Amazon.ca First Novel Award Winner announced

"Amazon.ca has announced that Joan Thomas is the winner of the 33rd annual Amazon.ca First Novel Award for Reading by Lightning. Head judge Aritha van Herk called the book "a fabulous novel, full of grace and delicious discovery, haunted by the flavour of memory and the prairies in World War II. The Amazon.ca First Novel Award recognizes the outstanding achievement of a Canadian first-time novelist. Since 1976, the award has launched the careers of some of Canada's most beloved novelists, including Michael Ondaatje, Joan Barfoot, Joy Kogawa, W.P. Kinsella, Nino Ricci, Rohinton Mistry, Anne Michaels, André Alexis, Michael Redhill, Mary Lawson, Colin McAdam, and Joseph Boyden"