Neil Smith (writer)

Neil Smith is a fiction writer who lives in Montreal. His most recent book, a novel called Boo, came out in May 2015 with Random House imprints in America, Britain, and Canada. The book is narrated by a young science geek named Oliver Dalrymple who finds himself in a heaven reserved exclusively for 13-year-olds. Boo will be published in Czech, Dutch, English, French, German, Mandarin, and Portuguese. Publishers Weekly gave the novel a starred review, calling it "surprising and moving" and "splendidly confident." The novel won the Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction. It has also been nominated for the Canadian Library Association Young Adult Book Award.

Smith published his debut, Bang Crunch, with Knopf Canada in 2007. It was later published in America, Britain, France, Germany, and India. It was chosen as a best book of the year by the Washington Post and the Globe and Mail, won the First Book Prize from the Quebec Writers' Federation, and picked up nominations for a Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book, and the Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction. Three stories in the book were also nominated for the Journey Prize. Writer Michel Faber wrote in the Guardian that Bang Crunch had a "rare fusion of thematic boldness, humor, gravity, empathy, maturity, and first-rate prose."

External links

• Neil Smith profile at Penguin Random House Canada