(Reuters) - Debut novelist and music blogger Sean Michaels won Canada's Scotiabank Giller prize, the country's richest fiction award, for his novel "Us Conductors."
The award was announced late on Monday.
Michaels topped five shortlisted-authors, including former finalists Miriam Toews and David Bezmozgis, for the C$100,000 ($89,485) awarded for the best Canadian novel or short-story collection published in English.
The Giller jury, which included Canadian author Shauna Singh Baldwin, British novelist Justin Cartwright and American writer Francine Prose, reviewed 161 books.
"Us Conductors", published by Random House Canada, is based on the life of Lev Thermen, the Russian inventor of the theremin, an early electronic music instrument that is played without touch.
(Writing by Amran Abocar; Editing by Nick Zieminski)
