Amazon.ca First Novel Award

Awarded annually for a first novel in English published in the previous year by a Canadian. Formerly known as the Books in Canada First Novel Award.
indicates a review is available for that book
2013
- Wayne Grady – Emancipation Day
Also shortlisted:
- Kenneth Bonert – The Lion Seeker
- Krista Bridge – The Eliot Girls
- Susan Downe – Juanita Wildrose
- D.W. Wilson – Ballistics
2012
- Anakana Schofield – Malarky
Also shortlisted:
- Marjorie Celona – Y
- Scott Fotheringham – The Rest is Silence
- Pasha Malla – People Park
- Kim Thúy – Ru
2011
- David Bezmozgis – The Free World
Also shortlisted:
- Fraser Nixon – The Man Who Killed
- Sina Queyras – Autobiography of Childhood
- Olive Senior – Dancing Lessons
- Alexi Zentner – Touch
2010
- Eleanor Catton – The Rehearsal
Also shortlisted:
- Shaughnessy Bishop-Stall – Ghosted
- Miguel Syjuco – Ilustrado
- Kathleen Winter – Annabel
- Dianne Warren – Cool Water
2009
- Jessica Grant – Come, Thou Tortoise
Also shortlisted:
- Diana Fitzgerald Bryden – No Place Strange
- Annabel Lyon – The Golden Mean
- Damian Tarnopolsky – Goya's Dog
- Dragan Todorovic – Diary of Interrupted Days
- Ian Weir – Daniel O'Thunder
2008
- Joan Thomas – Reading by Lightning
Also shortlisted:
- Mike Blouin – Chase and Haven
- Claudia Dey – Stunt
- Mary Swan – The Boys in the Trees
- Patrick Lane – Red Dog, Red Dog
- Padma Viswanathan – The Toss of a Lemon
2007
Also shortlisted:
- David Chariandy – Soucouyant
- Kyo Maclear – The Letter Opener
- CS Richardson – The End of the Alphabet
- Brian Tucker – Big White Knuckles
- Andrew Wedderburn – Milk Chicken Bomb
2006
- Madeleine Thien – Certainty
Also shortlisted:
- Peter Behrens – The Law of Dreams
- John Degen – The Uninvited Guest
- Annette Lapointe – Stolen
- Heather O'Neill – Lullabies for Little Criminals
- Adam Lewis Schroeder – Empress of Asia
2005
Also shortlisted:
- Howard Akler – The City Man
- Brenda Brooks – Gotta Find Me an Angel
- Anne Giardini – Sad Truth About Happiness
- Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer – The Nettle Spinner
- B. Glen Rotchin – The Rent Collector
2004
- Colin MacAdam – Some Great Thing
Also shortlisted:
- David Elias – Sunday Afternoon
- Ibi Kaslik – Skinny
- Arthur Motyer – What's Remembered
- Catherine Safer – Bishop's Road
2003
- Michel Basilières – Black Bird
Also shortlisted:
- Clayton Bailey – The Expedition
- John Bemrose – The Island Walkers
- Lisa Grekul – Kalyna's Song
- Bettina von Kampen – Blue Becomes You
- Edeet Ravel – Ten Thousand Lovers
2002
Also shortlisted:
- Christy Ann Conlin – Heave
- Aislinn Hunter – Stay
- Clint Hutzulak – The Beautiful Dead End
- Michael V. Smith – Cumberland
- Marnie Woodrow – Spelling Mississippi
2001
- Michael Redhill – Martin Sloane
Also shortlisted:
- Dennis Bock – The Ash Garden
- Michael Crummey – River Thieves
- Marina Endicott – Open Arms
- Linda Little – Strong Hollow
- Elizabeth Ruth – Ten Good Seconds of Silence
2000
- Eva Stachniak – Necessary Lies
Also shortlisted:
- Steven Galloway – Finnie Walsh
- Scott Gardiner – The Dominion of Wyley McFadden
- Susan Juby – Alice, I Think
- Lydia Kwa – This Place Called Absence
1999
- David Macfarlane – Summer Gone
- Alan R. Wilson – Before the Flood
Also shortlisted:
- Alistair MacLeod – No Great Mischief
- Donna Morrissey – Kit's Law
- Jim Munroe – Flyboy Action Figure Comes with Gasmask
- Catherine Simmons-Niven – A Fine Daughter
1998
Also shortlisted:
- Loranne Brown – The Handless Maiden
- Tomson Highway – Kiss of the Fur Queen
- Terry Jordan – Beneath That Starry Place
- Kerri Sakamoto – The Electrical Field
1997
- Margaret Gibson – Opium Dreams
Also shortlisted:
- Kim Echlin – Elephant Winter
- Allan Levine – The Blood Libel
- Rabindranath Maharaj – Homer in Flight
- Tim Wynveen – Angel Falls
1996
- Anne Michaels – Fugitive Pieces
Also shortlisted:
- Gail Anderson-Dargatz – The Cure for Death by Lightning
- Ann-Marie MacDonald – Fall on Your Knees
- Yann Martel – Self
- Shani Mootoo – Cereus Blooms at Night
1995
- Keath Fraser – Popular Anatomy
Also shortlisted:
- Diana Atkinson – Highways and Dancehalls
- Wayson Choy – The Jade Peony
- Larissa Lai – When Fox Is a Thousand
- Yan Li – Daughters of the Red Land
1994
- Shyam Selvadurai – Funny Boy
Also shortlisted:
- Charles Foran – Kitchen Music
