‘The Bush’ wins Indie Book of the Year 2015

The Bush by Don Watson (Hamish Hamilton) has been named Indie Book of the Year at the 2015 Indie Awards, presented by Leading Edge Books in Sydney on 25 March.

Watson also won the award for Best Nonfiction. The Best Fiction award went to Golden Boys by Sonya Hartnett (Hamish Hamilton), Best Debut Fiction to Foreign Soil by Maxine Beneba Clarke (Hachette) and Best Children’s & YA Book to Withering-by-Sea (Judith Rossell, ABC Books).

Watson said in a statement: ‘Like every other writer in Australia, I regularly give thanks for our independent booksellers, and I would go down on my knees to do so if I thought it would help them to thrive. Writers and readers and publishers, suburbs, towns and communities, from toddlers to old age pensioners the whole country is blessed by them. They have fought off the monopolising tendencies of capitalism, the Internet, mobile phones, and iPads; they have defied the general trend to instant gratification, fads, fashion and ignorance itself.’ 

The Indie Awards are selected by panels of independent booksellers and readers from shortlists nominated by Leading Edge Books members. This year’s shortlists can be viewed here.

Last year’s Indie Book of the Year was The Narrow Road to the Deep North (Richard Flanagan, Vintage). For more information about the awards, click here.

Category: Local news