On March 5, 2025, we hosted the Giller Book Club with Caroline Adderson and Rachel Rose. Caroline is the author of A WAY TO BE HAPPY which was longlisted for the 2024 Giller Prize. Rachel is the author of THE OCOTOPUS HAS THREE HEARTS, longlisted for the 2021 Giller Prize.

About A WAY TO BE HAPPY, published by Biblioasis:
On New Year’s Eve, a pair of addicts robs a string of high-end parties in order to fund their own recovery. A recently separated woman relocates to a small northern town, where she receives a life-changing visitation, and a Russian hitman, suffering from a mysterious lung ailment, retrieves long-buried memories of his past. In the nineteenth century, a disparate group of women coalesce in the attempt to aid a young girl in her escape from a hospital for the insane. These are but some of the remarkable characters who populate these stories, all of them grappling with conflicts ranging from mundane to extraordinary. Caroline Adderson’s A Way to Be Happy considers what it means to find happiness—and how often it comes through the grace of others.

About THE OCTOPUS HAS THREE HEARTS, published by Douglas & McIntyre:
From a goat farmer to a suburban adulterer, a violent child to a polyamorous marine biologist, Rose’s diverse characters have little in common except a life-sustaining connection to the animal world. The octopus, dogs, pigs, chameleons, bats, parrots, rats and sugar gliders in their lives extend a measure of compassion and solace that their human communities lack.

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