It's Awards Season!

ONE SIT WONDER: WINNER
BEST COVER: WINNER

From the no. 1 New York Times and no. 2 Sunday Times bestselling author, R.F. Kuang. Athena Liu is a literary darling and June Hayward is literally nobody. When Athena dies in a freak accident, June steals her unpublished manuscript and publishes it as her own under the ambiguous name Juniper Song. But as evidence threatens June's stolen success, she will discover exactly how far she will go to keep what she thinks she deserves. What happens next is entirely everyone else's fault.

ONE SIT WONDER: RUNNER-UP

After an uneventful Friday at the office, Cathal faces into the long weekend and takes the bus home. There, his mind agitates over a woman named Sabine with whom he could have spent his life, had he acted differently. All evening, with only the television and a bottle of champagne for company, thoughts of this woman and others intrude—and the true significance of this particular date is revealed. From one of the finest writers working today, Keegan's new story asks if a lack of generosity might ruin what could be between men and women. Is it possible to love without sharing?

ONE SIT WONDER: RUNNER-UP

From the bestselling author of Grief is the Thing with Feathers and Lanny, Shy is a novel about guilt, rage, imagination and boyhood. It is about being lost in the dark, and realising you are not alone. This is the story of a few strange hours in the life of a troubled teenage boy. He is wandering into the night listening to the voices in his head: his teachers, his parents, the people he has hurt and the people who are trying to love him. He is escaping Last Chance, a home for 'very disturbed young men', and walking into the haunted space between his night terrors, his past and the heavy question of his future.

ONE SIT WONDER: RUNNER-UP

Meet Celine and Luke. For all intents and purposes, the happy couple. Luke (a serial cheater) and Celine (more inter­ested in piano than domestic life) plan to marry in a year. Archie (the best man) should be moving on from his love for Luke, but he finds himself utterly stuck. Phoebe (the bridesmaid and Celine’s sister) just wants to get to the bottom of Luke’s frequent unexplained disappearances. And Vivian (a wedding guest) is the only one with any emotional distance, and observes her friends like ants in a colony. As the wedding approaches, each character will find themselves looking for a path to their happily ever after—but does it lie at the end of an aisle?

BEST COVER: RUNNER-UP

A woman sells her daughter to a passing beekeeper for two jars of honey. A baby weighing fifteen pounds is born in the depths of winter but named "Girl of Spring". A storm brings down the roof of a ramshackle restaurant to reveal a hidden fortune. Set in a remote village in South Korea, Whale follows the lives of its linked characters: Geumbok, who has been chasing an indescribable thrill ever since she first saw a whale crest in the ocean; her mute daughter, Chunhui, who communicates with elephants; and a one-eyed woman who controls honeybees with a whistle. Brimming with surprises and wicked humour, Whale is an adventure-satire of epic proportions.

BEST COVER: RUNNER-UP

On a dark, wet evening in Dublin, scientist and mother-of-four Eilish Stack answers her front door to find the GNSB on her step. Two officers from Ireland’s newly formed secret police are here to interrogate her husband, a trade unionist. Ireland is falling apart. The country is in the grip of a government turning towards tyranny and Eilish can only watch helplessly as the world she knew disappears. When first her husband and then her eldest son vanish, Eilish finds herself caught within the nightmare logic of a collapsing society. How far will she go to save her family? And what— or who—is she willing to leave behind?

BEST COVER: RUNNER-UP

Ren Yu is a swimmer. Her daily life starts and ends with the pool. If she swims well enough, she will be scouted, get a scholarship, go to a good school. She will have a good life. But these are human concerns. These are the concerns of those confined to land, those with legs. Ren grew up on stories of creatures of the deep, of the oceans and the rivers. Ones that called sailors to their doom. Ones that feasted on their flesh. Ones of the creature that she's always longed to become: mermaid. Ren aches to be in the water. She dreams of the scent of chlorine—the feel of it on her skin. And she will do anything she can to make a life for herself where she can be free.

BEST PAGE TURNER: WINNER

Ola Olajide, a celebrated journalist, is set to marry the love of her life. she and her fiancé Michael are considered the “couple goals” of their social network and seem to have it all. That is, until one morning when they both wake up to a crowdsourced collection of names, somehow morphing into an anonymous account posting allegations on social media. Ola would usually be the first to support such a list. Except this time, Michael’s name is on it. Compulsively readable, wildly entertaining, and filled with sharp social insight, The List is a piercing and dazzlingly searing portrait of these modern times and our morally complicated online culture.

BEST PAGE TURNER: RUNNER-UP

Like every other girl in her class, twelve-year-old Justine is drawn to her glamorous, charismatic new teacher, and longs to be her pet. However, when a thief begins to target the school, Justine’s sense that something isn't quite right grows ever stronger. With each twist of the plot, this gripping story of deception and the corrosive power of guilt takes a yet darker turn. Young as she is, Justine must decide where her loyalties lie. Probing themes of racism and misogyny, Pet is an elegant and chilling psychological thriller by bestselling author Catherine Chidgey.

BEST PAGE TURNER: RUNNER-UP

Following the New York Times bestseller City on Fire comes the second novel from Don Winslow! The feds track Danny down and want him to do them a favor that could make him a fortune or kill him. And when Hollywood starts shooting a film of his former life, Danny demands a piece of the action and rebuilds his criminal empire. Then he falls in love with a beautiful movie star who has a dark past of her own. As their worlds collide in an explosion that could destroy them both, Danny has to fight for his life in a city where dreams are born. Or where they go to die. This is a sweeping saga of family, love, revenge, survival and the fierce reality behind the dream.

