TORONTO – Journalist Nina Munk and academic Donald Savoie are among the finalists for this year’s National Business Book Award.

In “The Idealist: Jeffrey Sachs and the Quest to End Poverty” (Signal, an imprint of McClelland & Stewart), Munk tells of Sachs’ multi-pronged foreign-aid program to wipe out poverty in Africa.

Entrepreneur Harrison McCain is profiled by Savoie in “Harrison McCain: Single-Minded Purpose” (McGill-Queen’s University Press).

The short list for the 29th annual honour is rounded out by Jim Leech, head of one of Canada’s largest public sector pension plans, and journalist Jacquie McNish for their book “The Third Rail: Confronting Our Pension Failures” (Signal, McClelland & Stewart), about Canada’s looming pension crisis.

Businessman David Denison and author and publisher Anna Porter joined the jury panel this year. Other members include William Dimma, Peter Mansbridge, Deirdre McMurdy and Pamela Wallin. Roger Martin, professor at University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, chairs the jury.

The award, co-sponsored by PwC and BMO Financial Group, honours non-fiction Canadian business-related books.

The winner, who takes home $20,000, will be announced on May 26 at a Toronto luncheon.

Chrystia Freeland won in 2013 for “Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else.”