Discover the Winners of Canada Reads
and Their Award-winning Audiobooks

Canada Reads is an annual battle of the books organized and broadcast by the CBC. Titles that make the shortlist are debated on CBC Radio One, CBC TV, CBC Gem and CBC Books. During the program's run, five "defenders" extoll the virtues of their chosen book, with each successive episode voting out one title until just one finalist remains. The CBC Canada Reads winner is then billed as the book that all Canadians should read.
Below, discover past winners and nominees. From moving non-fiction memoirs to stunning fiction works centred around Indigenous peoples, this is a list of powerful Canadian books that have been translated into spectacular audiobooks.

The 2024 Canada Reads Contenders

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  • Bad Cree cover art

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  • Meet Me at the Lake cover art

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  • Shut Up You’re Pretty cover art

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Past Winners

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  • Five Little Indians cover art

    • Five Little Indians

    • A Novel
    • Written by: Michelle Good
    • Narrated by: Kyla Garcia
    • Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins
    • Release date: 2020-04-14
    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 919 ratings
    • 2022 winner
    • Defender: Christian Allaire
      Five Little Indians, written by Cree writer, poet and lawyer Michelle Good, was crowned the winner of the 2020 CBC Canada Reads prize—and for a good reason. In this tale of desperation, survival and progress, five Indigenous children are snatched from their families and sent to a residential school. As they grow into teens, they find their way into the seedy and foreign world of east side Vancouver. This gripping novel, narrated by Kyle Garcia, gives listeners a knowing look into the treatment of Canada’s Indigenous peoples. This national bestseller also won the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction.

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  • Jonny Appleseed cover art

    • Jonny Appleseed

    • A Novel
    • Written by: Joshua Whitehead
    • Narrated by: Joshua Whitehead
    • Length: 5 hrs and 41 mins
    • Release date: 2019-10-24
    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 406 ratings
    • 2021 winner
    • Defender: Devery Jacobs
      Jonny Appleseed was the rightful winner of the 2021 CBC Canada Reads prize. Written and narrated by First Nations poet and author Joshua Whitehead, this captivating story takes listeners into the world of Jonny, a young Two-Spirit/Indigiqueer person trying to survive in the big city and supporting himself through online sex work. Jonny must return to the "rez" and his former world to attend a funeral. When he arrives, he comes face to face with the past he left behind. Joshua Whitehead’s debut novel presents a unique vision of First Nations life, full of grit and dreams.

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  • We Have Always Been Here cover art

    • We Have Always Been Here

    • A Queer Muslim Memoir
    • Written by: Samra Habib
    • Narrated by: Parmida Vand
    • Length: 5 hrs and 14 mins
    • Release date: 2019-06-04
    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 283 ratings
    • 2020 winner
    • Defender: Amanda Brugel
      Samra Habib has spent most of her life searching for the safety to be herself. As an Ahmadi Muslim growing up in Pakistan, she faced regular threats from Islamic extremists. When her family came to Canada as refugees, Samra encountered new challenges: bullies, racism, the threat of poverty and an arranged marriage. In We Have Always Been Here: A Queer Muslim Memoir, Habib details her exploration of faith, art, love and queer sexuality as part of her journey to live the truth that was always within her. This courageous work won the prestigious Canada Reads award in 2020.

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  • By Chance Alone cover art

    • By Chance Alone

    • A Remarkable True Story of Courage and Survival at Auschwitz
    • Written by: Max Eisen
    • Narrated by: Douglas E. Hughes
    • Length: 5 hrs and 59 mins
    • Release date: 2019-07-16
    • Language: English
    • 5 out of 5 stars 310 ratings
    • 2019 winner
    • Defender: Ziya Tong
      This multi-award-winning international bestseller received the 2019 CBC Canada Reads prize. More than 70 years after the Nazi camps were liberated, By Chance Alone details one survivor’s incredible true story. Max Eisen endured the infamous Auschwitz I camp and the January 1945 death march. In his moving memoir, he recounts his heartbreaking experiences during the Holocaust and his physical and psychological healing journey. This Audible Original audiobook is Eisen’s remarkable account of courage, hope, and survival.

