Canada Reads  is CBC's annual "Battle of the Books," and features five celebrity champions defending five Canadian books. Each day on the program, a book is voted "off the shelf," until one book is ultimately chosen as the title the whole country should read this year. The Canada Reads 2018 debates feature singer-songwriter Mozhdah Jamalzadah, defending Sharon Bala's  The Boat People ; actor Tahmoh Penikett, defending Omar El Akkad's  American War ; tornado hunter Greg Johnson, defending Craig Davidson's  Precious Cargo ; fashion icon Jeanne Beker, defending Mark Sakamoto's  Forgiveness and singer-songwriter Jully Black, defending Cherie Dimaline's  The Marrow Thieves . The 2018 Canada Reads debates run from March 26-29.

 

Forgiveness by Mark Sakamoto is the true story of how the author's grandparents survived the Second World War. A young Canadian soldier deployed to Hong Kong, Mark's maternal grandfather was captured by the Japanese and became a prisoner of war, enduring brutal conditions in captivity. His paternal grandmother, meanwhile, was forced from her home in Vancouver and interned in Alberta, along with many other Japanese-Canadian families. Forgiveness tells their stories, and the story of how they learned to forgive and move forward for the sake of their children.