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The Miniaturist is Specsavers Book of the Year
Jessie Burton's The Miniaturist (Pan Macmillan) has been crowned the Specsavers Book of the Year for 2014 after a public vote.
Burton, who also won the in the New Writer of the Year category sponsored by Books are My Bag when the initial winners were announced in November, fought off competition from nine other contenders in the public vote, including Man Booker shortlisted author Karen Joy Fowler and her novel We Are All Completely Besides Ourselves and Man Booker longlisted title Us by David Nicholls.
The Miniaturist also won the Waterstones Book of the Year title earlier this month.
Burton said: "It is no exaggeration to say this has been a life-transforming year for me, and this award is a very big cherry on the cake. There are always stories to write, and people who want to read them, and as the year closes, I find this very heartening news indeed. This wonderful acknowledgement will propel me into 2015, and I am deeply thankful to everyone who took the time to vote.”
Dame Mary Perkins, Specsavers founder, said: “It’s wonderful to see the Specsavers Book of the Year go to a new talent and we look forward to see what’s next from this very talented author.”
While Amanda Ross joint m.d of Cactus TV, added: “The National Book Awards reflect the tastes of the nation, and the nominees are some of the biggest titles of the year across all genres, so it’s an amazing achievement for a debut author to triumph over such a prestigious field.”
Previous winners of the public vote include The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman (2013), Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James (2012), Caitlin Moran’s How To Be A Woman (2011) and One Day by David Nicholls (2010).
Contenders for this year's public vote were I am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes (Transworld), which won Crime/Thriller Book of the Year, Please, Mister Postman by Alan Johnson (Transworld), which won biography of the year, Plenty More by Yotam Ottolenghi (Ebury), which won food and drink book of the year, Awful Auntie by David Walliams (HarperCollins), which won Children's Book of the Year and Audiobook of the year, Karen Joy Fowler's We Are All Completely Besides Ourselves (Profile), which claimed International Author of the Year, The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filer (HarperCollins) which won popular fiction book of the year, Love, Nina by Nina Stibbe (Penguin), which won non-fiction book of the year and UK author of the year, David Nicholls, with Us (Hodder & Stoughton).
