Giving Good Books the Credit They Deserve: Rawi Hage in French Wins Combat des livres:

For perhaps the first time in its history, Le Combat des livres (Radio Canada's version of Canada Reads) was won by a translation from English last week. Parfum des poussieres, Rawi Hage's DeNiro's Game in its excellent French version translated by Sophie Voillot, was defended by Brendan Kelly, a familiar voice on English-language arts programing around here.

It's always nice when a really good book wins one of these contests, and this year my picks have won in both book-reading promotions sponsored by the national broadcaster. (You'll remember that Lawrence Hill's The Book of Negroes won Canada Reads in February.) Would that there were more coverage on the airwaves of good writing from Canada and elsewhere, but when good books get good results, I think we should say