his part, Lam, whose family are ethnic Chinese from Vietnam, said, "My parents came to this country when multiculturalism was just beginning to be acknowledged. As their son and as the second generation, I am proud to be here."
The Star described the linked stories in Bloodletting & Miraculous Cures as "a door into the world of successful, assimilated young Chinese-Canadian professionals, written with the authority of an insider. The 12 tales in Lam's book follow these characters' path from medical school at the University of Toronto to the city's crowded hospitals where, as physicians, they face a variety of difficult patients."