After 776 votes, Drive-by Saviours, designed by John Van Der Wourde, published by Roseway Publishing, and written by Coast-columnist and all-around good guy, Chris Benjamin, won the 2010 Judge-a-book-by-its-cover Competition.
This is Benjamin’s debut novel, and you might have noticed this novel was a top 40 finalist for Canada Reads 2011.
Demoralized by his job and dissatisfied with his life, Mark punches the clock with increasing indifference; After six years of bureaucracy and pushing paper Mark has lost hope. All that changes when he meets Bumi, an Indonesian restaurant worker. Moved from his small fishing village and sent to a residential school under the authoritarian Suharto regime, Bumi’s radical genius and obsessive-compulsive disorder raise suspicion among his paranoid neighbours. When several local children die mysteriously the neighbours fear reaches a fevered pitch and Bumi is forced to flee to Canada. Brought together by a chance encounter on the subway, Mark and Bumi develop a friendship that forces them to confront their pasts. Drive-by Saviours is the story of desire and connection among lonely people adrift in a crowded world.
“Chris Benjamin’s debut novel is part contemporary fiction, part social commentary and part kick-in-the-ass storytelling.” – Carla Gunn
“[A] giant storytelling talent … Benjamin does a superb job of weaving the two tales together.” – Atlantic Books Today
RUNNERS UP:
Crisp, Short Fiction by R.W. Gray (NeWest Press, Design by Natalie Olsen)
Annabel, a novel by Kathleen Winter (Anansi, Design by Bill Douglas)
Click Here to read more about this year’s Judge-a-book-by-its-cover Competition, and see the other finalists
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