TORONTO -Linden MacIntyre, an investigative journalist who wrote a novel about sexual abuse by Catholic priests, has won Canada's richest and glitziest literary award.
MacIntyre won the prestigious Scotiabank Giller Prize for his book "The Bishop's Man" on Tuesday night.
The novel tells the story of a Roman Catholic priest who is tasked with stamping out sex abuse scandals before they go public. The book is set in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, a place MacIntyre calls one of most religious communities in Canada.
The book was published before a bishop who oversaw his diocese's settlement with victims of sex abuse was charged with child pornography charges in September. Bishop Raymond Lahey made no mention of the arrest when he resigned as bishop of the diocese just days before
MacIntrye, a journalist for the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., won $47,000. In accepting the award he paid tribute to the "the priests and nuns who are struggling to do their jobs in spite of the failures of their leadership."
The Giller Prize is considered one of the most prestigious in Canadian literature. Past winners have included Margaret Atwood, Mordecai Richler and Alice Munro.
Competing against MacIntyre were Kim Echlin for "The Disappeared," Annabel Lon for "The Golden Mean," Colin McAdam for "Fall" and Anne Michaels for "The Winter Vault."
The Giller was created in 1994 by businessman Jack Rabinovitch in memory of his late wife, literary journalist Doris Giller. It honors the best in Canadian fiction.
The judges this year included Canadian novelist Alistair MacLeod, U.S. novelist Russell Banks and British biographer Victoria Glendinning.
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On the Net:
Giller Prize:
http://www.scotiabankgillerprize.ca
