Dafoe Prize winner hosting pair of events

A pair of events celebrating J.W. Dafoe Book Prize winner Gerald Friesen and his book The Honourable John Norquay: Indigenous Premier, Canadian Statesman take place in Winnipeg on Monday.

The Winnipeg historian will chat about his chronicle of Norquay’s life, published in April 2024 by University of Manitoba Press, in the Cross Common Room at St. John’s College at the University of Manitoba from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Then in the evening, Friesen will appear at the Dalnavert Museum and Visitors’ Centre (61 Carlton St.) from 6-7:30 p.m. Both events are free, and the public is welcome.

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Montreal-born British-Hungarian author David Szalay, who now lives in Vienna, has won the 2025 Booker Prize for his novel Flesh.

The novel follows a Hungarian teen who becomes emotionally detached after a clandestine relationship with an adult neighbour, and how he navigates a life that changes largely due to circumstances beyond his control.

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The winner, announced Nov. 10, receives £50,000 (around $92,200), and was chosen by a panel of judges including 1993 winner Roddy Doyle and actress Sarah Jessica Parker.

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Toronto novelist Terry Fallis lands in Winnipeg on Tuesday to launch his new novel about a thriller writer turned CSIS operative trying to help trapped Canadian gold miners escape a politically unstable Mali.

Fallis launches The Marionette at 7 p.m. at McNally Robinson Booksellers’ Grant Park location, where he’ll be joined in converation by marketing/communications whiz and Free Press book reviewer Deborah Bowers.

Fallis won the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour and CBC’s Canada Reads for his debut novel The Best Laid Plans. For an interview with Fallis, see Tuesday’s Free Press.

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The role of prominent Canadian businessmen in lifting the country from minor player in the Second World War to military powerhouse is chronicled in the latest book by Winnipeg historian Allan Levine.

Levine, the author of 16 history books, launches The Dollar a Year Men: How the Best Business Brains in Canada Helped to Win the Second World War at McNally Robinson’s Grant Park location on Wednesday at 7 p.m.

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Award-winning children’s author (and Free Press children’s books columnist) Harriet Zaidman returns with a young-adult novel that explores Canada’s abortion debate in the 1980s.

What Friends Are For follows a 15-year-teen who had attended anti-abortion rallies with her mother. When she becomes pregnant after being assaulted at a party, she begins thinking about her own agency over her body, and how to open up to friends and famnily about her evovling beliefs.

Zaidman launches What Friends Are For at McNally Robinson’s Grant Park location on Thursday at 7 p.m., where she’ll be joined by Shelagh Rogers. For more on Zaidman’s latest book, see Monday’s Free Press.

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A new book featuring stories by Latina and Canadian women is being launched on Tuesday at 6 p.m. at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.

Published by Training & Empowerment Women Congress MB, Women Without Limits features contributions by 15 women, both in Spanish and English, about overcoming obstacles, finding courage and resilience and the often-uneven road to success.

Among local contributors are Coal and Canary founder (and Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce chair) Amanda Buhse, Métis citizenship judge Suzanne Carrière and Anishinaabe designer Destiny Seymour. The book, which will be available via Amazon, also features a foreword from Manitoba Lieutenant Governor Anita Neville.

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Get a jump on the holiday gift-buying season at the Friends of the Winnipeg Public Library’s pop-up sale, taking place at the St. James-Assiniboia Library (1910 Portage Ave.) on Friday from noon to 4 p.m., and on Saturday, Nov. 22 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. In addition to books there will be CDs, DVDs, LPs and more for sale.

books@freepress.mb.ca