Us Conductors

: Medley: It feels as if I just finished Us Conductors the other day, but here we are, a year later, with another five books competing for Canada pre-eminent literary prize, according to Globe and Mail. I’ve already gone on the record – and on Twitter – calling it one of the strongest shortlists ever, or at least my favourite since 2011, when Patrick de Witt, Michael Ondaatje, Lynn Coady, David Bezmozgis, and Zsuzsi Gartner were all nominated. In advance of Tuesday ceremony, Globe Books editor Mark Medley and Globe Arts columnist Kate Taylor read all five nominees. Kate, what did you think Taylor: I thought they were all admirable books, interesting, well written, but taken as a whole I found the list narrow. All three of the novels are primarily experiments in narrative voice, and then we have two short story collections from Quebec writers who favour the supernatural. It seemed to represent a particular literary sensibility without much variety. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.