We’re waist deep in award season, which is great for new suggestions on reading material!
What are the Indie Book Awards?
The Indie Awards differ from other literary awards because they are chosen by independent booksellers who are renowned for their love of books and reading, support new and emerging Australia authors and foster a love of quality writing.
Basically, these titles have been vetted by book sellers on a national level. And have become the ULTIMATE list of staff recommendations.
Indie Book of the Year
Boy Swallows Universe – Trent Dalton
A story of brotherhood, true love and the most unlikely of friendships, Boy Swallows Universe will be the most heartbreaking, joyous and exhilarating novel you will read all year - an instant Australian classic.
Brisbane, 1983: A lost father, a mute brother, a mum in jail, a heroin dealer for a stepfather and a notorious crim for a babysitter. It's not as if Eli's life isn't complicated enough already. He's just trying to follow his heart, learning what it takes to be a good man, but life just keeps throwing obstacles in the way - not least of which is Tytus Broz, legendary Brisbane drug dealer.
Indie Book of the Year - Fiction
Bridge of Clay – Markus Zusak
Markus Zusak makes his long-awaited return with a profoundly heartfelt and inventive novel about a family held together by stories, and a young life caught in the current: a boy in search of greatness, as a cure for a painful past.
Indie Book of the Year - Young Adult
A Song Only I Can Hear – Barry Jonsberg
Beautifully moving and full of heart and humour, A Song Only I Can Hear is a delightful novel about dreaming big, being brave and marching to the beat of your own drum.
Indie Book of the Year - Children’s
Lenny’s Book of Everything – Karen Foxlee
A big-hearted novel about loving and letting go.
A book about finding good in the bad that will break your heart while raising your spirits in the way that only a classic novel can.
Indie Book of the Year - Illustrated Non-Fiction
Marcia Langton: Welcome to Country
A curated guidebook to Indigenous Australia and the Torres Strait Islands. In its pages, respected Elder and author Professor Marcia Langton offers fascinating insights into Indigenous languages and customs, history, native title, art and dance, storytelling, and cultural awareness and etiquette for visitors. Offering the chance to enjoy tourism opportunities that will show you a different side of this fascinating country — one that remains dynamic, and is filled with openness and diversity.
Indie Book of the Year - Non-Fiction
The Arsonist A Mind on Fire – Chloe Hooper
A powerful real-life thriller written with Hooper’s trademark lyric detail and nuance, The Arsonist is a reminder that in an age of fire, all of us are gatekeepers.
On the scorching February day in 2009 that became known as Black Saturday, a man lit two fires in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley, then sat on the roof of his house to watch the inferno. In the Valley, where the rates of crime were the highest in the state, more than thirty people were known to police as firebugs. But the detectives soon found themselves on the trail of a man they didn’t know.