In contrast to the three other prize finalists, all portraits of famous men, Ian Brown's book tells the story of his son. Walker Brown is a 13-year-old boy living with severe intellectual and physical disabilities, whose life inspired his father's search for meaning. Walker Brown's story, difficult and somber though it is, apparently touched the members of the jury more profoundly than did those of Pierre-Elliott Trudeau, Rene Levesque, and American press magnate William Randolph Hearst.

The book also presents L'Arche in an original way, as Ian Brown's research led him to visit L'Arche Montreal and Jean Vanier at L'Arche Trosly.

(In fact, he writes that L'Arche is the model, par excellence, for those who are most vulnerable, precisely because it is utopian - society in general not being ready for such an ideal.)

Charles Taylor Prize for Litterary Non-Fiction