Whitehead, Sands and Alderman contend for BAMB Readers Awards

Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad (Fleet), Philippe Sands’ East West Street (W&N) and Naomi Alderman’s The Power (Viking) are among the books shortlisted across six categories for the 2017 Books Are My Bag (BAMB) Readers Awards, curated by booksellers and supported by National Book Tokens.

The award-winning writers are joined by numerous débuts, including author and York bookseller Fiona Mozley in the Breakthrough Author category. Her novel Elmet (John Murray Press) is also currently in the running for the Man Booker Prize.

Alan Staton, head of marketing and communications at the Booksellers Association, said: “The Books Are My Bag Readers Awards were greeted with an incredibly warm reception by the public, authors, booksellers and publishers last year, and we’re very excited to see what this year’s awards will bring. The shortlist is a fascinating insight into the books of the year, as decided by bookshops, and will make for an excellent reference list for those shopping for book lovers this Christmas.”

The public will now vote for a winning title from the shortlists (Non-fiction, Novel, Popular Fiction, Young Adult and Breakthrough Author). The Children’s (Middle Grade) category will this year be decided by children across the UK.

The winners will be named on 21st November.

The full list of books shortlisted is below:

Non Fiction

East West Street by Philippe Sands (Fleet)
Scribbles in the Margins by Daniel Gray (Bloomsbury)
The Adversary by Emmanuel Carrere (Vintage)
This is Going to Hurt by Adam Kay (Picador)
Travels with my Sketchbook by Chris Riddell (Macmillan Children's Books)
Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Renni Eddo-Lodge (Bloomsbury)
 
Novel
Birdcage Walk by Helen Dunmore (Windmill Books)
Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney (Faber)
Hot Milk by Deborah Levy (Penguin)
Swing Time by Zadie Smith (Penguin)
The End We Start From by Megan Hunter (Picador)
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
 
Popular Fiction

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman (HarperCollins)
How to Stop Time by Matt Haig (Canongate)
Munich by Robert Harris (Hutchinson)
The Dry by Jane Harper (Abacus)
The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan (Two Roads)
The Power by Naomi Alderman (Viking)
 
Young Adult (12-18)

Ink by Alice Broadway (Scholastic)
Piglettes by Clementine Beauvais
Release by Patrick Ness
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Things a Bright Girl Can Do by Sally Nicholls
Welcome to Nowhere by Elizabeth Laird (Macmillan Children's Books)
 
Middle Grade (7-11)

The Letters From the Lighthouse by Emma Carroll (Faber)
Moonlocket by Peter Bunzl (Usborne Publishing)
Radio Boy by Christian O’Connell (HarperCollins Children's Books)
The Explorer by Katherine Rundell, illustrated by Hannah Horn (Bloomsbury's Children's)
The Guggenheim Mystery by Robin Stevens & Siobhan Dowd (Puffin)
Who let the Gods Out by Maz Evans (Chicken House)
 
Breakthrough Author

Abir Mukherjee (A Necessary Evil)
Kate Tempest (The Bricks that Built the Houses)
Eduard Louis (The End of Eddy)
Mary Paulson-Ellis (The Other Mrs Walker)
Fiona Mozley (Elmet)
Harriet Cummings (We All Began as Strangers)