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The 2011 Award

 

Trofimuk

Waiting for Columbus

by Thomas Trofimuk

 

 

 

Nominated by:

  • Calgary Public Library, Canada.

 

Publisher of Nominated Edition:

McClelland & Stewart Inc.

 

The complete A-Z listing of nominated authors
ABOUT THE BOOK

 

Highly acclaimed Canadian novelist Thomas Trofimuk bursts onto the international literary stage with this dazzling novel, rich with all the emotional intensity of The English Patient
 
In a Spanish mental institution in 2004, a man who believes he is Christopher Columbus begins to tell his story. Nurse Consuela listens, hoping to discover what tragedy drove this educated, cultured man to retreat from reality. This Columbus is not heroic: he falls in love with every woman he meets, and, on land, he has absolutely no sense of direction. More troublingly, he is convinced a terrible tragedy is coming. Yet with each tale, Consuela draws closer to this lost navigator. 
 
Waiting for Columbus is richly imagined, cinematic, and often playful; a novel about truth, loss, love, and hope by a writer at the height of his powers 

 (From Publisher).

 
ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Thomas Trofimuk’s first novel, The 52nd Poem, won several awards, and his second, Doubting Yourself to the Bone, was a #1 bestseller (Edmonton Journal) and a Globe and Mail Best Book of 2006. He lives in Edmonton with his wife and daughter. 

 

LIBRARIANS' COMMENTS

A man wakes up in a mental institution in Spain, insisting that he is Christopher Columbus. As he tells detailed stories from 15th century and the present and charms staff and residents, the unknown patient also challenges staff, residents and readers to solve the mystery of his identity. Winner of City of Edmonton Book Prize and shortlisted for an Alberta Literary Award.

 

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