[Video] The Giller Book Club: Curiosities

January 22, 2025

On January 21, 2025, we hosted a conversation with Anne Fleming and Kevin Chong for the Giller Book Club. Anne is the author of CURIOSITIES which was shortlisted for the 2024 Giller Prize. Kevin is the author of THE DOUBLE LIFE OF BENSON YU, shortlisted in 2023. Kevin was also a jury member for the 2024 Giller Prize.

About CURIOSITIES, published by Knopf Canada:
This sparkling, genre-bending novel opens with amateur historian Anne, who has a passion for research into the murkier corners of England in the 1600s. In an archive, Anne has stumbled across an obscure memoir, one that hints at an intricate tapestry of secret lives and loves.

The full story eventually weaves together five manuscripts, each a different thread in the same strange tale: The Plague descends upon a village, and two children, Joan and Thomasina, are the only survivors. They bond with each other and with “Old Nut,” a woman who lives in the forest nearby. But when relatives return, Old Nut is accused of witchcraft and condemned to death. Joan is hired as a maid to well-educated Lady Margaret Long—and, being lively and curious, soon becomes a beloved companion. Thomasina is sent on a perilous voyage to Virginia, where she adopts boys’ clothing and navigates life as a male.

Years later, Tom and Joan find each other and fall in love—but are discovered, naked, by a clergyman. Horrified, he believes there can only be one explanation for Tom’s “unmanned” state: Joan is a witch and, like Old Nut years ago, must be tried for sorcery. It falls upon Anne, reading between faded pages and centuries, to uncover the fate of the lovers—and add her own contemporary line of “truth” to this tale from a time when there were no labels for who Tom and Joan might be.

About THE DOUBLE LIFE OF BENSON YU, published by Simon & Schuster:
In a Chinatown housing project lives twelve-year-old Benny, his ailing grandmother, and his strange neighbor Constantine, a man who believes he’s a reincarnated medieval samurai. When his grandmother is hospitalized, Benny manages to survive on his own until a social worker comes snooping. With no other family, he is reluctantly taken in by Constantine and soon, an unlikely bond forms between the two.

At least, that’s what Yu, the narrator of the story, wants to write.

The creator of a bestselling comic book, Yu is struggling with continuing the poignant tale of Benny and can’t help but interject from the present day, slowly revealing a darker backstory. Can Yu confront the demons he’s spent his adult life avoiding or risk his own life…and Benny’s?

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