The finalists for the Amazon.ca First Novel Award were announced Wednesday. The $7,500 prize awards -- as the title suggests -- the best first novel by a Canadian author.

This year's shortlist consists of Ru by Kim Thuy, which was also shortlisted for the Scotiabank Giller Prize last year; Y by Marjorie Celona; The Rest is Silence by Scott Fotheringham; People Park by Pasha Malla; and Malarky by Anakana Schofield.

Authors Madeleine Thien and Alexi Zentner, poet Meaghan Strimas and Quill & Quire editor Stuart Woods comprise the 2012 jury.

"A first novel should be brash and ambitious, and announce the arrival of a new talent. That quality is something this diverse group of books has in common," Woods said in a press release.