Nazanine Hozar Reaches the Giller Prize Shortlist With “The Small Ones”

Nazanine Hozar, a novelist who was born in Tehran and lives in Vancouver, is one of five finalists for the 2026 Giller Prize, Canada's richest award for fiction. The Canadian Press reports that the shortlist was announced in Toronto on October 5. Hozar is nominated for "The Small Ones", her second novel, about children caught up in a military insurgence along the Iran-Iraq border in the early 1980s. The jury writes that she gives voice to a group of children made to carry the consequences of adult ambition, in prose it calls deceptively simple and lyrical. The other finalists are Michelle Good for "Eliza Sunshine", Tara Gereaux for "Wild People Quiet", Nicholas Herring for "Your Breath in Charcoal" and Patmeena Sabit for "Good People". A jury of nine independent booksellers from across Canada chose the five from more than 140 titles. The winner receives 100,000 Canadian dollars and each of the other finalists 10,000. The prize will be presented at a televised ceremony on November 16. According to the prize's website, Hozar came to Canada as a child, and her first novel, "Aria", was a bestseller published to international acclaim.