Le Combat des livres

Le Combat des livres is an annual "battle of the books" competition organized and broadcast by Ici Radio-Canada Première in Canada. A French edition of the Canada Reads competition, the program was launched in 2004. It aired annually from 2004 to 2014,^[1] and was then discontinued until being revived in 2018.^[2]

Both the English and French programs sometimes, but not always, include one personality more commonly associated with the other language community, who champions a translated work.^[3] One advocate, Maureen McTeer, appeared on both programs in the same year, championing the same novel in both its original English and translated French editions. Several other novels have also been chosen for both programs, although their English and French versions were not chosen by the same advocate or in the same year; one novel to date, Lawrence Hill's The Book of Negroes (French title Aminata) has won both competitions.

In 2021, for the first time in the history of the series the network produced two separate editions, one devoted to adult literature and one devoted to youth literature. The adult literature debates remain between celebrity personalities, while the youth literature debates take place between francophone teenagers selected through a school competition, with the winner of the debates settled by a judges' panel instead of through voting by the participants.