TORONTO — Vancouver Island native Patrick deWitt says he was plagued with doubt about his comic western novel The Sisters Brothers when it first entered the wild world of publishing.
But that feeling is gone now that the story has struck book-prize gold, winning a $25,000 Governor General’s Literary Award for fiction on Tuesday — two weeks after it landed the $25,000 Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize.
“You don’t really know what something is worth when you’ve been looking at it every day for so many months, so there are certainly periods of doubt throughout,” deWitt, 36, said after taking the Governor General’s honour at a Toronto news conference.
“When it came out I had no clue what the reaction would be, if anyone would like it or if it would be received well critically or if it would be panned.
“So this is a relief for me.”
DeWitt’s novel, about two gunslinging brothers en route to California in the gold-rush era of the 1850s, was also nominated for the Man Booker Prize and the Scotiabank Giller this fall.
Also on all four fall prize lists was Half-Blood Blues by Victoria-based Esi Edugyan.
A tale of black jazz musicians in Europe during the Second World War, it nabbed the $50,000 Scotiabank Giller Prize last week.
The Man Booker Prize went to British writer Julian Barnes.
Rounding out this year’s Governor General’s fiction short list was Edmonton’s Marina Endicott for The Little Shadows, Kitchener, Ont., native Alexi Zentner for Touch, and Toronto’s David Bezmozgis for The Free World, which was also on the Giller short list.
The Governor General’s jury called The Sisters Brothers “a rollicking tale of hired guns, faithful horses and alchemy,” adding that the author’s ingenious prose “conveys a dark and gentle touch.”
The publisher, House of Anansi Press, says sales of the book have been “quite extraordinary” and it’s had to do four print runs so far.
“This was a second novel by somebody nobody had heard of that we published in March and now we’re up to 50,000 copies in the market,” said Anansi president Sarah MacLachlan.
DeWitt — who lives in Portland, Ore., with his wife and young son — published his first book, “Ablutions,” in 2009.
He said he’s written 100 pages of his third novel and plans to finish it when he moves to France in April.
He might also have a film prospect for The Sisters Brothers.
“Yeah, I’m not supposed to talk about it but I’m hopeful that there will be,” he said.
The 75th annual Governor General’s Literary Awards, administered by the Canada Council for the Arts, honour English and French-language winners in seven categories. Winners receive $25,000 apiece.
Perrine Leblanc of Montreal was the French-language fiction winner for L’homme blanc (Le Quartanier), about “a period in history in which a profoundly human character achieves universal status.”
Charles Foran of Peterborough, Ont., nabbed the English-language non-fiction prize for Mordecai: The Life & Times (Alfred A. Knopf Canada), which has already won the Charles Taylor prize and the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction.
Richler, who twice won the Governor General’s award for fiction (in 1968 and 1971), might not have liked the biography, Foran said with a laugh.
“He was of the generation that said that all that matters about the writer are the books; biography is irrelevant,” said Foran, who’s now writing a novel.
“So therefore a biography of 700-plus pages, which is 95 per cent about him, not his work, he would’ve said: ’Ah, I don’t know, this guy should go get a job,’ probably.”
The French-language non-fiction winner was Georges Leroux of Montreal for “Wanderer : essai sur le Voyage d’hiver de Franz Schubert” (Editions Nota bene).
Leroux also wrote the original version of “Partita for Glenn Gould” (McGill-Queen’s University Press), which earned Donald Winkler this year’s award for French-to-English translation. Maryse Warda won the prize for English-to-French translation for “Toxique ou L’incident dans l’autobus” by Greg MacArthur (Dramaturges Editeurs).
Meanwhile, Louise Dupre of Montreal won the French-language poetry award for the collection “Plus haut que les flammes” (Editions du Noroit), while Phil Hall of Perth, Ont., won the English-language poetry prize for “Killdeer” (BookThug).
“Since I was 15 this has been my literary goal — to write well enough to join that family of my heroes who have previously won this award, starting with E.J. Pratt in 1937,” said an emotional Hall.
“I will try my best to be worthy of the honour by continuing to make good poems. There is no where to go off but wordward.”
In the drama category, Montreal’s Normand Chaurette won for “Ce qui meurt en dernier” and Toronto’s Erin Shields was honoured for “If We Were Birds.”
The children’s literature text awards went to Toronto’s Christopher Moore for “From Then to Now: A Short History of the World” (Tundra Books) and Martin Fournier of Quebec for “Les aventures de Radisson - 1. L’enfer ne brule pas” (Les editions du Septentrion).
For children’s literature illustration, the prizes went to Toronto’s Cybele Young for “Ten Birds” (Kids Can Press), which she also wrote, and Caroline Merola of Montreal for “Lili et les poilus,” text by Caroline Merola (Dominique et Compagnie).
The publisher of each winning book receives $3,000 to promote the title.
Governor General David Johnston will present the awards on Nov. 24.