Samuel Archibald's Arvida among books longlisted for Giller Prize

Samuel Archibald celebrated the release of the English translation of his novel, Arvida,Monday night at the Atwater Library in Montreal.

The book of short storiesisalready abestseller in French, with more than 25,000 copies in the hands of francophonereaders.

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When it first came out in 2011, Montreal's La Presse newspaperdescribedArvida as acollection of tall tales,myths, and spookycampfire stories and "one of the best surprises of the new literary season."

Now, it's on the Giller longlist in a translation by Montreal'sDonald Winkler, one of three books published bythe small press, Biblioasis.

As a French-Canadian writer, Archibald saidhe didn't pay attention to the Giller announcement.

"I just basically went to walk the dog fiveminutes and when I got back there were 50new notifications on Facebook so I knew something wasafoot," he said.

The stories are based on talesArchibald heard growing up in Arvida in Quebec's Saguenay region, a "backwoods" according to the writer.

Built in 1927 in just 135 days, Arvidais named after the owner of Alcoa, Arthur Vining Davis.

The model town was built for the employees of what wasthe largest smelter in North America at the time.

Archibald says his stories fill in the gaps for a town with no history.

"Growing up in such a place that is so remote that it's on the edge or outside history, younever have any history except for the stories you told each other," he said.

He points out that in French there's only one word for history and stories: l'histoire et les histoires.

Arvida is one of three books published by Biblioasis, a literary press based in Windsor, Ont.,to make the Giller longlist.

The two others are Martin John by AnakanaSchofield and Confidence by Russell Smith.

We will know Oct.5 ifArvida makes it to the Gillershortlist. The $100,000prizewill be awarded on Nov. 10in Toronto.