An epistolary novel set in Guernsey is up against a study of how music works on the brain; a Booker prize winner is competing with a memoir of old age. This is the Independent Booksellers book prize, featuring a line-up handpicked by hundreds of independent bookshops from their bestselling titles, and launching this week as part of a week-long celebration of the role of independents.
The award pits Mary Ann Shaffer’s novel The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society against Oliver Sacks’s Musicophilia, Diana Athill’s memoir Somewhere Towards the End against Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger. “They’re not the supermarkets’ or the chains’ choices – they’re our choices,” said Vivian Archer of the Newham Bookshop in east London. “It’s a good, independent mix – and quite a literary mix, which is great.”
Also in the 10-book line-up are Sebastian Barry’s Costa-wining The Secret Scripture, Kate Summerscale’s Samuel Johnson winner, The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, and Clarissa Dickson-Wright’s memoir Spilling the Beans. “It reflects what independents have been selling well,” said Eleanor Lowenthal, owner of Pages of Hackney. “Patrick Gale won last year – he was a bestseller, and also critically acclaimed, and the list this year reflects that too. They’re all good quality titles, and very sellable.” Customers can vote for their choice at independent bookshops around the country until 28 August, with the winner to be announced in September.
More than 230 bookshops are taking part in Independent Booksellers Week, which runs until 22 June, with 180 authors lending a hand through talks and creative writing workshops.
The shortlist for the adult independent booksellers’ book of the year:
Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks
The Secret Scripture by Sebastian Barry
Somewhere Towards the End by Diana Athill
Spilling the Beans by Clarissa Dickson-Wright
The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher by Kate Summerscale
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
When Will There be Good News? by Kate Atkinson
The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
The shortlist for the children’s independent booksellers’ book of the year:
The Crossing of Ingo by Helen Dunmore
Running on the Cracks by Julia Donaldson
The Dragonfly Pool by Eva Ibbotson
Tiddler by Julia Donaldson
Mr Gum and the Dancing Bear by Andy Stanton
Skulduggery Pleasant: Playing with Fire by Derek Landy
Then by Morris Gleitzman
Artemis Fowl and the Time Paradox by Eoin Colfer
By Royal Command by Charlie Higson
Kaspar by Michael Morpurgo
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