Eric Siblin, the Montreal-based writer of The Cello Suites, has been nominated for Canada's richest non-fiction award. (Marcie Richstone/Canadian Press)

Eric Siblin's acclaimed The Cello Suites and Globe writer Ian Brown's memoir of life with a disabled son are among the books nominated for Canada's richest non-fiction literary prize.

The short list for the 2010 BC National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction was released Thursday. The $40,000 prize will be awarded Jan. 15.

The nominees are:

• The Cello Suites: J.S. Bach, Pablo Casals, and the Search for a Baroque Masterpiece by Montreal's Eric Siblin.
• The Boy in the Moon: A Father's Search for His Disabled Son by Toronto's Ian Brown.
• Burmese Lessons: A Love Story by Toronto's Karen Connelly.
• The Uncrowned King: The Sensational Rise of William Randolph Hearst by Toronto's Kenneth Whyte.

The Cello Suites is a music lover's heartfelt chronicling of the search for a lost Bach masterpiece and of Casals's passion for the Cello Suites. It was nominated for a Governor General's Literary Award and won two Quebec Writers Federation Awards.

Brown's Boy in the Moon is an inquiry into the purpose and value of a disabled life, from the perspective of a father of a severely handicapped son.

Connelly has written a harrowing account of life under Burma's military dictatorship in the 1990s and a portrait of the astonishing resiliency of the Burmese people. She previously won the Governor General's Award for Touch the Dragon and the Orange Prize for her first novel, The Lizard Cage.

The Uncrowned King is a biography of newspaper baron Hearst and a case study in the functioning of news media in a democracy by Whyte, who is editor of Maclean's magazine.

The national award is given annually by the B.C. Achievement Foundation.