Eleanor Catton winner of the Amazon.ca First Novel Award

Eleanor Catton is the winner of the Amazon.ca First Novel Award for The Rehearsal.  The prize was formerly known as the Books in Canada First Novel Award and is now in it's 35th year.

Head judge Stuart Woods--editor of the award's co-presenter, Quill & Quire magazine--called the book "everything a first novel ought to be: bold, inventive, self-possessed. The novel, which follows the aftermath of a sexual scandal at a private school, is unlike any coming of age story you’re likely to encounter, offering keen insight into the worlds of high art, music, and theatre while brilliantly decoding the rituals of adolescent life. In the hands of a less talented writer, The Rehearsal could easily have become a tiresome experiment, but Catton has imbued every page, every paragraph, with wit and insight."