Doyle, Toibin, Norton, Keane up for Irish Book Awards

Roddy Doyle, Colm Tóibín, Roy Keane, Graham Norton and Cecilia Ahern are among the authors shortlisted for the Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards 2014.
 
Tóibín’s Nora Webster (Viking) is shortlisted for Eason Novel of the Year, alongside The Thrill of it All by Joseph O’Connor (Harvill Secker), The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell (Hodder) and John Boyne’s A History of Loneliness (Doubleday). Also shortlisted in this category are John Kelly’s From Out of the City (Dalkey Archive Press) and Academy St by Mary Costello (Canongate).
 
Keane’s autobiography The Second Half (Orion), co-written with Roddy Doyle, is up for the Bord Gáis Energy Sports Book of the Year. It is in the running against The Test by Brian O’Driscoll (Penguin Ireland), Anthony Daly’s autobiography Dalo (Transworld Ireland), The Race to Truth by Emma O’Reilly (Bantam), A Different Shade of Green by Alan McLoughlin (Ballpoint Press), and Damian Lawlor’s Fields of Fire (Transworld Ireland).
 
Doyle is also shortlisted in the Specsavers Children’s Book of the Year: (Senior) category for his book Brilliant (Macmillan Children’s Books). He faces competition from Chris O’Dowd and Nick Vincent Murphy’s Moone Boy (Macmillan Children’s Books), Derek Landy’s Skulduggery Pleasant, The Dying Light (Harper Collins Children’s Books) and Apple and Rain by Sarah Crossan (Bloomsbury Children’s).
 
Norton’s The Life and Loves of a He Devil (Hodder & Stoughton) is shortlisted in the National Book Tokens Non-Fiction Book of the Year category. Also shortlisted are: Get Sh*t Done! by Niall Harbison (Penguin Ireland); Des Ekin’s The Last Armada (The O’Brien Press); It’s Not Yet Dark by Simon Fitzmaurice (Hachette Books Ireland); Michael Harding’s Hanging with The Elephant (Hachette Books Ireland); and Tom Gilmartin by Frank Connolly (Gill & Macmillan).
 
Darragh McKeon makes the Sunday Independent Newcomer of the Year shortlist for All that is Solid Melts into Air (Viking), as does Louise O’Neill for Only Ever Yours (Quercus) and Oona Frawley for Flight (Tramp Press). The shortlist is rounded out by: Kingdom of Scars by Eoin Macken (Poolbeg Press); Here are the Young Men by Rob Doyle (The Lilliput Press); and Audrey Magee’s The Undertaking (Atlantic Books).
 
John Treacy, Bord Gais Energy Irish Book Awards chairperson, said of the shorlists: “Despite dire warnings about the death of the book, our industry continues to bring to the Irish reading public a range of fantastic books to enjoy. This year’s shortlists offer sixty wonderful titles across a broad range of genres and in our ninth year we remain proud to champion Irish writers and Irish publishing. We also urge readers to cast their votes in the online voting campaign.”

Dave Kirwan, managing director, Bord Gáis Energy, added: “This year’s shortlist is as exciting as ever, with wonderful books in every category that set the standard particularly high.  Bord Gáis Energy is committed to promoting a love of books and reading in Ireland and we are especially proud to recognise the literary talent we have in this country both today and at the awards themselves in a few weeks’ time.”

Now in its ninth year, the Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards are designed to recognise and celebrate the very best of Irish literary talent across twelve categories (remaining shortlists below). Hundreds of books were submitted this year for consideration.

From today, the public are being asked to cast their vote on the best books via the Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards website. Last year over 40,000 readers and book lovers made their voices heard and voted to select the winners in each category.  

Votes can be cast until midnight 21st November 2014 and the winners will be announced at a gala event in The Double Tree by Hilton Hotel on Wednesday 26th November. For the fourth year running, RTÉ Television will be broadcasting the highlights of the ‘Bord Gáis Energy Irish Book Awards’ on RTÉ One on Saturday 29th November.

The rest of the shortlists are:
 

TheJournal.ie Best Irish-Published Book of the Year
 
•    The Long Acre by PJ Cunningham (Ballpoint Press)
•    Judging W.T. Cosgrave by Michael Laffan (Royal Irish Academy)
•    Dubliners 100: by Thomas Morris (Tramp Press)
•    Dancehall Days by Michael O’Reilly (Gill & MacMillan)
•    The Glorious Madness, Tales of the Irish in World War I by Turtle Bunbury (Gill & MacMillan)
•    T.K. Whitaker: Portrait of A Patriot by Anne Chambers (Doubleday Ireland)
 
Specsavers Children’s Book of the Year: (Junior)
 
•  TiN by Chris Judge(Andersen Press)
•  Brian and the Vikings by Chris Judge and Mark Wickham (The O’Brien Press)
•  Shh! We Have a Plan by Chris Haughton (Walker Books)
•  Specs for Rex by Yasmeen Ismail (Bloomsbury Children’s)
 
 
Avonmore Cookbook of the Year:
 
•    The Happy Pear by David and Stephen Flynn (Penguin Ireland)
•    All Things Sweet by Rachel Allen (Harper Collins)
•    The Nation’s Favourite Food Fast by Neven Maguire (Gill &Macmillan)
•    From Lynda’s Table by Lynda Booth (DCS Publishing)
•    Back To Basics by Kevin Dundon (Hachette Books Ireland)
•    The Extra Virgin Kitchen by Susan Jane White (Gill and Macmillan)
 
Ireland AM Crime Fiction Book of the Year:
 
 
•    Unravelling Oliver by Liz Nugent (Penguin Ireland)
•    The Kill by Jane Casey (Ebury Publishing)
•    The Final Silence by Stuart Neville (Harvill Secker)
•    Can Anybody Help Me? by Sinead Crowley (Quercus)
•    The Secret Place by Tana French (Hachette Books Ireland)
•    Last Kiss by Louise Phillips (Hachette Books Ireland)
 
Popular Fiction Book of the Year:
 
•    Keeping Up with the Kalashnikovs by Ross O’Carroll Kelly (Penguin Ireland)
•    The Secrets Sisters Keep by Sinéad Moriarty (Penguin Ireland)
•    The Year I Met You by Cecelia Ahern (HarperCollins)
•    The Last Days of Rabbit Hayes by Anna McPartlin (Transworld Ireland)
•    It Started With Paris by Cathy Kelly (Orion)
•    The Heart of Winter by Emma Hannigan (Hachette Books Ireland)
 
RTE Radio One John Murray Show Listeners’ Choice:
 
•    Us by David Nicholls (Hodder & Stoughton)
•    Unravelling Oliver by Liz Nugent (Penguin Ireland)
•    The Life and Loves of a He Devil by Graham Norton (Hodder and Stoughton)
•    It’s All in the Head by Majella O’Donnell (Simon &Schuster)
•    The Test by Brian O’Driscoll (Penguin Ireland)
•    Paul Galvin: The Autobiography by Paul Galvin (Transworld Ireland)
 
Writing.ie Short Story of the Year:
 
•    "Eveline" by Donal Ryan (The Irish Times)
•    "Paprika" by Frank McGuinness (Surge, The O’Brien Press)
•    "Absence" by Christine Dwyer Hickey (New Island Books)
•    "Rest Day" by John Boyne (The Irish Times)
•    "Priesteen" by Ciarán Folan (The London Magazine)

•    "Five Days to Polling Day" by Danielle McLaughlin (The South Circular)