Indie Book Awards choice staycation reads revealed
Indie booksellers have revealed their top books for the summer as winners of Indie Book Awards with three out of four titles published by independent presses.
Winning in the Fiction category is Love After Love by Ingrid Persaud (Faber & Faber) a brave and spellbinding family tale with a Caribbean setting, also Winner of 2020 Costa First Novel Award.
To celebrate Ingrid’s win, Faber & Faber have produced a special paperback edition of her book, with bright lime green sprayed edges, which will be available exclusively from independent bookshops.
Lemn Sissay took home the Non-Fiction prize with My Name is Why (Canongate) a moving, frank and timely memoir by one of the nation’s best-loved poets.
Jasbinder Bilan was the winner of the Children’s Fiction category for Tamarind and the Star of Ishta (Chicken House) a richly evocative tale of hidden identity set in the heart of the spectacular Himalayas.
The Hospital Dog – Macmillan Children’s Books – written by former Children’s Laureate Julia Donaldson and illustrated by awardwinning Sara Ogilvie, won Picture Book award.
Honouring the paperback books of the summer as voted for by independent booksellers, the Indie Book Awards celebrate best reads for the summer, recommending books readers should be taking on their staycations this summer.
The winners were announced on Scala Radio, official media partner of the Indie Book Awards.
The judging panel for the Adult categories consists of booksellers Tina GaisfordWaller – Winstone’s Hunting Raven Books; Saber Khan – Toppings, Bath; Sam Fisher – Burley Fisher Books; Alice Carr – Blackwell’s, Edinburgh; Hachette author Will Dean.
The Children’s categories were judged by Nicola Lee – Children’s Bookshop, Lindley; Mariana Mouzinho – Seven Stories; The National Centre for Children’s Books; India Chambers – Round Table Books; Gill Edwards
– Little Ripon Bookshop; Hachette author Patrice Lawrence.
Tina Gaisford-Waller said: “Lemn Sissay’s moving, but never sentimental, campaigning memoir rose effortlessly to the top spot.
“Guided by his case notes and his own recollections, Lemn pieces together the story of his life in care.
“The result is an unflinching account of the system and the people who failed him in so very many ways.
“As one judge so brilliantly put it ‘My Name Is Why is exquisite, shocking, powerful and beautiful - and Lemn Sissay is an absolute treasure.’”
Love After Love by Ingrid Persaud was a book that all the judges wanted to get behind and press into the hands of readers everywhere.
Set in modern-day Trinidad, and written in zingy patois, it positively fizzes with vibrancy and life.
Though it deals with some seriously tough themes, it does so with incredible lightness of touch and such brilliant insight.
One judge said: “I love books that really make me feel something. And this gave me all the feels!”
Another saif: “I stayed awake reading until three in the morning, sobbing my heart out.
“The characters are so brilliantly drawn, you cannot help but be with them.”
Children’s Judges chairwoman Gill Edwards, of Little Ripon Bookshop, said: “The panel loved The Hospital Dog as a story of friendship and canine kindness.”