Author Lawrence Hill has been named winner of CBC’s Canada Reads 2016 for his political thriller, The Illegal (HarperCollins Canada), which Olympian Clara Hughes defended in the book debates. Anita Rau Badami’s The Hero’s Walk (Knopf Canada) came in second place.

This is Hill’s second time receiving the honour, after his Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize–winning novel Book of Negroes was selected as the winning title in the 2009 competition.

The Illegal is slated for a feature-film adaptation by the same team at Toronto’s Conquering Lion Pictures that worked with Hill to create the The Book of Negroes CBC miniseries.

In other Canada Reads news, panelist and G Adventures founder Bruce Poon Tip announced he will donate 10,000 copies of Tracey Lindberg’s Birdie, the title he championed in this year’s debates, to Canadian high-school students. School administrators can apply for copies on the 10,000 Birdies website.