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  • Forgiveness cover art

    • Forgiveness

    • A Gift from My Grandparents
    • Written by: Mark Sakamoto
    • Narrated by: Geoff Sugiyama
    • Length: 7 hrs and 41 mins
    • Release date: 2018-04-03
    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 386 ratings
    • 2018 winner
    • Defender: Jeanne Beker
      Forgiveness, the winner of the 2018 CBC Canada Reads award, is the true story of what Mark Sakamoto’s grandparents endured during the Second World War. When the war broke out, Ralph MacLean left his troubled life on the Magdalen Islands in eastern Canada to serve his country overseas. Meanwhile, Mitsue Sakamoto’s family and the community got torn apart after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in Vancouver. Ralph endured years of hard labour in Japanese prison camps. Mitsue and her family were forced out of their homes and fled to rural Alberta. Ralph’s daughter and Mitsue’s son fell in love, and this Audible exclusive tells the story of two worlds colliding, bravery and forgiveness.

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  • Fifteen Dogs cover art

    • Fifteen Dogs

    • Written by: André Alexis
    • Narrated by: André Alexis
    • Series: Quincunx, Book 2
    • Length: 6 hrs and 20 mins
    • Release date: 2016-04-06
    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 1,238 ratings
    • 2017 winner
    • Defender: Humble The Poet
      The winner of the 2017 Canada Reads award and the 2015 Scotiabank Giller Prize explores what it would be like if animals had human intelligence. In André Alexis’s award-winning fiction piece, a bet between the gods Hermes and Apollo leads them to grant human consciousness and language to a group of dogs at a Toronto veterinary clinic. The dogs turn out to be more capable than the gods or humans could have imagined. The gods watch from above as the dogs navigate their new world and become divided among themselves, each struggling with their new thoughts and feelings. Fifteen Dogs is a weird and wonderful listen that looks at the beauty and perils of human consciousness in a unique way.

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  • Ru cover art

    • Ru

    • Written by: Kim Thúy, Sheila Fischman
    • Narrated by: Kim Thúy
    • Length: 3 hrs and 13 mins
    • Release date: 2018-03-27
    • Language: English
    • 4 out of 5 stars 44 ratings
    • 2015 winner
    • Defender: Cameron Bailey
      Ru is an autobiographical work of fiction from Kim Thúy, earning the Vietnamese-born Canadian novelist the 2015 Canada Reads award. At just ten years old, Kim Thúy left Vietnam on a boat with her family to an unknown future. The family arrived in Quebec, where Kim had to learn French and English and chase opportunities to put herself through school. In Vietnamese, ru is a lullaby. Ru is a classic immigrant story that mesmerizingly tells Kim Thúy’s truth. This powerful listen will resonate with anyone faced with new beginnings, who adapted to new cultures, and who built something from nothing.

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  • The Orenda cover art

    • The Orenda

    • A Novel
    • Written by: Joseph Boyden
    • Narrated by: Ali Ahn, Graham Rowat, Edoardo Ballerini
    • Series: Bird Family Chronicles
    • Length: 17 hrs and 37 mins
    • Release date: 2014-05-13
    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 246 ratings
    • 2014 winner
    • Defender: Wab Kinew
      In Joseph Boyden’s The Orenda, winner of the 2014 Canada Reads award, history reveals itself when, in the 17th century, a Jesuit missionary ventures into the Canadian wilderness in search of converts. Christophe has been in the New World only a year when his native guides abandon him to flee their Iroquois pursuers. A Huron warrior and elder named Bird soon takes him prisoner, along with a young Iroquois girl, Snow Falls, whose family he has just killed, and holds them captive in his village. The Orenda traces a story of blood and hope, suspicion and trust, hatred and love.