BEST PAGE TURNER: RUNNER-UP

It’s as if her life only began once Moon appeared in it. The desultory copywriting work, the boyfriend, and the want of anything not-Moon quickly fall away when she beholds the idol in concert, where Moon dances as if his movements are creating their own gravitational field; on livestreams, as fans from around the world comment in dozens of languages; even on skincare products endorsed by the wildly popular Korean boyband, of which Moon is the youngest, most luminous member. Seized by ineffable desire, our unnamed narrator begins writing Y/N fanfic—in which you, the reader, insert [Your/Name] and play out an intimate relationship with the unattainable star.

BOOK THAT MADE ME CRY: WINNER

Sam Masur exits a subway car and sees Sadie Green. He calls her name. She turns, and a game begins: a legendary collaboration that will launch them to stardom. These childhood friends borrow money, beg favors, and, before even graduating college, create their first blockbuster, Ichigo. Overnight, the world is theirs. Not even twenty-five years old, Sam and Sadie are brilliant, successful, and rich, but these qualities won’t protect them from their own creative ambitions or the betrayals of their hearts. This book examines the multifarious nature of identity, disability, failure, the redemptive possibilities in play, and above all, our need to connect.

BOOK THAT MADE ME CRY: RUNNER-UP

In 1914, war feels far away to Henry Gaunt and Sidney Ellwood. They're too young to enlist, and anyway, Gaunt is fighting his own private battle—an all-consuming infatuation with the dreamy, poetic Ellwood—not having a clue that his best friend is in love with him, always has been. When Gaunt's mother asks him to enlist in the British army to protect the family, he signs up immediately, relieved to escape his overwhelming feelings. But Ellwood and their classmates soon follow him into the horrors of trenches. Though Ellwood and Gaunt find fleeting moments of solace in one another, their friends are dying in front of them, and at any moment they could be next.

BOOK THAT MADE ME CRY: RUNNER-UP

The one thing that can solve Stephen's problems is dancing. Dancing with his friends, somewhere in a basement with the drums about to drop, while the DJ spins garage cuts. Dancing with his band, making music which speaks not just to the hardships of their lives, but the joys too. Dancing with his best friend Adeline, two-stepping around the living room, crooning and grooving, so close their heads might touch. Dancing alone, at home, to his father's records, uncovering parts of a man he has never truly known. Stephen has only ever known himself in song. But what becomes of him when the music fades?

BOOK THAT MADE ME CRY: RUNNER-UP

On a cool autumn morning, Victoria Nash heads into her village pulling a rickety wagon filled with late-season peaches. When a stranger in town stops to ask her the way, she makes the decision to walk with him. 'Go as a river,' he tells her as they part ways. So begins a mesmerizing story of split-second decisions and considered acts that make up one woman's tumultuous life, as Victoria begins to absorb and follow his words. Gathering all the pieces of her small and extraordinary existence, spinning through the eddies of desire, heartbreak and betrayal, she will arrive at a single rocky decision that will change her life forever.

BEST DEBUT: WINNER

Cleo is at a different party every other night, but she barely knows anyone. Her student visa is running out, and she doesn't even have money for cigarettes. Then, she meets Frank. 20 years older, Frank's life is full of all the success and excess that Cleo's lacks. He offers her the chance to be happy, the freedom to paint, and the opportunity to apply for a green card. She offers him a life imbued with beauty and art—and, hopefully, a reason to cut back on his drinking. Cleopatra and Frankenstein is an astounding and painfully relatable debut novel about the spontaneous decisions that shape our lives and those imperfect relationships born of unexpectedly perfect evenings.

BEST DEBUT: RUNNER-UP

A young musician abandons her future for an elite, beauty-obsessed world where perfection comes at a staggering cost. A high-end beauty and wellness store in New York City, Holistik is known for its remarkable products and procedures—from remoras that suck out cheap Botox to eyelash extensions made of spider silk. While our narrator is plied with products that slim her thighs, smooth her skin, and lighten her hair, beneath these creams and tinctures lies something sinister. A piercing, darkly funny debut, Natural Beauty explores consumerism, self-worth, race, and identity—and leaves readers with a shocking and unsettling truth.

BEST DEBUT: RUNNER-UP

Darley, the eldest daughter in the well-connected, old money Stockton family, followed her heart, trading her job and her inheritance for motherhood but giving up far too much in the process; Sasha, a middle-class New England girl, has married into the Brooklyn Heights family, and finds herself cast as the arriviste outsider; and Georgiana, the baby of the family, has fallen in love with someone she can't have, and must decide what kind of person she wants to be. Shot through with the indulgent pleasures of life among New York's one-percenters, this is an addictive, escapist novel that sparkles with wit.

BEST DEBUT: RUNNER-UP

After the last American troops leave Vietnam, siblings Anh, Thanh and Minh flee to Hong Kong by boat. Tragedy strikes, and their parents and four younger siblings do not survive the voyage. Anh, Thanh and Minh suddenly find themselves alone in the world, without family or home. They navigate refugee camps and resettlement centres until they arrive in Thatcher's Britain. Here they must somehow build new lives with only each other to turn to, but will that be enough in a place that doesn't seem to want them? Wandering Souls paints a heart-wrenching portrait of a family in unimaginable adversity while exploring the power of stories to heal generational wounds.