TORONTO - A literary awards season showdown between a darkly comical Western and a tale of black jazz musicians during the Second World War continues tonight at the glitzy Scotiabank Giller Prize gala.

The novels "The Sisters Brothers" by Vancouver Island native Patrick deWitt and "Half-Blood Blues" by Victoria-based Esi Edugyan are both up for the $50,000 prize -- one of several they've vied for this fall.

Last week "The Sisters Brothers" (House of Anansi Press), about gunslinger siblings in the 1850s, won the $25,000 Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize, for which "Half-Blood Blues" (Thomas Allen Publishers) also made the short list.

The two novels -- both sophomore efforts -- are also finalists for the $25,000 Governor General's fiction award, which will be announced Nov. 15. And they were on the short list for last month's Man Booker Prize, which went to Julian Barnes for "The Sense of an Ending."

Other 2011 Giller finalists include former winner Michael Ondaatje of Toronto for "The Cat's Table" (McClelland & Stewart), about a young boy who journeys from Sri Lanka to England on a huge ocean liner in the early 1950s.

Toronto-based author and filmmaker David Bezmozgis is on the short list for "The Free World" (HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.), about a family of Soviet Jews stuck in Rome waiting to get into Canada in 1978.

Edmonton resident Lynn Coady is nominated for "The Antagonist" (House of Anansi Press), about a bruiser who feels he's been unfairly depicted in an old friend's novel.

And Calgary-raised Zsuzsi Gartner is a contender for her short-story collection "Better Living Through Plastic Explosives" (Hamish Hamilton Canada).

"'The Cat's Table' is outselling them all by a long shot. I think he's probably the best known of the authors on the list," Caroline Walker, inventory manager at McNally Robinson Booksellers in Saskatoon, said Monday.

"The paperbacks, like 'The Sisters Brothers' and 'Half-Blood Blues,' are selling quite strongly and I think that's just because they've been getting so much media attention from .... being nominated for every award on the go there."

It's the same sort of trend at Ben McNally Books in Toronto, where "The Cat's Table" has been the top seller of the Giller finalists, and "The Sisters Brothers" and "Half-Blood Blues" have also had brisk sales.

"The two multi-listed books are doing very well as a result of the nominations, and the two books by people with a reputation -- Bezmozgis and Michael Ondaatje -- were doing very well from the time they were published," said owner Ben McNally.

The Scotiabank Giller Prize awards $50,000 annually to the author of the best Canadian novel or short story collection published in English and $5,000 to each of the finalists.

Monday's bash, to be hosted by CBC personality Jian Ghomeshi at the Four Seasons Hotel in Toronto, is packed with star power.

Renowned piano prodigy Lang Lang will perform while recording artists Robbie Robertson, Nelly Furtado and Jacob Hoggard present.

Other stars set to introduce the six finalists include actors Lisa Ray and Zaib Shaikh, and "Hockey Night in Canada Host" Ron MacLean.

The gala will air live on CBC's bold TV at 9:00 p.m. ET and will be rebroadcast at 11:00 p.m ET on CBC-TV. It will also be live-streamed on CBC Books.

The Giller Prize was established in 1994 by businessman Jack Rabinovitch in honour of his late wife, literary journalist Doris Giller.

It has become one of the country's most popular and lucrative literary awards, with nominated books receiving a considerable boost in sales.

Last year's winner, "The Sentimentalists" by Johanna Skibsrud, was a bit of an anomaly to the so-called "Giller effect" because its tiny Nova Scotia publisher, Gaspereau Press, couldn't keep up with demand for the novel.

When Douglas & McIntyre published a paperback edition, though, the book became the No. 1 bestselling fiction title in Canada two weeks before Christmas, according to BookNet Canada, which tracks book sales across the country.

BookNet says this year's Giller finalists saw an average volume increase of 160 per cent in the two weeks since the shortlist was announced Oct. 4, compared to their performance before the long list nominations.

This year's Giller jury panel is made up of Canadian writer and 2009 Giller finalist Annabel Lyon, American author Howard Norman, and acclaimed U.K. playwright and novelist Andrew O'Hagan.

They read a record-breaking 143 titles put forward by 55 publishing houses from across Canada.