A hostage's tale of captivity, an ode to public transit, and a dark look at the history of a writer's new town are among the 10 semi-finalists for the $40,000 sa国际传媒 National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction.
A Season in Hell: My 130 Days in the Sahara with Al Qaeda by Robert Fowler recalls his kidnapping in 2008.
Straphanger: Saving Our Cities and Ourselves from the Automobile by Taras Grescoe, which is also a finalist for the Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Non-fiction, compares transit systems around the world and details the lives of "straphangers" - commuters who use transit, not cars, to get around.
Also up for the Writers' Trust is A Geography of Blood: Unearthing Memory from a Prairie Landscape by Candace Savage, about Cypress Hills in southwestern Saskatchewan.
The other longlisted books are:
? A Thousand Farewells: A Reporter's Journey from Refugee Camp to the Arab Spring by Nahlah Ayed, also a finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award for non-fiction
? Here We are Among the Living: A Memoir in Emails by Samantha Bernstein
? Pinboy: A Memoir by George Bowering
? Solar Dance: Genius, Forgery, and the Crisis of Truth in the Modern Age by Modris Eksteins
? Sword of the Spirit, Shield of Faith: Religion in American War and Diplomacy by Andrew Preston
? The Last Viking: The Life of Roald Amundsen by Stephen R. Bown
? Walls: Travels Along the Barricades by Marcello Di Cintio
The finalists for the award will be announced Dec. 4 and the winner will be revealed in Vancouver in early 2013.
Last year's winner was Charlotte Gill for her tree-cutting tale Eating Dirt.
