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Arnott’s ‘Dusk’ wins Indie Book Awards 2025 Book of the Year

Monday, 24 March 2025   Books+Publishing
@booksandpublishing

Robbie Arnott’s Dusk (Picador) has been named Book of the Year in the Indie Book Awards 2025.

Category winners also announced include:

Fiction

  • Dusk (Robbie Arnott, Picador)

Nonfiction

  • Three Wild Dogs and the Truth (Markus Zusak, Picador)

Debut fiction

  • All the Bees in the Hollows (Lauren Keegan, Affirm)

Illustrated nonfiction

  • The Paintings of Criss Canning (Criss Canning, Thames & Hudson)

Children’s

Young Adult

  • My Family and Other Suspects (Kate Emery, A&U Children’s).

Australian independent booksellers nominated titles for the longlist and shortlist. A panel of bookseller judges determined category winners, while nominating stores voted for the winner of the Book of the Year Award.

Bookseller judge Claire Leyton from Paperchain Bookstore Manuka (ACT) said of Arnott’s book: ‘From the very beginning I was captivated by the language and story. Robbie paints this beautifully vivid, picturesque world that is harsh and can be brutal but is also wonderful and breathtaking. I felt like I could see and touch the world inside these pages. I also loved that nothing felt unnecessary; every word felt like it was there for a reason.’

Said judge Naomi Gibson from Novel Nook Yarra Glen (Victoria): ‘Robbie Arnott’s writing has a distinct, effortless quality that immediately pulls me in. […] His writing always makes me see the landscape in a new light – nothing escapes his eye. I feel lucky to be a reader while he’s a writer.’

Arnott said of the win: ‘Didn’t see this coming! What a world, hey. Can’t believe it. I’m thrilled and honoured that people who love books so much they sell them for a living found something worthwhile in this book. I’m off for a lager.’

Presented by Leading Edge, the Indie Book Awards ‘recognise and celebrate indie booksellers as the number-one supporters of Australian authors’.

The winner of last year’s Indie Book of the Year was Killing for Country (David Marr, Black Inc.).

 

Category: Awards Local news