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  • February cover art

    • February

    • Written by: Lisa Moore
    • Narrated by: Mary Lewis
    • Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
    • Release date: 2018-06-04
    • Language: English
    • 4 out of 5 stars 29 ratings
    • 2013 winner
    • Defender: Trent McClellan
      February by Lisa Moore won the 2013 Canada Reads award. In 1982, the oil rig Ocean Ranger sank off the coast of Newfoundland, killing all 84 aboard. February is the story of Helen O'Mara, one of those left behind when her husband, Cal, drowns on the rig. It begins in the present day, more than 25 years later, but spirals back again and again to the "February" that persists in Helen's mind and heart. February is a novel about complex love, cauterizing grief, and how a close-knit community comes together to navigate such a harrowing crisis. This is a profound, gorgeous, heart-stopping work from one of Canada’s most impressive writers.

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  • Something Fierce cover art

    • Something Fierce

    • Memoirs of a Revolutionary Daughter
    • Written by: Carmen Aguirre
    • Narrated by: Carmen Aguirre
    • Length: 9 hrs and 30 mins
    • Release date: 2012-10-22
    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 18 ratings
    • 2012 winner
    • Defender: Shad
      Something Fierce: Memoirs of a Revolutionary Daughter by Chilean-born Canadian author Carmen Aguirre won the Canada Reads award in 2012. The author was just six years old when she and her family fled to Canada after General Augusto Pinochet’s violent 1973 coup. When she was eleven, her parents joined the resistance movement and returned to South America, taking Carmen and her sister. At 18, Carmen became a militant, entering a new world of terror and thrill. This dramatic and darkly comic first-hand account covers the shockingly eventful decade of 1979 to 1989 from the perspective of a girl growing up in chaos and turmoil.

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  • Nikolski cover art

    • Nikolski

    • Written by: Nicolas Dickner, Lazer Lederhendler
    • Narrated by: Chris Patton
    • Length: 6 hrs and 28 mins
    • Release date: 2021-12-21
    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 2 ratings
    • 2010 winner
    • Defender: Michel Vézina
      In the spring of 1989, three young people leave their birthplaces to follow their journeys of migration and self-discovery. Each ends up in Montréal, where they must deal with the mishaps of heartbreak and the twisted branches of their shared family tree. Nicolas Dickner’s winner of the 2010 Canada Reads award, which was first published in 2001, is a listen filled with humour, charm and powerful storytelling. Nikolski demonstrates the surprising links between cartography, archeologists, pirates of the past and present, a mysterious coverless book and a broken compass which points to the minuscule Aleutian village of Nikolski.

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  • The Book of Negroes cover art

    • The Book of Negroes

    • A Novel
    • Written by: Lawrence Hill
    • Narrated by: Khadijah Roberts-Abdullah
    • Length: 15 hrs and 46 mins
    • Release date: 2016-08-16
    • Language: English
    • 5 out of 5 stars 529 ratings
    • 2009 winner
    • Defender: Avi Lewis
      Lawrence Hill earned the 2009 Canada Reads award with his breathtaking title, The Book of Negroes. 11-year-old Aminata Diallo gets abducted from her village in West Africa and forced to walk for months to the sea as part of a string of enslaved people. After years of enslavement, she forges her way to freedom and eventually goes to serve the British in the Revolutionary War. She registers her name in the historic Book of Negroes, an actual document which provides a short but immensely revealing record of freed loyalist enslaved people who left the United States to resettle in Nova Scotia.

