ABIA 2019 longlists announced

Thursday, 7 March 2019 Books+Publishing

The longlists for the Australian Book Industry Awards (ABIAs) have been announced.

The titles in each category are:

General fiction book of the year

Nine Perfect Strangers (Liane Moriarty, Macmillan)
Scrublands (Chris Hammer, A&U)
The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart (Holly Ringland, Fourth Estate)
The Lost Man (Jane Harper, Macmillan)
The Nowhere Child (Christian White, Affirm)
The Other Wife (Michael Robotham, Hachette)
The Rúin (Dervla McTiernan, HarperCollins)
The Tattooist of Auschwitz (Heather Morris, Echo)

Literary fiction book of the year

Boy Swallows Universe (Trent Dalton, Fourth Estate)
Bridge of Clay (Markus Zusak, Picador)
In the Garden of the Fugitives (Ceridwen Dovey, Hamish Hamilton)
Shell (Kristina Olsson, Scribner)
The Children’s House (Alice Nelson, Vintage)
The Shepherd’s Hut (Tim Winton, Hamish Hamilton)
Too Much Lip (Melissa Lucashenko, UQP)
Wintering (Krissy Kneen, Text)

General nonfiction book of the year

Any Ordinary Day (Leigh Sales, Hamish Hamilton)
Boys Will Be Boys (Clementine Ford, A&U)
Dear Santa (Samuel Johnson, Hachette)
No Friend But the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison (Behrouz Boochani, trans by Omid Tofighian, Picador)
The Arsonist (Chloe Hooper, Hamish Hamilton)
The Land Before Avocado (Richard Glover, ABC Books)
Welcome to Country: A Travel Guide to Indigenous Australia (Marcia Langton, Hardie Grant Travel)
Woo’s Wonderful World of Maths (Eddie Woo, Macmillan)

Biography book of the year

Back, After the Break (Osher Günsberg, HarperCollins)
Butterfly on a Pin: A Memoir of Love, Despair and Reinvention (Alannah Hill, Hardie Grant)
Challenge Accepted! (Celeste Barber, HarperCollins)
Eggshell Skull (Bri Lee, A&U)
Johnathan Thurston: The Autobiography (Johnathan Thurston with James Phelps, HarperCollins)
One Hundred Years of Dirt (Rick Morton, MUP)
Speaking Up (Gillian Triggs, MUP)
Teacher (Gabbie Stroud, A&U)

Book of the year for older children (ages 13+)

Amelia Westlake, (Erin Gough, Hardie Grant Egmont)
Between Us (Clare Atkins, Black Inc.)
Catching Teller Crow (Ambelin Kwaymullina & Ezekiel Kwaymullina, A&U)
Hive (A J Betts, Pan)
Jane Doe and the Cradle of All Worlds (Jeremy Lachlan, Hardie Grant Egmont)
P is for Pearl (Eliza Henry-Jones, HarperCollins)
Small Spaces (Sarah Epstein, Walker)
Tales from the Inner City (Shaun Tan, A&U)

Book of the year for younger children (ages 7-12)

Lenny’s Book of Everything (Karen Foxlee, A&U)
Ninja Kid #1 (Anh Do & Jeremy Ley, Scholastic)
Polly and Buster: The Mystery of the Magic Stones (Sally Rippin, Hardie Grant Egmont)
Real Pigeons Fight Crime (Andrew McDonald & Ben Wood, Hardie Grant Egmont)
The 104-Storey Treehouse (Andy Griffiths & Terry Denton, Pan)
The Bad Guys Episode 7: Do-You-Think-He-Saurus?! (Aaron Blabey, Scholastic)
The Tales of Mr Walker (Jess Black & Sara Acton, Puffin)
Wundersmith: The Calling of Morrigan Crow: Nevermoor 2 (Jessica Townsend, Lothian)

Children’s picture book of the year (ages 0-6)

