Author Andrew Boden has been shortlisted for a top Canadian literary award, for his first novel.
The Amazon Canada First Novel Award recognizes the best Canadian debut novel of the year.
Boden, originally from Cranbrook, currently residing in Burnaby, is one of six novelists on the shortlist, for “When We Were Ashes,” which was released in 2024.
The award — a collaboration between Amazon Canada and the media organization The Walrus — recognizes the best debut Canadian novel of the year. The winner of the Adult First Novel category will receive $60,000, and each of the five finalists will receive $6,000 in prize money.
The winner will be announced in Toronto on Thursday, June 5, 2025.
“When We Were Ashes” is a dive into the nightmare of the 20th century. It follows the character Rainor Schacht, who revisits his past as a child in a ward for disabled children in a remote hospital called Trutzburg in Nazi Germany.
The hospital is one of the sites of Aktion T4, a campaign of mass murder by involuntary euthanasia in Nazi Germany, targeting individuals with psychiatric, neurological or physical disabilities. Among the victims, at least 10,000 children were taken to and killed in special “paediatric clinics.”
In later life, Rainor sets out to find another survivor, Emmi, after discovering coded diary of the bus driver who transported them to the hospital.
Despite the horror and heaviness of the subject matter, Boden infuses the story with moments of joy and magic realism, light in the midst of darkness.
The other writers on the shortlist include: David Huebert (for “Oil People”), Myriam Lacroix (“How It Works Out”), Natalie Sue (“I Hope This Finds You Well”), Benjamin Hertwig (“Juiceboxers”) and Valérie Bah (“Subterrane”).
There is also a youth category, with writers Emma Chappel, Willow Greenfield, Thivya Jeyapalan, Victoria Nguyen, Abbie Pasowisty and Vicky Zhu on the shortlist. The winner in the Youth Short Story category will receive $5,000, and each of the five finalists will receive $500 in prize money.
Boden is also the author of “The Secret History of My Hometown,” a collection of stories depicting an alternative history of Cranbrook, which was published in 2021.
Last year's winner of the Amazon Canada First Novel Award was Alicia Elliott for “And Then She Fell.”
Other past winners include Stéphane Larue for “The Dishwasher,” Joy Kogawa for “Obasan,” katherena vermette for “The Break,” Michelle Good for “Five Little Indians,” Anne Michaels for “Fugitive Pieces” and Madeleine Thien for “Certainty.”
