Coppermine by Keith Ross Leckie gets our CanLit adaptation vote

In a poll that couldn’t possibly be multiple choice given the plethora of great Canadian literature to choose from, we asked you what you’d like to see adapted by the CBC next. (I mean, if Bell wanted to tackle a book adaptation I wouldn’t complain — and they do have Bitten — but we all know CBC is our best chance for this.)

Coppermine by Keith Ross Leckie emerged as the winner with just three votes, amid a heap of singular suggestions. Bonus: Leckie has already written miniseries for CBC, including Everest!, Shattered City, Milgaard, The Arrow, and Lost in the Barrens, so we’ve even saved our public broadcaster from having to search for a screenwriter.

Coppermine is based on the true story of two Inuit hunters arrested for the murder of a pair of missionaries. From the publisher: “Part epic adventure, part romance, and part true-crime thriller, Coppermine is a dramatic, compelling, character-driven story set in 1917 in the extremes of Canada’s far north and the boom town of Edmonton.”

Other books on the wish list included:

  • Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan (2 votes)
  • The Colony of Unrequited Dreams by Wayne Johnston (2 votes)
  • Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden (2 votes)
  • Room by Emma Donoghue (a feature film was recently shot)
  • Solomon Gursky was Here by Mordecai Richler
  • Bear by Marian Engel
  • Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels
  • No Great Mischief by Alistair MacLeod
  • The John Cardinal books by Giles Blunt
  • More of the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series by Louise Penny
  • A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
  • Bride of New France by Suzanne Desrochers
  • The Sea Captain’s Wife by Beth Powning
  • Graffiti Knight by Karen Bass
  • The Orenda by Joseph Boyden
  • The Sisters  Brothers by Patrick deWitt
  • Something else besides Jpod by Douglas Coupland
  • Any of Miriam Toews’ novels: All My Puny Sorrows, A Complicated Kindness, or A Boy of Good Breeding.
  •  Late Nights on Air by Elizabeth Hay
  • Annabel by Kathleen Winter
  • Galore by Michael Crummey
  • Fall On Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald
  • The Birth House by Ami McKay
  • A mini-series on Emily Carr based on her autobiographical books Book of Small, House of All Sorts, Klee Wyck, Growing Pains and Hundreds and Thousands
  • A Breed Apart by Tony German
  • The Canadians by Robert E. Wall
  • I Am Hutterite by Mary-Ann Kirkby
  • Jean Pare: An Appetite for Life by Judy Schultz
  • Canada’s History magazine

Thanks everyone who commented on the “official” poll on the site, and those who gave suggestions via Twitter as well.

So CBC … your move.

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