He fears the closing of newspapers and book publishers. He says he’s aware of living in a time when the financial stability of the printed word is not guaranteed. Yet it seems Michaels takes nothing for granted. The prestige of the Giller win ensures his next novel, already in the planning, will be published. He’s already had success as an award-winning pop-music journalist, writing for such publications as The Guardian (Michaels also co-founded the admired music blog Said the Gramophone). Michaels says the real value of the cash prize is that it allows him to write for a few years without fretting about money. Then, with a chuckle, he said: “We finally bought some of the lighting from Ikea that was long overdue.” Presented with a reporter’s glib question - did you do anything fun with the prize money? - Michaels thought for a second. The other nominated books, which Michaels dutifully read, were “fantastic.” He added: “When my name was read out, I was no longer inhabiting my body.”
He hadn’t counted on winning the Giller, a career-making honour for any Canadian writer. “The cabbie drove us over but refused to take payment,” said Michaels with a laugh. Unfamiliar with the city, the Montrealer had not realized they are just one block apart. He explained how he’d taken a cab from the CBC radio station to Boston Pizza at Blanshard and Hillside. Visiting friends in Victoria recently, Michaels was polite, soft-spoken and sometimes self-deprecating.
Such a win for a first-time novelist was all the more remarkable, given that Michaels (considered an underdog) was up against such respected nominees as Mariam Toews and David Bezmozgis. Us Conductors was awarded the $100,000 Giller Prize in November. Eventually, Termen becomes embroiled with Russian spies and is ultimately banished to a gulag camp. Life becomes a wild ride for Termen, a scientist who as the inventor of an exotic new instrument becomes the toast of New York City in the Jazz Age. In the book, Lev Termen falls for Clara Rockmore, the best theremin player on the planet. Yet at its core, the novel is a love story. Michaels did plenty of historical research for Us Conductors. What’s more, he’s the author of the Giller Prize-winning novel Us Conductors, inspired by the life of the theremin’s Russian inventor, Lev Termen (or Leon Theremin as he was known in the U.S.). However, he found the electro-theremin easier to keep in tune. a Tannerin) - a device that mimics the theremin’s eerie wail.īeach Boy Brian Wilson originally wanted a theremin, a 1920s instrument played by moving one’s hands close to antennas. In fact, Good Vibrations makes use of an electro-theremin (a.k.a. That’s not quite true, says novelist Sean Michaels. Supposedly, the instrument making the eerie “wee-ah-woo” sound on the Beach Boys’ song Good Vibrations is a theremin.
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