Five Canadian authors are in the running for the 2012 Giller Prize, with one writer set to receive the coveted trophy and $50,000 at a glitzy gala in Toronto on Oct. 30.

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

Nancy Richler returns to her hometown of Montreal in her novel The Imposter Bride, which tells two parallel tales: the story of a woman seeking the mother who abandoned her as an infant and that of her mother, an enigmatic Second World War survivor.

In the video above, Richler tells CBC about the difficulties she faced in writing The Imposter Bride, where she goes to escape the daily grind and her advice for struggling young writers.