4 Terry Fallis
There is no big cash prize for the winner, but CBC radio’s Canada Reads is second only to the Giller Prize
as an influence on book sales. If you are one of the five contenders, you sell loads of books. You win; you sell
truckloads of books. Terry Fallis, whose prescient novel, The Best Laid Plans, won the 2011 edition of Canada Reads, saw sales of the hilarious,
Leacock Medal-winning political satire jump nearly 700% after his win. Its equally chucklesome sequel, The High Road, was released late last year.
Terry Fallis was trained as an engineer, but due to an early addiction to the intrigues of politics he never did much engineering. He spent several
years as an advisor and ministerial assistant for both the federal and Ontario Liberals before moving into public relations. For the past 20 years
he has counselled corporate and government clients on how to deport themselves in a variety of situations. These days he spends all his free time
on the reading and festival circuit.
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