Tonight, Toronto’s literature-loving set will hit the Toronto Reference Library for the Book Lover’s Ball, complete with it’s first ever after-party (tickets are $100 and still available).
To mark the occasion, we asked 11 of Canada’s most notable authors to reveal their favourite books of all time.
While some offered five books, and others got more ambitious with 10, there was some overlap in their answers.
Based on their collective answers, however, these are the 14 Canadian books that show up the most – and ones you need to add to your literature bucket list asap.
The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz by Mordecai Richler
Sweetness in the Belly by Camilla Gibb
Barney’s Version by Mordechai Richler
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
Fifth Business by Robertson Davies
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
The Diviners by Margaret Laurence
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood
Blue Grass, Running Water by Thomas King
No Great Mischief by Alistair MacLeod
Late Nights On Air by Elizabeth Hay
Fall on Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald
Never Cry Wolf by Farley Mowat
ou can see every author’s full list of choices below:
A Fine Balance, by Rohinton Mistry
Mercy Among the Children, by David Adams Richards
Galore, by Michael Crummey
The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, by Mordecai Richler**
Lives of the Saints, by Nino Ricci
Monkey Beach, by Eden Robinson
The Jade Peony, by Wayson Choy
The Sisters Brothers, by Patrick deWitt
Sweetness in the Belly, by Camilla Gibb**
The Boys in the Trees, by Mary Swan
Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, by Mordechai Richler**
Solomon Gursky Was Here, by Mordechai Richler
Barney’s Version, by Mordechai Richler**
Us Conductors, by Sean Michaels
The Paper Bag Princess, by Robert Munsch
The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood
The Tiger, by John Valiant (not a novel, but so reads like one)
Whale Music by Paul Quarrington
Shoeless Joe by WP Kinsella
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood**
Fifth Business by Robertson Davies**
Lullabies for Little Criminals by Heather O’Neill
Life of Pi by Yann Martel**
Generation X by Douglas Coupland
Not Wanted on the Voyage by Timothy Findley
In the Skin of a Lion by Michael Ondaatje
The Stone Angel by Margaret Lawrence
Lost in the Barrens by Farley Mowat
The Diviners by Margaret Laurence**
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood**
Life of Pi Yann Martel**
The Shipping News by Annie Proulx
The Manticore by Robertson Davies
Room by Emma Donoghue
Forty Words for Sorry by Giles Blunt
Sweetness in the Belly by Camilla Gibb**
Two Solitudes by Hugh MacLennan
In a Dry Season by Peter Robinson
The Outlander by Gil Adamson
Lost Girls by Andrew Pyper
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery**
Never Cry Wolf by Farley Mowat**
A Jest of God by Margaret Laurence
The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood**
Barney’s Version by Mordecai Richler **
Final Decree by George Jonas
How I Spent My Summer Holidays by W.O. Mitchell
The Spanish Doctor by Matt Cohen**
Fifth Business by Robertson Davies**
Sunday at the Pool in Kigali by Gil Courtemanche
Blue Grass, Running Water by Thomas King **
No Great Mischief by Alistair MacLeod **
Who Has Seen The Wind by W.O. Mitchell
Barney’s Version by Mordecai Richler **
The Bishop’s Man by Linden McIntyre
419 by Will Ferguson
Late Nights On Air by Elizabeth Hay **
Berlin Solstice by Sylvia Fraser
The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood**
The Rebel Angels by Robertson Davies
The Spanish Doctor by Matt Cohen **
No Great Mischief by Alistair MacLeod **
The Lark in the Clear Air by Dennis Patrick Sears
Moodie’s Tale by Eric Wright
Airport by Arthur Hailey
Barometer Rising by Hugh MacLennan
Below the Salt by Thomas B. Costain
The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery
Pride’s Fancy by Thomas H. Raddall
Fifth Business by Robertson Davies**
Funny Boy by Shyam Selvadurai
Until the Night by Giles Blunt
Late Nights on Air by Elizabeth Hay**
Life if Pi by Yann Martel**
The Colony of Unrequited Dreams by Wayne Johnston
Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden
I Heard the Owl Call my Name by Margaret Craven
People You’d Trust Your Life To by Bronwen Wallace
Fall on Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald**
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews
Fall on Your Knees by Ann-Marie Macdonald**
The Diviners by Margaret Laurence**
Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maude Montgomery**Green Grass, Running Water by Thomas King**
No Great Mischief by Alistair Macleod
Never Cry Wolf by Farley Mowat**
Barney’s Version by Mordecai Richler**
The Romantic by Barbara Gowdy
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