All the Ways to be Smart (Davina Bell & Allison Colpoys, Scribble)
Cicada (Shaun Tan, Lothian)
Claris: The Chicest Mouse in Paris (Megan Hess, Hardie Grant Egmont)
Go Go and the Silver Shoes (Jane Godwin & Anna Walker, Viking)
If I Was Prime Minister (Beck and Robin Feiner, ABC Books)
Love Makes a Family (Sophie Beer, Little Hare Books)
Macca the Alpaca (Matt Cosgrove, Koala Books)
Pig the Grub (Aaron Blabey, Scholastic)

Illustrated book of the year

A Painted Landscape: Across Australia from Bush to Coast (Amber Creswell Bell, Thames & Hudson)
Chromatopia: An Illustrated History of Colour (David Coles, Thames & Hudson)
Family: New Vegetable Classics to Comfort and Nourish (Hetty McKinnon, Plum)
Flour and Stone: Baked for Love, Life & Happiness (Nadine Ingram with photography by Alan Benson, Julie Gibbs for Simon & Schuster Australia)
Mirka & Georges (Lesley Harding & Kendrah Morgan, MUP)
Resident Dog: Incredible Homes and the Dogs That Live There (Nicole England, Thames & Hudson)
Special Guest (Annabel Crabb & Wendy Sharpe, Murdoch Books)
The Cook’s Apprentice (Stephanie Alexander, Lantern)

International book of the year

Becoming (Michelle Obama, Viking)
CIRCE (Madeline Miller, Bloomsbury)
Fear: Trump in the White House (Bob Woodward, Simon & Schuster)
Less (Andrew Sean Greer, Abacus)
Lost Connections (Johann Hari, Bloomsbury Circus)
Milkman (Anna Burns, Faber)
Normal People (Sally Rooney, Faber)
Ottolenghi Simple (Yotam Ottolenghi, Ebury)

Small publishers’ adult book of the year

A Superior Spectre (Angela Meyer, Peter Bishop Books)
Blakwork (Alison Whittaker, Magabala)
Deep Time Dreaming (Billy Griffiths, Black Inc.)
Growing Up Aboriginal in Australia (ed by Anita Heiss, Black Inc.)
The Bookshop of the Broken Hearted (Robert Hillman, Text)
The Geography of Friendship (Sally Piper, UQP)
The Western Front Diaries of Charles Bean (ed by Peter Burness, NewSouth, published in association with the Australian War Memorial)
Wild Sea: A History of the Southern Ocean (Joy McCann, NewSouth)

Small publishers’ children’s book of the year

Alfred’s War (Rachel Bin Salleh & Samantha Fry, Magabala)
Black Cockatoo (Carl Merrison & Hakea Hustler, Magabala)
Empty (Andrew Pratley & Angel McMullan, Little Steps Publishing)
Heads And Tails: Insects (John Canty, Berbay)
I Had Such Friends (Meg Gatland-Veness, Pantera)
Night Walk (Alison Binks, Berbay)
Rhyme Cordial (Antonia Pesenti, Scribble)
The Extremely Weird Thing that Happened in Huggabie Falls (Adam Cece, illus by Andrew Weldon, Text)
Whisper (Lynette Noni, Pantera)

The Matt Richell award for new writer of the year

Boy Swallows Universe (Trent Dalton, Fourth Estate)
The Nowhere Child (Christian White, Affirm)
Eggshell Skull (Bri Lee, A&U)
One Hundred Years of Dirt (Rick Morton, MUP)
Teacher (Gabbie Stroud, A&U)
The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart (Holly Ringland, Fourth Estate)
The Rúin (Dervla McTiernan, HarperCollins)
The Tattooist of Auschwitz (Heather Morris, Echo).

The longlist was voted on by the ABIA Academy, which comprises more than 250 industry representatives. A panel of experts will select the shortlists, which will be announced on 11 April. The winners will be announced on 2 May at a ceremony at the Sydney International Convention Centre.

The ABIAs celebrate the ‘best books of the year, well published’. For more information, visit the ABIA website.

Category: Awards Local news