Book of the Year - Fiction

Supported by Scala Radio

This year’s fiction shortlist runs the gamut from literary fiction to fantasy and from historical adventure on the high seas to pin-sharp contemporary satire. From iconic cover art to inventive campaigns both online and in the real world, these books were unmissable in 2023.

The Winner

Yellowface

Rebecca F Kuang

The Borough Press

Rebecca F Kuang returns in her second consecutive win in this category for the trailblazing Yellowface, following her triumph with Babel last year. For our judges, Yellowface "delivered on every level", being a "propulsive", "brave" and "bold" story satirising the publishing industry. The Borough Press' campaign created a cultural moment with an ambitious and audacious marketing strategy which made Yellowface the "book to be seen with". Our panel agreed this was the "best campaign" on the shortlist. The stylish, now iconic cover was just the first step on Yellowface's road to success. The publisher created an "unmissable" event, with everything from spray painted pavement motifs to fly-posters to enormous billboard advertising, and a sell-out nationwide tour. When crowning Yellowface the winner, our panel agreed they had "never read anything quite like it".

The Shortlist

Atlas: The Story of Pa Salt

Lucinda Riley and Harry Whittaker

Macmillan

Atlas: The Story of Pa Salt, co-authored by her son Harry Whittaker, is the eighth and final novel in Lucinda Riley’s Seven Sisters series. Macmillan partnered with the Tandem Collective to create a campaign of readalongs and influencer activity to re-engage fans of the series, while competition winners were invited to the launch at the Fitzrovia Chapel. Pre-orders were exceptionally strong and hardback sales marked a 43% growth on the previous HB in the series, with Atlas spending nine weeks in the Top Ten.

Iron Flame

Rebecca Yarros

Piatkus

The sequel to Fourth Wing was published six months after the phenomenal success of the first in the series and flew straight to the top of the charts, selling more than 57,000 copies in its first week. The Waterstones special edition became the fastest-selling pre-order title in a single day on the retailer’s website, selling out the entire print run in just seven hours. Piatkus responded to the fan love by running a competition in which the winner saw her artwork featured as endpapers in the UK edition.

So Late in the Day

Claire Keegan

Faber

Following the response to Small Things Like These in 2021, Faber decided to publish this standalone short story as a hardback to celebrate Claire Keegan as one of the most acclaimed authors of literary fiction writing today. Lead interviews in the Observer and the Irish Times created a significant publication splash. A special edition was created for indie bookshops, always passionate champions of the author, and four bookshops were selected for bespoke painted windows.

Tackle!

Jilly Cooper

Bantam Press

Transworld has been publishing Jilly Cooper for 40 years, establishing her as brand author with an iconic, instantly recognisable, jacket style, replicated for Tackle! with four colours only. The return of hero Rupert Campbell-Black generated huge interest, with the Mail running a total of 10 articles in total, and the Sunday Times five. The campaign, with the strapline “She shoots, she scores!”, encompassed nationwide outdoor print advertising, digital display ads and perfectly branded POS including an exclusive gift-with-purchase tote bag for indie bookshops.

The Ghost Ship

Kate Mosse

Mantle

This historical epic is the third in the Joubert Family Chronicles but also works as a standalone, telling a queer love story between two female pirates amid adventure on the high seas. In a no-stone-unturned PR campaign, Kate Mosse undertook 35 press interviews, 27 broadcast interviews and 58 in-person events including bookshop and festival appearances. The Ghost Ship also had its very own sea shanty, a folk interpretation of the book, which was listed on Spotify and played on BBC 6 Music, generating additional publicity.

Yellowface

Rebecca F. Kuang

The Borough Press

Known for her fantasy dark academia novel Babel, this sharp satire of the publishing industry was a change of direction for Rebecca Kuang. More than 80 cover designs were produced before the now-iconic eyes that formed the basis of the standout marketing campaign and the publisher’s biggest ever outdoor advertising for a first format, from 4,000 flyposters (two months before publication date) to the London Underground. Add in three special editions, for Waterstones, FairyLoot and Illumicrate, and Yellowface was the most unmissable novel of the year.