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  • Lullabies For Little Criminals cover art

    • Lullabies For Little Criminals

    • Written by: Heather O'Neill
    • Narrated by: Miriam McDonald
    • Length: 8 hrs and 53 mins
    • Release date: 2009-01-02
    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 59 ratings
    • 2007 winner
    • Defender: John K. Samson
      The 2007 winner of the Canada Reads award is Heather O’Neill’s heartbreaking debut novel, Lullabies for Little Criminals. 13-year-old Baby is at the crossroads between childhood and the temptations of the adult world. Her mother is dead and her father, Jules, refers to heroin as "chocolate milk." A bigger hazard emerges than Baby’s refined survival skills can handle. Alphonse, the local pimp, has his eye on her for his new girl. At the same time, she develops a passionate friendship with a boy from school. Baby chooses her path as she embarks on a journey to find redemption and love.

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  • A Complicated Kindness cover art

    • A Complicated Kindness

    • Written by: Miriam Toews
    • Narrated by: Miriam Toews
    • Length: 6 hrs and 44 mins
    • Release date: 2017-11-21
    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 145 ratings
    • 2006 winner
    • Defender: John K. Samson
      Miriam Toews won the 2006 Canada Reads award for her funny and touching coming-of-age novel, A Complicated Kindness. Set in a Mennonite community, it follows 16-year-old Nomi as she struggles with feeling restricted by her religion and community, especially after her sister Tash and her mother, Trudie, abruptly leave. Left alone with her sad father, Nomi reflects on happy memories with her family while dreaming of living in New York City. Then, she starts to rebel against her community and everything she’s ever known, skipping class, listening to rock ‘n’ roll music and hanging out with a boy from a different world.

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  • Rockbound cover art

    • Rockbound

    • Written by: Frank Parker Day
    • Narrated by: James Banning
    • Length: 6 hrs and 20 mins
    • Release date: 2017-06-08
    • Language: English
    • 4.5 out of 5 stars 18 ratings
    • 2005 winner
    • Defender: Donna Morrissey
      Frank Parker Day’s Rockbound was first published in 1928 but won the Canada Reads award in 2005. This audio adaptation of the classic Canadian novel tells the story of David, a fisherman in Nova Scotia, and his journey to get acquainted with the small island that is Rockbound. The island is split by families that compete with each other, and hierarchy and hate prevail. Listeners will get lost in this gripping story of power, terror and the stunning beauty of the Atlantic Ocean.

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  • The Last Crossing cover art

    • The Last Crossing

    • A Novel
    • Written by: Guy Vanderhaeghe
    • Narrated by: John Henry Cox, John Keating, Colin Lane, Tom McKeon, Simon Prebble, Chelsey Rives
    • Length: 11 hrs and 18 mins
    • Release date: 2004-03-04
    • Language: English
    • 4 out of 5 stars 20 ratings
    • 2004 winner
    • Defender: Jim Cuddy
      The 2004 Canada Reads award winner takes listeners on a thrilling journey from the ivy-covered towers of Oxford in Victorian England to the dusty whiskey trading posts of the 19th-century American and Canadian West. Guy Vanderhaeghe lends his spellbinding storytelling skills to The Last Crossing. This fantastic fiction title follows the story of Englishmen Charles and Addington Gaunt, who get ordered by their father to find their brother Simon who has gone missing in the wilds of the American West.

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  • In the Skin of a Lion cover art

    • In the Skin of a Lion

    • Written by: Michael Ondaatje
    • Narrated by: Tom McCamus
    • Length: 6 hrs and 10 mins
    • Release date: 2018-01-16
    • Language: English
    • 4 out of 5 stars 114 ratings
    • 2002 winner
    • Defender: Steven Page
      In his award-winning book In the Skin of a Lion, Sri Lankan-Canadian poet and novelist Michael Ondaatje tests the boundary between history and myth. This Audible listen won the 2002 Canada Reads award. This powerful story will fascinate anyone interested in the history of Toronto, as Patrick Lewis arrives in the city in the 1920s and makes a living searching for a vanished millionaire and tunnelling beneath Lake Ontario. During these adventures, Patrick’s life intersects with those of characters who reappear in Ondaatje’s Booker Prize-winning The English Patient.

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