Five books and their authors have been selected from a 12-title longlist as finalists for the 2021 Scotiabank Giller Prize.

The shortlisted titles were revealed by jury members Zalika Reid-Benta and Megan Gail Coles at an in-person event hosted by author Jael Richardson at Toronto’s Park Hyatt Hotel on Oct. 5.

The finalists are:

● Omar El Akkad, What Strange Paradise (McClelland & Stewart)
● Angélique Lalonde, Glorious Frazzled Beings (House of Anansi Press)
● Cheluchi Onyemelukwe-Onuobia, The Son of the House (Dundurn Press)
● Jordan Tannahill, The Listeners (HarperCollins Canada)
● Miriam Toews, Fight Night (Knopf Canada)

Toews was previously shortlisted for the Giller in 2004 and 2014 for her books A Complicated Kindness and All My Puny Sorrows, respectively.

The shortlist was chosen from 132 books by a five-person jury comprised of Reid-Benta, Coles, Joshua Whitehead, Tash Aw, and Joshua Ferris.

The winner of the 28th edition of the $100,000 prize will be announced at an in-person gala to be hosted by actor Paul Sun-Hyung Lee and poet Rupi Kaur on Nov. 8. Each finalist is awarded $10,000.