Who will win the 2017 Scotiabank Giller Prize?

Five novels have made the 2017 Scotiabank Giller Prize shortlist and will contend for the $100,000 literary prize the richest in Canadian literature.

Eden Robinson makes her return tothe shortlistwith the novelSon of a Trickster.Herfirst appearance was in 2000 forMonkey Beach.

Other repeat finalists are Michael Redhill, forBellevue Square,and Rachel Cusk, forTransit.Redhill was on the list in 2001 withMartin Sloaneand Cusk in 2015 forOutline.

Michelle Winters and Ed O'Loughlinare making their Scotiabank Giller Prize shortlist debuts this year.

Winters'novelI Am a Truckis Picton, Ont.-based publisherInvisible Publishing's first title on a ScotiabankGiller Prize shortlist.O'Loughlin is on the shortlist for his bookMinds of Winter.

Here's how you can tune in:

• ON TV:CBC TV will broadcast the gala at 8 p.m. local time (12:30 a.m. AT/1:00 a.m. NT).
• ONLINE:CBC Bookswill livestream the gala at 8 p.m. ET.
• ON THE RADIO:CBC Radio will air a broadcast special hosted byThe NextChapterhost ShelaghRogers andqcolumnist JaelRichardson at8 p.m.(9 p.m. AT/9:30 p.m. NT).

You can learn more about this year's finalists below.

Transit by Rachel Cusk

What it's about:Afterher marriage ends, Fayemoves from her home in the country to a derelict apartment in London with her children. In rebuilding her life, Faye seeks out conversation with those she encounters a contractor, her hairdresser, an ex-boyfriend and others listening keenly to their stories on abandonment, rejection and transformation.

What the jury said:"In Transit, Rachel Cusk's elegant, witty and brilliantly realized novel, Faye, a writer, moves to London with her young sons and purchases a dilapidated apartment. On this deceptively simple scaffolding, Cusk constructs a series of finely observed and complex stories about people whose paths intersect with the narrator's. The result is a book which is simultaneously intimate and expansive, alight with wisdom and humour, an exquisitely poised meditation on lifetime, and change."

• Rachel Cusk on honouring the strangeness of living

Minds of Winter by Ed O'Loughlin

What it's about:In Inuvik, N.W.T., two strangers search for lost family members. Nelson Nilsson is looking for hisestranged older brother and Fay for her grandfather. When a familiarimage among Nelson's research captures Fay's attention, the pair find themselves caught up inan historic mystery involving an ancient chronometer and Sir John Franklin's Northwest Passage expedition.

What the jury said:"Bright moments from the distant past spring up beside dark moments from the present, things hidden a death, a gift, a lost clock come briefly into view and then disappear forever. In Minds of Winter, Ed O'Loughlin's brilliant story of Polar exploration, time itself is an Arctic: a mysterious dimension of sun craze and apparitions, chance encounters and destiny. The mechanism of this novel is fascinating to observe, its implications are deeply human. In O'Loughlin's work, our desire for knowledge, our obsession with the past, our grappling with life itself... all of it is generously, wittily on display."

• Ed O'Loughlin: 'I write to get away from myself'

Bellevue Square by Michael Redhill

What it's about:Jean Mason reportedly has a doppelganger one that enjoys eating churros and hanging out in Kensington Market, a bohemian neighbourhood in Toronto. The revelation becomes an obsession for the grounded business owner and mother, who ends up hanging around the market for glimpses of herand offeringpayment to anybody with information. The investigation grows sinister as those she recruits begin disappearing.

What the jury said:"To borrow a line from Michael Redhill's beautiful Bellevue Square, 'I do subtlety in other areas of my life.'So let's look past the complex literary wonders of this book, the doppelgangers and bifurcated brains and alternate selves, the explorations of family, community, mental healthand literary life. Let's stay straightforward, and tell you that beyond the mysterious elements, this novel is warmand funnyand smart. Let's celebrate that it is, simply, a pleasure to read."

• How Michael Redhill used the building blocks of genre fiction to write his latest novel

Son of a Trickster by Eden Robinson

What it's about: Jared is many things: a compassionate 16 year old,maker of famous weed cookies, caretaker of his elderly neighbours, son of an unreliablefather and unhinged, though loving in her way,mother. As Jared ably cares for those around him, in between getting black-out drunk, he shrugs off the magical and strange happeningsthat followhim around.

What the jury said:"Eden Robinson's Son of a Trickster is a novel that shimmers with magic and vitality, featuring a compelling narrator, somewhere between Holden Caulfield and Harry Potter. Just when you think Jared's teenage journey couldn't be more grounded in gritty, grinding reality, his addled perceptions take us into a realm beyond his small town life, somewhere both seductive and dangerous. Energetic, often darkly funny, sometimes poignant, this is a book that will resonate long after the reader has devoured the final page."

• Why it took Eden Robinson eight years to write Son of a Trickster

I Am a Truck by Michelle Winters

What it's about:When Rjean Lapointe vanishes without a trace, he leavesbehind his wife of nearly 20 years andhis beloved Chevy Silverado. Agathe is distraught by her husband's disappearance and ends up forming friendships with her rock-and-roll-loving coworker Debbie and a man named Martin, who might just know what happened toRjean.

What the jury said:"French or English, stick or twist, Chevy or Ford? Michelle Winters has written an original, offbeat novel that explores the gaps between what people are and what they want to be. For a short book I Am a Truck is bursting with huge appetites, for love and le rock-and-roll and cheese, for male friendship and takeout tea with the bag left in. Within the novel's distinctive Acadian setting French and English co-exist like old friends comfortable, supple to each other's whims and rhythms, sometimes bickering but always contributing to this fine, very funny, fully-achieved novel about connection and misunderstanding. And trucks."

• What scares Scotiabank Giller Prize-shortlisted author Michelle Winters the most

The shortlisted writers will participate in special events across Canada and in the U.K. this year, with readings taking place in Calgary on Oct.12, in Vancouver on Oct.16, in Halifax on Oct.26, in Ottawa on Nov.1, in Toronto on Nov.6 and in London, U.K., on Nov.9.

Jack Rabinovitch, who founded the Giller Prize in 1994,died earlier this yearat the age of 87. Rabinovitch created the award to honour his wife, literary journalist Doris Giller who died in 1993, and to provide a prominent platform on which to recognize excellence in Canadian fiction.

The Giller Prize initially endowed a cash prize of $25,000, which was the largest purse for literature in the country. In 2005, the award teamed up withScotiabankand the prize grew to $40,000 for the winner and $5,000 for each of the finalists. In 2014, the prize increased to $100,000 for the winner and $10,000 for the remaining finalists.

Explore the 2017 ScotiabankGiller Prize finalists:

Watch the shortlistannouncement: