What the judges said about the shortlist:

Austin Clarke - More
(Thomas Allen Publishers)

"Don't call us visible minorities. I am not any damn minority. Visible or invisible," Idora tells her white friend as they cruise Kensington Market in search of Caribbean food. Austin Clarke's More paints a vivid and powerful portrait of a black woman's four day journey as she relives her life in Canada as an immigrant from the West Indies. Her enduring sorrow balanced by hard work, and short bouts of gaiety and joy ensure her presence as a memorable and powerful figure in Canadian literature.

Anthony De Sa - Barnacle Love
(Anchor Canada)

From a remote, sun-dappled Portuguese village, to the rugged shores of Newfoundland, to the colourful back alleys of Toronto's Little Portugal, Anthony Da Sa takes us on an enthralling transatlantic journey. Lush poetic prose, richly-drawn characters and a mythic quality meld in three intersecting stories about an immigrant father and his Canadian-born son. Themes of cultural displacement, intergenerational tension and the sometimes suffocating bonds of family are woven into a vivid, multi-layered narrative. Haunting and sensual, Barnacle Love is an auspicious and unforgettable debut.

Maggie Helwig - Girls Fall Down
(Coach House Books)

Girls Fall Down introduces us to a photographer protagonist, and our own city as it meets the possibility of terrorism in 2002. Maggie Helwig pans wide and unflinching as Toronto's denizens confront paranoia and public attacks, and zooms in tight for a love story that takes us, drunk and diseased, into the ravines at night. Compelling, frightening and beautiful, this novel asks important questions about love and fear in our own neighbourhoods.

Mark Osbaldeston - Unbuilt Toronto
(Dundurn Press)

Mark Osbaldeston's magnificently-illustrated and intelligent review of 400 years of schemes and visions for subway lines (Queen Street), grand boulevards (Vimy Avenue), buildings (St. Alban's Cathedral), and expressways (Spadina), reveals Toronto as it might have been. Osbaldeston's comprehensive research exposes more than just missed chances, however, it is a plain-written lesson for today on the culture and politics of city building.

Charles Wilkins - In the Land of Long Fingernails
(Viking Canada)

This comical work of literary non-fiction takes us back to Toronto in 1969. Though tinged with hippie cultural themes and preoccupations, it is mainly a portrait of the gravedigger as a young man. Tales of the irreverent and comical crew that administers each body beyond last rites provide a welcome contrast to Charles Wilkins' daily encounters with the blunt realities of death. His droll punch-lines roll like a lawnmower through the grass and over the hills of the land of long fingernails. Surprisingly, it is a place that all of us should visit . . . and undoubtedly will.