Penguin Random House: Dan Werb’s THE INVISIBLE SIEGE Wins 2022 Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction

Funded annually by the Weston Family Foundation, the $60,000 prize is the richest annual literary award for a book of nonfiction by a Canadian writer and this year, Dan Werb‘s THE INVISIBLE SIEGE (Crown) took home the prize.

The Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Prize for Nonfiction is awarded for literary excellence in the category of Canadian nonfiction, which includes personal or journalistic essays, history, biography, memoir, commentary, and criticism.

The jury applauded the book in saying, “The COVID-19 pandemic has been the most disruptive event in world history since the Second World War… Dan Werb tells us how we got here through an authoritative, scientific explanation of coronaviruses. THE INVISIBLE SIEGE is a scientific detective story that leaves the reader frightened that the villain is still on the loose, and maybe in the house.”

The winner and shortlist were chosen by a jury composed of authors Mark Bourrie, Cheryl Foggo, and Jessica McDiarmid. They read an impressive 103 books submitted by 63 publishers.