The Verdict Is In: The Top 40 Essential Canadian Novels of the Decade Revealed

From our friends at Canada Reads:

Canada has spoken! You were asked for your nominations for the Top 40 Essential Canadian Novels of the Decade and did you ever answer. Canadians around the world sent in their suggestions — more than 6,000 nominations came in, with votes for 400 different novels of every genre: science fiction, mystery, romance, young adult and more.

Without further ado, here's the Top 40 list as chosen by you:

• A Complicated Kindness by Miriam Toews — Seal Books
• Bottle Rocket Hearts by Zoe Whittall — Cormorant Books Inc
• Clara Callan by Richard B. Wright — Harper Perennial Canada
• Come, Thou Tortoise by Jessica Grant — Vintage Canada
• Conceit by Mary Novik — Anchor Canada
• Crow Lake by Mary Lawson — Vintage Canada
• Drive-by Saviours by Chris Benjamin — Fernwood Publishing Co Ltd
• Elle by Douglas Glover — Goose Lane Editions
• Essex County by Jeff Lemire — Top Shelf Productions
• Far to Go by Alison Pick — House of Anansi Press
• February by Lisa Moore — House of Anansi Press
• Galore by Michael Crummey — Anchor Canada
• Heave by Christy Ann Conlin — Anchor Canada
• Inside by Kenneth J. Harvey — Vintage Canada
• Late Nights on Air by Elizabeth Hay — Emblem Editions
• Life of Pi by Yann Martel — Vintage Canada
• Lullabies for Little Criminals by Heather O'Neill — Harper Perennial
• Moody Food by Ray Robertson — Biblioasis
• Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood — Seal Books
• Pattern Recognition by William Gibson — Berkley
• Room by Emma Donoghue — HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
• Shelf Monkey by Corey Redekop — ECW Press
• Skim by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki — Groundwood
• Sweetness in the Belly by Camilla Gibb — Anchor Canada
• The Best Laid Plans by Terry Fallis — Emblem Editions
• The Birth House by Ami McKay — Vintage Canada
• The Bishop's Man by Linden MacIntyre — Random House Canada
• The Bone Cage by Angie Abdou — NeWest Press
• The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill — HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
• The Day the Falls Stood Still by Cathy Marie Buchanan — HarperCollins Publishers Ltd
• The Fallen by Stephen Finucan — Viking Canada
• The Girls Who Saw Everything by Sean Dixon — Coach House Books
• The Last Crossing by Guy Vanderhaeghe — Grove/Atlantic
• The Stone Carvers by Jane Urquhart — Emblem Editions
• The Way the Crow Flies by Ann-Marie MacDonald — Vintage Canada
• The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood — McClelland & Stewart
• Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden — Penguin Canada
• Through Black Spruce by Joseph Boyden — Penguin Canada
• Twenty-Six by Leo McKay Jr. — Emblem Editions
• Unless by Carol Shields — Harper Perennial