CBC’s Canada Reads opts for The Orenda
The panellists on this year’s Canada Reads, the CBC’s popular literary debate program, were charged with an almost impossible task: Choose one novel that will “change our nation.”
After a week of thoughtful, and sometimes frustrating, discussion, that novel has been determined to be The Orenda by Joseph Boyden.
At the end of the show’s fourth and final debate, broadcast Thursday morning, Boyden’s exploration of the clash between European and First Nation cultures in mid-17th century Huronia prevailed over Cockroach, Rawi Hage’s novel set in the often-ignored fringes of Montreal’s immigrant community.
It was a photo finish: Three votes were cast against Cockroach, which was defended by Daily Show with Jon Stewart correspondent Samantha Bee, while two panellists voted to eliminate The Orenda.
“Right to the end, I didn’t know which way it was going to go,” said Boyden, on the phone from Thunder Bay, moments after his book was declared the winner.
He praised Wab Kinew, the broadcaster, activist and hiphop artist who defended The Orenda, for doing an “unbelievable” job.
The Orenda weaves together the stories of Snow Falls, a young Iroquois girl, with that of Bird, a Huron warrior who takes Snow Falls prisoner after her family is massacred, and Christophe, an idealistic Jesuit missionary who has come to the New World to try and convert its native peoples.
The novel was an immediate bestseller when it was published last September, garnering both commercial and critical acclaim.
“I wanted the average Canadian not to think of First Nations before first contact as a bunch of Indians huddling around the fire, waiting for civilization to discover them and help them,” Boyden said.
“I wanted Canadians to understand that long before the Europeans arrived, there were incredibly complex and beautiful societies and complicated societies already here.”
Margaret Atwood’s eco-fable The Year of the Flood, which was defended by activist and diplomat Stephen Lewis, was the first book to be voted off this year’s program.
Esi Edugyan’s Giller Prizewinning novel Half-Blood Blues, chronicling a band of black jazz musicians living and playing in occupied France during the Second World War, was next to go; it was championed by sprinter Donovan Bailey. Kathleen Winter’s Annabel, a novel about an intersex child born in rural Newfoundland, was the third book to be eliminated; it was defended by actor Sarah Gadon.
While there’s no cash awarded to the winner, Canada Reads produces a boost in sales rivalled only by the Scotiabank Giller Prize.