The Egyptian-Canadian novelist and journalist Omar El-Akkad, who wrote a novel about the global refugee crisis through the eyes of a child, has won Canada's biggest literary prize.

The young writer received the Scotiabank Giller Prize for his novel What Strange Paradise on Monday night.

The honoring ceremony was broadcast at the national level in the Canadian state of Toronto, a month after the Tanzanian-British novelist Abdul Razzaq Garnah won the Nobel Prize for Literature for his works that also belong to refugee literature and stories.

The novel, published by McClelland & Stewart, tells the story of two people caught up in the global refugee crisis.

A surprised @omarelakkad accepts the 2021 #ScotiabankGillerPrize.

Read an excerpt from his award-winning novel, What Strange Paradise, here: https://t.co/VFA8Y09BEo pic.twitter.com/6dASWi4iqX

— CBC Books (@cbcbooks) November 9, 2021

Omar El Akkad wins the 2021 Giller Prize for WHAT STRANGE PARADISE!

🎉 A phenomenal novel, with a profoundly moving message of hope.

From everyone at @McClellandBooks , congratulations @omarelakkad!

pic.twitter.com/jMs4F3HTwY

— McClelland & Stewart (@McClellandBooks) November 9, 2021

The novel presents the impact of war on the lives of ordinary human beings in a narrative way that shows human suffering and the struggle for survival and the pursuit of new opportunities, and the novel discusses the nature of the relationship between the refugee and the host society.

In the novel, many corpses are washed up on the shores of a small island country.

The story alternates between the perspective of a Syrian child prince who survived a shipwreck on an uncharted island, and the local teenage girl who rescued him after another rickety and ill-equipped ship sank under the weight of its many passengers - Syrians, Ethiopians, Egyptians, Lebanese and Palestinians - all desperate and choosing to escape the Unbearable life back home.

Miraculously, 9-year-old Amir survives after being rescued by a teenage girl whose home is the island, but she nonetheless struggles with her own sense of homelessness among the people she has come to despise.

Although Amir and Fana are total strangers and don't speak a common language, Fana is determined to do whatever it takes to save the boy.

In the novel's alternating chapters, we learn about Amir's life, how he was on the boat, and follow him and the girl as they make their way to safety.

In his award acceptance speech, Akkad said, “I didn't think I had a chance to win.. It's by far the greatest honor of my career.” right Now".

The novel represents a kind of defense of immigration in literary form, and attempts to humanize the refugee who suffers from preconceived mental images in the new society.

.@omarelakkad's novel What Strange Paradise, published by @McClellandBooks, an imprint of @PenguinCanada has been longlisted for the 2021 #ScotiabankGillerPrize.

Watch a reading from Omar here: https://t.co/yaBzWJJo7w #GillerPrize #CravingCanLit #CanLit

— Scotiabank Giller Prize (@GillerPrize) September 29, 2021

What Strange Paradise by Omar El Akkad is on the shortlist for the 2021 Scotiabank #GillerPrize.

The winner will be revealed at 9 pm ET.

https://t.co/hT43t1LmmQ

— CBC Books (@cbcbooks) November 8, 2021

"American War"

The winning novel revisits his earlier novel, The American War, which also discusses the effects of war and the struggle for survival through the story of a family living in a refugee camp due to a mixture of devastation and political and climate crises.

In his previous thriller and horror novel, Al-Akkad tells a story set in the near future in an America devastated by climate change and a second civil war over the use of fossil fuels.

Al-Akkad tells the events of the late 21st century in a world torn by climate change, and the protagonist witnesses the killing of his father in an attack by the militias of the North, and he moves to a refugee camp in his childhood, and witnesses the events of 2074 when a bill prohibiting the use of fossil fuels is passed in America, and American states separate from the Union Mexico occupies Texas, while the remaining "Southern Free States" are engaged in a bitter war.

The protagonist moves from one refugee camp to another before he engages in a guerrilla war and assassinates a great northern general, and is celebrated as a hero by the free southern states, but the northern attack on the southern rebels escalates, so the protagonist is arrested and subjected to torture before being released later and returning to his activity once again.

In the midst of the events, the issue of climate change is also present. Because of rising sea levels and floods, Florida and other states have been inundated, and its entire population has migrated, especially on the East Coast, and the capital of the United States has been moved.

Arabia also becomes very hot and uninhabitable, while severe and widespread flooding occurs in South Asia.

Young novelist and journalist

Omar El Akkad, 39, moved to Canada when he was 16 and attended high school in Montreal before enrolling at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario.

He lived in Toronto for about a decade, and spent a period in Ottawa as a reporter.

The Portland, Oregon-based author achieved critical and commercial success with his 2017 debut novel, American War, which won the Pacific Northwest Booksellers' Association Award, the Oregon Fiction Book Award, and the Kobo Emerging Writer Award.

Al-Akkad said in a previous press interview that imagination has always been his first home, and added, "I am one of those people who do not have a very good answer to the question: Where are you from?"

"I've been a guest on another land since I was five years old. And I've always found this fantasy where you can kind of tweak your own world to fit whatever reality you want, I've always felt more at home than anywhere."

The jury said the winning novel "raises questions of apathy and helplessness and, ultimately, provides evidence of how to communicate empathetically in a divided world."

For the last two months, I've experienced the greatest honor of my career, to be mentioned in the same breath as Cheluchi, Miriam, Jordan and Angélique, as well as the exceptional authors on this year's Giller longlist, any of whom could have easily taken home the award.

— Omar El Akkad (@omarelakkad) November 9, 2021

The Geller Prize - worth 100,000 Canadian dollars - is one of the most prestigious Canadian literature prizes.

Previous winners include two-time Booker Prize winner Margaret Atwood, Mordecai Richler and Alice Munro.

The award was established in 1994 by businessman Jack Rabinowitz in memory of his late wife, literary journalist Doris Geller, and to honor the best of Canadian fiction.