Don Gillmor is an award-winning Canadian novelist, journalist and children’s book author. His new book To the River (2018) explores his brother’s suicide. It won the 2019 Governor General’s Literary Award for non-fiction and was a CBC Best Books of 2019.

His novel Long Change (2015) examines the world of oil through the life and loves of one man. Mount Pleasant (2013) is a darkly comic meditation on privilege and debt set in contemporary Toronto, and his first novel, the critically acclaimed Kanata (2009), dealt with the whole sweep of Canadian history. He is also the author of a two-volume history of Canada, Canada: A People’s History, and three other books of non-fiction.

He has written nine books for children, and won 11 National Magazine Awards plus numerous other honours. He lives in Toronto. 

We met in Ottawa to discuss To the River, and to share thoughts on what it’s like to lose a brother to suicide.