One of the few things more gratifying than discovering a new author is passing the word on to someone else. At Amazon.com, we take great care in helping our worldwide community of book lovers find and discover new, important, entertaining works of literature. As first-year sponsors of the Amazon.com/ Books in Canada First Novel Award, it's been our great pleasure to spend time with the work of so many outstanding new Canadian novelists. Moreover, as a sponsor it has been particularly rewarding to support these important young writers and help foster the next generation of world-class Canadian talent.

Congratulations and thank you to all the novelists who participated in this year's competition and especially to the five finalistsùSteven Galloway's warm and funny Finnie Walsh; Scott Gardiner's strangely compelling road novel The Dominion of Wylie McFadden; Susan Juby's hilarious and eccentric Alice, I Think; Lydia Kwa's lyric and haunting This Place Called Absence; and this year's winner, Eva Stachniak's bittersweet tale of loss, regret, relationships, and family as told through the eyes of Anna, a Polish immigrant to Canada, in Necessary Lies. All of these novels point to what we've known all along: Canadian literature is a wonderfully diverse, engaging, and rich body of work. With the addition of such a strong crop of young talent, the future looks bright, indeed.

At Amazon.com, we take our commitment to Canadian literature seriously and look forward to offering these wonderful titles to readers everywhere. Just as importantly, we look forward to continuing our support of Canadian literature in general and the Amazon.com/Books in Canada First Novel Award in particular. Again, congratulations to all involved and happy reading!

Sincerely,
Marven Krug
General Manager, Canada

Steve Duda
Editor-in Chief, Canada

Tom Nissley
Literature Editor, Canada