Ottawa resident Dr. Horace Alexis is a proud and happy man. His son, Andre Alexis is the winner of this year’s Scotiabank Giller Prize for his novel, Fifteen Dogs. “I didn’t prepare a speech; feels like bad luck,” Alexis, 58, said, accepting the $100,000 prize on Tuesday night at a ceremony in the ballroom of Toronto’s Ritz-Carlton hotel. Alexis, who was born in Trinidad, lives in Toronto. He thanked in particular his publisher, Coach House Books, and his editor, Alana Wilcox.

Alexis’s winning novel, Fifteen Dogs, published earlier this year by stalwart Canadian Indie press Coach House Books, is tender and thoughtful novel that investigates the loneliness of language and consciousness through an endearing set up: the gods, on what amounts to a lark, give the titular number of canines the gift – or curse — of human consciousness. In his review, National Post columnist David Berry wrote, “ To his great credit, Alexis manages to sidestep the all-too-human mistake of dissecting the intellect as an excuse to forgo emotion. Taking some advantage of our innate capacity to shortcut to simple and powerful emotions, when it comes to animals, he finds something gutting and sad in each of these pooches.” Alexis’s win marks the first time his publisher, an historic independent press, has published a Giller-winning novel. During the ceremony, his daughter leaned over and whispered, “Dad, Twitter loves you.”

Alexis’s Fifteen Dogs was selected as winner over Samuel Archibald’s Arvida (Tran. Donald Winkler, published by Biblioasis); Anakana Schofield’s Martin John (Biblioasis); UK-based writer Rachel Cusk’s Outline (HarperCollins Canada); and Heather O’Neill’s Daydreams of Angels (HarperCollins Canada). O’Neill is the first writer in the history to earn back-to-back appearances on the short list, following her nomination last year for her novel The Girl Who Was Saturday Night.

For the first time, the Scotiabank Giller prize was awarded by a five member jury, who wrote that Alexis’s Fifteen Dogs is “an insightful and philosophical meditation on the nature of consciousness. It’s a novel filled with balancing acts: humour juxtaposed with savagery, solitude with the desperate need to be part of a pack, perceptive prose interspersed with playful poetry.”

This year’s jury comprised Allison Pick, whose most recent book, Between Gods was a Canadian Bestseller, and whose 2010 novel, Far to Go, was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize; Somerset Maugham award winner Helen Oyeyemi, who in 2013 was named one of Granta’s Best Young British Novelists, shortly before the publication of her most recent book, Boy, Snow, Bird; Alexander Macleod, whose first collection of short stories, Light Lifting, was a finalist for the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and was named a Book of the Year by the American Library Association; Cecil Foster, the author of 12 books, including the Trillium-Award finalist Sleep On, Beloved, and most recently, Independence; and jury chair John Boyne, the internationally best-selling Irish Writer whose most recent novel, A History of Loneliness, was shortlisted for Irish Novel of the Year.

Rick Mercer hosted the ceremony, which is produced in annual partnership with the CBC, and broadcast on the channel in every province of the country. Mercer was joined onstage by several Canadian celebrities, who presented each shortlisted writer. Alexis was presented by Polaris Prize-winning musician Buffy Sainte-Marie.

Jack Rabinovitch established the prize in 1994, in memory of his wife, the literary journalist Doris Giller. Previous winners include Alice Munro, Mordecai Richler, and last year, Sean Michaels.

National Post