Check out the most borrowed books from Winnipeg's libraries this year

A Winnipeg author’s book rose above others in the city’s library system, becoming the most borrowed book of the year.

Local writer Katherena Vermette's novel 'The Strangers' snagged the top spot as the most checked out book from Winnipeg libraries this year, according to the City of Winnipeg.

Vermette, who is a Metis writer, published the novel in 2021. It details different generations of a Metis family, and is a companion novel to her previous novel 'The Break.'

'The Strangers' was a #1 best-seller, won the Atwood Gibson Writers’ Trust Prize for Fiction in 2021, was shortlisted for McNally Robinson Book of the Year Award and was longlisted for the 2021 Scotiabank Giller Prize.

'The Strangers' was borrowed 897 times in 2022.

Coming in second, this year was 'The Madness of Crowds' by Louise Penny, which was borrowed 807 times. The former broadcaster turned mystery writer returned in 2021 with the 18th novel involving her popular character Armand Gamache of the Surete du Quebec. Penny’s novels have been optioned by Amazon for the series Three Pines, which airs on Amazon Prime.

The third place novel on the list is 'Five Little Indians' by Michelle Good, which was borrowed 800 times. Good, a member of the Red Pheasant Cree Nation, said the novel about five residential school survivors in Vancouver, included elements based on the experiences of her mother and grandmother who both survived residential schools. The novel won the 2021 Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction.

Kelly Bowen’s 'The Paris Apartment' ranked fourth on the list, being borrowed 784 times. Bowen, who is from Winnipeg, writes about the connection between two women, one living in London in 2017 and one living in Paris in 1942 at the height of the Second World War.

'The Four Winds' written by American novelist Kristin Hannah ranked fifth with 721 checkouts during the year. Hannah’s novel is about a woman’s journey during the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. Hannah’s previous novels, including 'The Nightingale', have topped the New York Times Best Sellers List.

The remaining books on the list can be found below.

• Michael Connelly – The Dark Hours (717 checkouts);
• Hillary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny - State of Terror (714 checkouts);
• Matt Haig - The Midnight Library (701 checkouts);
• Paula Hawkins – A Slow Fire Burning (697 checkouts);
• Nita Prose – The Maid (671 checkouts);
• Miriam Toews – Fight Night (666 checkouts);
• Lee Child and Andrew Child – Better Off Dead (615 checkouts);
• Miranda Cowley Heller – The Paper Palace (610 checkouts);
• John Grisham – The Judge’s List (602 checkouts);
• Laura Dave – The Last Thing He Told Me (599 checkouts);
• Delia Owens – Where the Crawdads Sing (541 checkouts);
• Dolly Parton and James Patterson - Run, Rose, Run (510 checkouts);
• Lisa Gardner – One Step Too Far (510 checkouts);
• Amor Towles – The Lincoln Highway (490 checkouts);
• Anthony Doerr - Cloud Cuckoo Land (489 checkouts);
• David Baldacci – Mercy (475 checkouts);
• Kate Quinn – The Rose Code (469 checkouts);
• Ashley Audrain – The Push (463 checkouts); and
• Colleen Hoover – It Ends With Us (456 checkouts).