2013 Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize

The Rogers Writer’s Trust fiction prize was established to celebrate and advance Canadian writing.

This year’s winner is Colin McAdam’s A Beautiful Truth (M).

“A powerful and haunting meditation on human nature told from the dual perspectives of a Vermont family that has adopted a chimp as a surrogate son, and a group of chimpanzees in a Florida research institute. Looee, a chimp raised by a well-meaning and compassionate human couple who cannot conceive a baby of their own, is forever set apart. He’s not human, but with his peculiar upbringing he is no longer like other chimps. One tragic night Looee’s two natures collide and their unique family is forever changed …. A novel of great heart and wisdom from a literary master, it exposes the yearnings, cruelty, and resilience of all great apes” publisher.

The Writer’s Trust jury had this to say about A Beautiful Truth:

“A Beautiful Truth by Colin McAdam tells the story of Judy and Walt, of their adopted chimpanzee Looee, and of a whole cast of other primates at a research institute in Florida. In prose both strange and startling, Colin McAdam asks what, if anything, separates the human from the animal; he answers with heartbreaking honesty. This is the kind of book you finish just to pick back up again, if only to figure out how he pulled it off.”