Joy Kogawa's 1981 novel Obasan is one of "100 most important Canadian books ever written" according to a Literary Review of Canada November 17th press release.
Books are listed in order of publicatiion, beginning in 1545 with"Account of the Second Voyage of Navigation 1535 and 1536" by Jaques Cartier. Jane Jacob's "A Dark Age Ahead is the newest entry from 2004"
Obasan is one of eleven books published in the 1980's and the first one by an Asian-Canadian author. Rohinton Mistry's "A Fine Balance" (1995) and Wayson Choy's "Jade Peony" (1995), are the only other novels listed by Asian-Canadian or South Asian-Canadian authors.