Waterstones has selected its books of the year:
Book of the Year: The Artist by Lucy Steeds. (The book won the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize earlier this year and was published in the U.S. as The Artist and the Feast by Union Square & Co.) Bea Carvalho, head of books, commented: "'The Artist is a gorgeously escapist novel which seamlessly transports the reader to the sticky heat of sun-soaked 1920s Southern France... Atmospheric, elegant and sensory, it is a novel to be fully swept away by."
Children's Book of the Year: The Café at the Edge of the Woods written and illustrated by Mikey Please, published in the U.S. by HarperCollins. Carvalho commented: "The Café at the Edge of the Woods bursts with charm and delight, juggling the delicious and the disgusting through addictive rhymes and exquisite illustration. Sweetly slapstick and quirkily surreal, it crams silliness and splendour into every tiniest detail."
Gift of the Year: Padella: Iconic Pasta at Home by Tim Siadatan, published in the U.S. by Bloomsbury. Carvalho commented: "Destined to be thick with oil-splatter like all the most beloved cookbooks, Padella stands out as one of the most stunningly produced books of the year."
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Foyles, owned by Waterstones, has selected its books of the year:
Book of the Year: Mother Mary Comes to Me by Arundhati Roy, published in the U.S. by Scribner. Foyles said in part, "The incredible first memoir from the Booker-winning radical icon Arundhati Roy, author of The God of Small Things."
Fiction Book of the Year: Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico, translated by Sophie Hughes, published in the U.S. by New York Review Books. Foyles bookseller Zool said, "Perfection is a unique work, a taut masterpiece. It details the lives of Anna and Tom, an eerily inseparable millennial couple who lead aesthetically perfect, Instagram-friendly existences, which are simultaneously devoid of soul and meaning. They yearn to lead more consequential lives but seem caught in a nihilistic web. This is a gorgeous, bleak and witty novel which I unhesitatingly recommend."
Children's Book of the Year: Otherlands by Thomas Halliday, illustrated by Gavin Scott. Foyles bookseller Sammy said, "From the author of a former Foyles Non-Fiction Book of the Year comes a beautiful book to teach children about the earth of millions of years ago. Clear and informative, this book truly brings the past of our planet to life with gorgeous illustrations."