The winner of this year’s Canada Reads “battle of the books” competition goes to writer and rapper, Humble the Poet, for his efforts defending the book Fifteen Dogs, written by André Alexis.
The completion began on March 27 and ended March 30. Fifteen Dogs is a book that places canines as the main characters to explore human nature. It uses universal lessons to describe the human condition as it follows the fates of 15 dogs that were gifted human consciousness by two Greek gods.
The competition was comprised of five boos written by prolific Canadian authors where each book was defended and explored on CBC radio by an appointed representative. Over the span of a few days, the other panellists voted one book out of the runnings until a winner remained. Up until the final day of debates, Alexis’ book had only received one vote against it.
The other books in the competition were: The Right to Be Cold by Sheila Watt-Cloutier, Company Town by Madeline Ashby, The Break by Katherena Vermette and Nostalgia by M.G. Vassanji.