This year’s Giller Prize winner is The Sentimentalists by Johanna Skibsrud! That was my second choice after Light Lifting by Alexander MacLeod. Certainly, The Sentimentalists is the best produced book on the shortlist — and, up to now, the hardest to come by. Apparently a few weeks ago I could have sold my used copy for nearly $200. I wonder what people would pay now . . . Not that it’s for sale.
Congratulations!
Hard to come by is right…the Book Depository doesn’t have it, and of course it’s not in bookshops here in Oz.
Frustrating!
I daresay the situation is very similar here; if not, I’ll get hold of it asap.
The publisher (who prints his own copies on a 1960s press) is producing them at the rate of 1,000 a week and says he now has shipments on the way to most Canadian independents. Indigo, which is Canada’s mega-chain, says not a single one of its stores has a copy — the publisher says he’ll get to their order soon.
Library readers are in for a longer wait. Toronto reports 211 holds, Halifax 134 and Vancouver 96 — alas, none of the three libraries bought one of the 600 first printing editions, so those lists will only grow.
The good news for international readers is that Skibsrud signed with Hienemann’s in the UK last week and they are promising a version in April — which of course will be on the Book Depository.
Thanks for the update, Kevin. I see that none of the four used copies I saw on Amazon when the book won is still up for sale (each had a price-tag of around $200). I wonder if they each sold and if others have been posted and are selling for even higher prices.
[…] Giller Prize Winner has been announced. The chosen collection of short stories is enticing. The 2010 Giller Prize Winner has also been […]
The cheapest I found was £134 quid and assorted pence so I’ll hang fire!