VIDEO: Giller winner Esi Edugyan

Victoria's Esi Edugyan, like her West Coast peer Patrick deWitt, has garnered a wave of accolades this fall for hersecond novel, Half-Blood Blues, a jazz-infused story that jumps between Second World War Paris and early 1990s Berlin.

On Tuesday evening, she won the $50,000 Scotiabank Giller Prize.

Inthe video above, Edugyan tells CBC about being surprised by her numerous award nominations, interesting discoveries during her research and the challenges of blending historical fact and fiction.

CBC also spoke to the six other finalists.

Founded by Jack Rabinovitch in 1994 in memory of his late, literary journalist wife Doris Giller, the award has become one of the countrys most prominent and lucrative fiction-writing honours.