Emergency room tales win top Canada book prize

TORONTO, Nov 8 (Reuters) Tales of an emergency room and battling epidemics won this year's C40,000 dollars Scotiabank Giller Prize, Canada's most valuable and prestigious award for fiction.

''I'd have been glad if any of the books had won,'' said winner Vincent Lam yesterday, author of the short story collection ''Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures.'' Lam is himself a doctor and helped fight the recent SARS outbreak in Toronto.

The other finalists were Rawi Hage, Pascale Quiviger, Gaetan Soucy and Carol Windley. They won C2,500 dollars apiece.

The shortlist was chosen from 101 books submitted by 36 publishing houses.

The jury included two-time Giller winner Alice Munro and retired Governor General Adrienne Clarkson.

Past winners of the Giller include Margaret Atwood and Michael Ondaatje, who have also won Britain's prestigious Booker prize.

Ondaatje is best known for ''The English Patient'', which was made into a film starring Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche.

REUTERS PB VC0950