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The Audlib Project

By: Gil Adamson, David Bergen, Emily St. John Mandel, Shani Mootoo, Souvankham Thammavongsa
Narrated by: Gil Adamson, David Bergen, Emily St. John Mandel, Shani Mootoo, Souvankham Thammavongsa

Summary

We asked five celebrated Canadian storytellers to explore home, as inspired by the creativity of their nominated work. They responded with an audio experience unlike any other, weaving together the lives and shared experiences of neighbours in an apartment building in Canada.

A single rose bush in a courtyard serves as the centerpiece for a sequence of stories of vastly different lives with unexpected connections. A young girl dares to test her limits of safety, a woman is pained by a tragic loss and the stigma she now carries because of it, and a neighbour wishes for connection and understanding in a deeply divided time. An expat yearns to be closer to her treasured family members, and a café owner grapples with the changes that gradually eat away at her in small but significant ways.

The five finalists of the 2020 Scotiabank Giller Prize were tasked with creating an original story linked through a shared environment: a building with windows overlooking a rose bush in a communal courtyard. Each author was asked to write a brief section of the story and then pass the work along to a fellow finalist, who would then complete their section and pass the story along again.

In celebration of the 2020 Scotiabank Giller Prize finalists, Audible is illuminating the art of storytelling with a unique work, The Audlib Project. This Audible Original is an ad-lib collaborative short story, written collectively by all of the 2020 Scotiabank Giller Prize finalists: Gil Adamson (Ridgerunner), David Bergen (Here the Dark), Shani Mootoo (Polar Vortex), Emily St. John Mandel (The Glass Hotel), and Souvankham Thammavongsa (How to Pronounce Knife).

The Giller Prize, founded by Jack Rabinovitch in 1994, highlights the very best in Canadian fiction year after year. In 2005, the prize teamed up with Scotiabank, who increased the winnings four-fold. Audible has been the exclusive audiobook sponsor since 2017 and is committed to supporting talented Canadian authors and creators.

©2020 Audible Originals, LLC (P)2020 Audible Originals, LLC
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Snapshot of Covid Life of an Apartment

CW: Covid

Five Canadian writers contribute to a short anthology of micro fiction that depict the connections and fractures between the people of an apartment during the acknowledged height of the pandemic.

I like the idea for this project much more than the result. There's no doubt these are great writers and decent narrators, but I didn't connect with any of the stories or their links. It almost seems like it might be too much of a naturalistic snapshot without a lot of emotional weight, not enough space to explore, and competent prose that doesn't sparkle. There are serious and sad events happening, but, as somone who cried at the drop of the hat when I am bought in, I was reminded just how autistic I am.

I will mention that my partner and I being in seriously in the at risk category due to our chronic conditions that we are looking at a version of lockdown living indefinitely, so perhaps this somewhat laissez-faire attitude to Covid kept me at a distance.

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Not my cup of tea

An interesting project, set during lockdown and following a few lives and stories, but not my cup of tea.

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