- Diane Schoemperlen – In the Language of Love
- Russell Smith – How Insensitive
- Cordelia Strube – Alex & Zee
1993
- Deborah Joy Corey – Losing Eddie
Also shortlisted:
- Catherine Bush – Minus Time
- Don Dickinson – The Crew
- Douglas How – Blow Up the Trumpet in the New Moon
- Carol Malyon – If I Knew I'd Tell You
1992
- John Steffler – The Afterlife of George Cartwright
Also shortlisted:
- Douglas Cooper – Amnesia
- Carole Corbeil – Voice-over
- Kenneth J. Harvey – Brud
- Greg Hollingshead – Spin Dry
1991
- Rohinton Mistry – Such a Long Journey
Also shortlisted:
- Douglas Coupland – Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture
- Ekbert Faas – Woyzeck's Head
- Michael Kenyon – Kleinberg
- Alberto Manguel – News from a Foreign Country Came
1990
- Nino Ricci – Lives of the Saints
Also shortlisted:
- Gail Bowen – Deadly Appearances
- Rita Donovan – The Dark Jewels
- Glen Huser – Grace Lake
- Margot Livesey – Homework
- Carsten Stroud – Sniper's Moon
1989
- Sandra Birdsell – The Missing Child
Also shortlisted:
- Marilyn Bowering – To All Appearances a Lady
- Barry Callaghan – The Way the Angel Spread Her Wings
- Jacqueline Dumas – Madeleine and the Angel
- Kristjana Gunnars – The Prowler
- Kenneth Radu – Distant Relations
1988
- Rick Salutin – A Man of Little Faith
Also shortlisted:
- Neil Bissoondath – A Casual Brutality
- Joan Clark – The Victory of Geraldine Gull
- David Homel – Electrical Storms
- Janice Kulyk Keefer – Constellations
- Helen Fogwill Porter – January, February, June or July
1987
- Marion Quednau – The Butterfly Chair
Also shortlisted:
- D.F. Bailey – Fire Eyes
- W.D. Barcus – Squatters' Island
- Pauline Holdstock – The Blackbird's Song
- Seán Virgo – Selakhi
1986
- Karen Lawrence – The Life of Helen Alone
Also shortlisted:
- Jo Anne Williams Bennett – Downfall People
- Marc Diamond – Momentum
- David Gilmour – Back on Tuesday
- Paulette Jiles – The Late Great Human Road Show
1985
- Wayne Johnston – The Story of Bobby O'Malley
Also shortlisted:
- Susan Charlotte Haley – A Nest of Singing Birds
- Ann Ireland – A Certain Mr. Takahashi
- Frank Jones – Master and Maid
- Robert Walshe – Wales' Work
1984
- Geoffrey Ursell – Perdue: Or How the West Was Lost
Also shortlisted:
- Sharon Butala – Country of the Heart
- Douglas Glover – Precious
- John Gray – Dazzled
- Sara Stambaugh – I Hear the Reaper's Song
- Armin Wiebe – The Salvation of Yasch Siemens
1983
- Heather Robertson – Willie: A Romance
Also shortlisted:
- Robert G. Collins – Tolerable Levels of Violence
- Susan Swan – The Biggest Modern Woman in the World
- George Szanto – Not Working
- Wayne Tefs – Figures on a Wharf
1982
- W.P. Kinsella – Shoeless Joe
Also shortlisted:
- Lorris Elliott – Coming for to Carry
- Nessa Rapoport – Preparing for Sabbath
- Geraldine Rahmani – Blue
- Ann Rosenberg – The Bee Book
1981
Also shortlisted:
- Jim Christy – Streethearts
- George Jonas – Final Decree
- Edward Phillips – Sunday's Child
- Gary Ross – Always Tip the Dealer
1980
- W.D. Valgardson – Gentle Sinners
Also shortlisted:
- Martyn Burke – Laughing War
- Susan Musgrave – The Charcoal Burners
- Graham Petrie – Seahorse
- Leon Rooke – Fat Woman
1979
- Clark Blaise – Lunar Attractions
Also shortlisted:
- Victoria Branden – Mrs. Job
- Stan Dragland – Peckertracks
- Florence Evans – A Man Without Passion
- Shirley Faessler – Everything in the Window
- Katherine Govier – Random Descent
- Betty Lambert – Crossings
1978
- Joan Barfoot – Abra
Also shortlisted:
- Michael Dorland – The Double-Cross Circuit
- Clive Doucet – Disneyland, Please
- Margaret Drury Gane – Parade on an Empty Street
- Kevin Major – Hold Fast
- Frank Paci – The Italians
1977
- Oonah McFee – Sandbars
Also shortlisted:
- Shane Dennison – Sidehill Gouger
- Pauline Gedge – Child of the Morning
- Jack Hodgins – The Invention of the World
- M.T. Kelly – I Do Remember the Fall
- Helen Levi – A Small Informal Dance
- Morley Torgov – The Abramsky Variations
1976
- Ian McLachlan – The Seventh Hexagram
- Michael Ondaatje – Coming Through Slaughter
Also shortlisted:
- Alice Boissoneau – Eileen McCullough
- David Kellum – The Falling World of Tristram Pocket
- Susan Kerslake – Middlewatch
- Sharon Riis – The True Story of Ida Johnson
- Carol Shields – Small Ceremonies
- Mary Soderstrom – The Descent of Andrew McPherson