On February 3, 2026, we hosted the Giller Book Club with Emma Donoghue and Lynn Coady. Emma is the author of THE PARIS EXPRESS, a finalist for the 2025 Giller Prize. Lynn won the 2013 Giller Prize for her short story collection, HELLGOING.

About THE PARIS EXPRESS, published by Harper Avenue:
The Paris Express is set over a single day, as the morning train travels from the Normandy coast to the capital. Men, women, and children from all over the world take their seats in the passenger cars, which are divided by wealth and status. Among the passengers is an anarchist intent on destruction, a young boy travelling alone, a pregnant woman fleeing her home village for the anonymity of the big city, a medical student who suspects a girl may have a fatal disease, and the railway crew, devoted to the train, to the company, and to each other.

Based on an 1895 catastrophe that was captured in a series of surreal photographs, The Paris Express is a thrilling ride and a literary masterpiece full of the politics, fears, and chaos of an era not unlike our own.

About HELLGOING, published by House of Anansi:
With astonishing range and depth, Scotiabank Giller Prize winner Lynn Coady gives us nine unforgettable new stories, each one of them grabbing our attention from the first line and resonating long after the last.

A young nun charged with talking an anorexic out of her religious fanaticism toys with the thin distance between practicality and blasphemy. A strange bond between a teacher and a schoolgirl takes on ever deeper, and stranger, shapes as the years progress. A bride-to-be with a penchant for nocturnal bondage can’t seem to stop bashing herself up in the light of day.

Equally adept at capturing the foibles and obsessions of men and of women, compassionate in her humour yet never missing an opportunity to make her characters squirm, fascinated as much by faithlessness as by faith, Lynn Coady is quite possibly the writer who best captures what it is to be human at this particular moment in our history.

Please visit gillerprize.ca/giller-book-club to learn about upcoming book clubs.