After considerable hemming and hawing (and occasional harrumphing) my pick is the novel "
No Great Mischief" by Alistair Macleod in the Can Lit category.
It was first published in 1999 and tells the long story of a Scottish immigrant family that move to Canada (Cape Breton) and, well, they, you know, live. Have kids, work, die, eat, move away, all that kind of stuff that real humans do.
On the back of the book Alice Munro said this... "You will find scenes from this majestic novel burned into your mind forever".
Now I might not put it quite that way, but that sums it up for me. It's been several years since I read it and there are still scenes burned into my mind. I still remember what everyone looked like (to me). Just thinking about a couple parts makes me kind of cold. It was cold in the olden days, dontcha know?
There are maybe a couple others in this category that I could have picked that I like just as much or more, but everyone's heard of them (old Jewish guy with cigar, frizzy haired woman). This one isn't so famous so I figured I'd throw it out there.
And that, my friends, is the start of the third round.