‘Shuggie Bain’ wins Book of the Year at the British Book Awards
Douglas Stuart’s Booker Prize-winning debut novel Shuggie Bain (Picador) has won book of the year at the British Book Awards, reports the Bookseller.
Stuart’s novel, which also won the debut book of the year award, won the top award ahead of Maggie O’Farrell, who won the fiction award for Hamnet (Tinder Press), and David Olusoga, who won the children’s illustrated and nonfiction prizes for Black and British: A short, essential history (Macmillan Children’s Books).
Books of the Year chair Alice O’Keeffe said: ‘The success of Shuggie Bain is testament not only to Douglas Stuart’s extraordinary writing but also to the commitment and enthusiasm of publisher Picador, which acquired the novel after a dozen other UK publishers turned it down.’ ‘The story of Shuggie and his love for his alcoholic mother Agnes is one that readers and critics have taken to their hearts, as did our judges on the day,’ added O’Keeffe.
The other award winners were:
Fiction: crime and thriller book of the year
- Troubled Blood (Robert Galbraith, Sphere)
Fiction: pageturner of the year
- Where the Crawdads Sing (Delia Owens, Corsair)
Nonfiction lifestyle book of the year
- Skincare (Caroline Hirons, HQ)
Nonfiction narrative book of the year
- Diary of a Young Naturalist (Dara McAnulty, Little Toller)
Audiobook of the year
- Think Like a Monk (Jay Shetty, Thorsons)
Children’s fiction book of the year
- The Highland Falcon Thief (M G Leonard and Sam Sedgman, illus by Elisa Paganelli, Macmillan Children’s).
In the trade section of the awards, Orion was named publisher of the year, while its imprint Gollancz won imprint of the year. Canongate won independent publisher of the year.
In retailing, children’s indie bookseller Moon Lane became the first independent to win the book retailer of the year award, as well as being named children’s bookseller of the year for the second year in a row.
For the full lists of winners, see the Bookseller website.
Category: Awards International news
