Awards: British Book, RSL Encore Winners

The winners in the many categories of the British Book Awards were celebrated yesterday and can be seen here. Among them:

Author of the Year: Bernardine Evaristo, whose most recent book is Booker-winning Girl, Woman, Other.
Overall Book of the Year: Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams, which also won Debut Book of the Year.
Book Retailer of the Year: Waterstones, which was cited for "a remarkable revitalisation under managing director James Daunt."
Independent Bookshop of the Year: Book-ish, Crickhowell, cited for "superb service, imaginative book buying, great promotions and lively social media" as well as a creative response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Children's Bookseller of the Year: Moon Lane, London, cited in part for developing "a powerful social mission to support children's literacy and diversity in the communities it serves."

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The Royal Society of Literature announced that Patrick McGuinness won the £10,000 (about $12,530) Encore Award, recognizing a best second novel, for Throw Me to the Wolves. "I've always thought this award was one of the most empathetic around," McGuinness said. "It's a real boost as well as an honor to win it because it understands that part of a writer's life--neither sprint nor marathon--that gets forgotten."

Prize judge Edmund Gordon said: "A journey to the dark heart of modern British society, linking the inhumanity of our public school system to a wider cultural chill, this is a crime novel of rare dash and intelligence, full of discomfiting ideas and virtuosic prose." Judge Nikita Lalwani called the winning title "a novel that is saturated with small truths, tiny gems of knowing that linger and provoke long after putting the book down. A beautiful, haunting thriller." And judge Eley Williams commented: "A timely exploration of the frailties and sinews of British society, Throw Me to the Wolves considers memory, guilt and surveillance with lyricism and clarity. A crucial addition to modern crime fiction."

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