TORONTO - Gil Adamson has won the annual First Novel Award for "The Outlander."
The prize is worth C$7,500.
Set in the early 1900s, "The Outlander" (House of Anansi Press) tells the story of a woman on the run in Alberta after killing her husband.
The Toronto-based Adamson has said she spent 10 years working on the book.
Other finalists for the award were:
- David Chariandy for "Soucouyant" (Arsenal Pulp Press)
- Kyo Maclear for "The Letter Opener" (Harper Collins Canada)
- C.S. Richardson for "The End of the Alphabet" (Doubleday Canada)
- Brian Tucker for "Big White Knuckles" (Nimbus Publishing)
- Andrew Wedderburn for "Milk Chicken Bomb."
A host of well-known writers have won the First Novel Award, including Michael Ondaatje, Rohinton Mistry and Nino Ricci.
Last year's winner was Madeleine Thien for "Certainty."
The prize is presented by Amazon.ca and Books in Canada.
Books in Canada was founded in 1971, but The Globe and Mail reported Wednesday that it has not produced an issue since early this year.
The magazine's proprietor told the newspaper in August that Books in Canada would not be revived as a print publication, but suggested it could be resurrected in a digital form.
