Toronto-based author Colin McAdam has been named this year’s winner of the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize.

McAdam was chosen for his novel, A Beautiful Truth, that tells the story of a couple at a primate research institute and their adopted chimpanzee, Looee.

McAdam says he is pleased to have won the $25,000 prize. He says A Beautiful Truth was an important book to him, and he appreciates the recognition.

McAdam’s novel was in competition with Krista Bridge’s The Eliot Girls, Lynn Coady’s Hellgoing [this year’s Giller Prize winner], Cary Fagan’s A Bird’s Eye, and Lisa Moore’s Caught.

Moore was another big winner last night. She was named the winner of the Rogers Writers’ Trust Engel/Findley Award, which is given to an author in mid-career for her body of work. She also takes home $25,000.