Sean Michaels won the $100,000 (US$87,885) Scotiabank Giller Prize, presented annually "to the author of the best Canadian novel or short story collection published in English," for Us Conductors. The other five finalists received $10,000 ($8,788) each.
The judges said Michaels's novel "is based on the life of Lev Thermen, the Russian-born inventor of the Theremin, the most ethereal of musical instruments. As the narrative shifts countries and climates, from the glittery brightness of New York in the 1920s to the leaden cold of the Soviet Union under Stalin, the grace of Michaels's style makes these times and places seem entirely new. He succeeds at one of the hardest things a writer can do: he makes music seem to sing from the pages of a novel."
---
Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty (Belknap Press/Harvard University Press) has won the 2014 Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award, which honors the book that provides "the most compelling and enjoyable insight into modern business issues" and has a £30,000 (about $47,740) prize.
Lionel Barber, editor of the Financial Times and chair of the panel of judges, said, "Capital in the Twenty-First Century emerged after vigorous debate from an incredibly strong field. While not everyone agreed on the policy prescription, we recognised the quality of the scholarship. It's a challenging but ultimately important book."
In addition, Saadia Zahidi won the inaugural Bracken Bower Prize, designed to encourage young authors to tackle emerging business themes, with a focus on the challenges and opportunities of growth. Her book proposal, Womenomics in the Muslim World, about a new movement in which economics trumps culture, combining data and anecdotal stories to illustrate the power of the new female Muslim economy, was awarded £15,000 ($23,870).
---
Finalists for the Waterstones Book of the Year award have been named. The chain's booksellers across the U.K. were invited to nominate a book they thought "stood out in its field, and that would speak to the company's core customers--those people who love reading and that love books." The winning title will be chosen by a Waterstones panel headed by managing director James Daunt and announced December 2. The shortlisted titles for Waterstones Book of the Year are:
Everyday Sexism by Laura Bates
The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton
The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan
Persiana: Recipes from the Middle East & Beyond by Sabrina Ghayour
Once Upon an Alphabet by Oliver Jeffers
The Opposite of Loneliness: Essays & Stories by Marina Keegan
H Is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald
Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty