A collection of first-person essays about leading companies through the COVID-19 pandemic, a memoir of a life that began in rural Jamaica and led to Bay Street, and a look at how the world should change to account for a risky future have been shortlisted for the annual National Business Book Award.

The $30,000 award, presented by Miles S. Nadal, honours the book that displays the best Canadian business-related writing, research, and originality.

The finalists for this year’s award were selected by a jury comprised of chair Deirdre McMurdy, Anna Porter, Bobby Siu, and Senator Pamela Wallin.

The winner will be announced at an event in Toronto on Nov. 8.

The finalists are:

• Unprecedented – Canada’s Top CEOs on Leadership During COVID-19 compiled and edited by Steve Mayer and Andrew Willis (Signal/Penguin Random House Canada)
• No Bootstraps When You’re Barefoot: My Rise from a Jamaican Plantation Shack to the Boardrooms of Bay Street by Wes Hall (Random House Canada)
• The Next Age of Uncertainty: How the World Can Adapt to a Riskier Future by Stephen Poloz (Allen Lane Canada/Penguin Random House Canada)