One Book, One Community pick revealed
KITCHENER — A book is not finished until someone reads and responds to it, says author Wayne Grady.
“Literature is a living organism,” he said. “It needs readers.”
Grady was in Kitchener on Tuesday as his novel “Emancipation Day” was unveiled as this year’s title for One Book, One Community.
Now in its 16th year in Waterloo Region, it’s the longest running community reading program in Canada.
“Our goal is to promote reading and community engagement,” said chair Christine Brown.
“Emancipation Day” — longlisted for the 2013 Scotiabank Giller Prize and winner of the 2013 Amazon.ca First Novel Award — was the unanimous choice by the selection committee.
Told from the perspective of three characters — Vivian, the innocent newlywed, her husband and navy musician Jack, and Jack’s father — the story explores racial identity and lingering prejudice around the tumultuous time of the Second World War.
Grady said it is “heartening” that his debut novel is still engaging readers.
“It’s an amazing thing to still be so much involved with this book,” he told the gathering.
Grady is visiting the region this week to promote One Book, One Community, which he commended for keeping literature alive in the region.
On Wednesday, he will be in New Hamburg at Waterloo Oxford District Secondary School in the afternoon.
In the evening, he’ll be in Waterloo at Knox Presbyterian Church in conversation with David Worsley, co-owner of Words Worth Books; doors open at 6:30 p.m. and the event starts at 7 p.m.
On Thursday, he’ll be in Cambridge at the Trillium United Church with live jazz at 6 p.m., followed by a reading, discussion and signing at 7 p.m.