Pauline Holdstock was awarded the 2016 Victoria Butler Book Prize last evening for her novel The Hunter and the Wild Girl. Set against the backdrop of nineteenth-century France, Holdstock’s haunting tale of loss and redemption explores the delicate coexistence between a recluse and a feral child on an abandoned estate. The book was published to wide critical acclaim in 2015.

Also nominated for this year’s Victoria Butler Book Prize were Once They Were Hats: In Search of the Mighty Beaver by Frances Backhouse (non-fiction, ECW Press), Becoming Lin by Tricia Dower (fiction, Caitlin Press), He Leaves His Face in the Funeral Car by Arleen Paré (poetry, Caitlin Press), and Double Dutch by Laura Trunkey (fiction, House of Anansi).

Celebrating thirteen years of literary excellence, the Victoria Butler Book Prize is bestowed annually to authors of fiction, non-fiction, or poetry from the Greater Victoria area.