Foyles names works by Patel, Halliday and Said as Books of the Year

Foyles has named Sheena Patel’s I’m a Fan (Rough Trade Books) as its Fiction Book of the Year, alongside Thomas Halliday’s Otherlands (Allen Lane) as Non-Fiction Book of the Year and S F Said’s Tyger (David Fickling Books) as Children’s Book of the Year. 

The winners were revealed to bookshop customers at the first-ever Foyles Christmas Evening at the flagship Charing Cross Road shop in London on Thursday 1st December, followed by an evening of more than 30 author signings, plus readings and live music.  

Now in its seventh year, the Foyles Book of the Year awards seek to celebrate “the most essential” books across three core categories from a given year of publishing. The winners are chosen via a process involving bookseller recommendations and bestsellers, a staff vote, and the senior team. 

Gavin Read, marketing and communications manager at Foyles, said: “This year our winners take readers from the deep past to the present moment and beyond to new worlds; each is an immediate reading experience, and each is a landmark addition to our shelves that we believe deserves to stand the test of time.” 

Patel’s I’m a Fan is told in short, first-person chapters and is a single speaker’s experience of an unequal, unfaithful relationship with the man she wants to be with, and her obsession with another woman he is sleeping with. It has been hailed as “a devastating critique of power and access in relationships and social media, and their intersection with race, gender and class”. 

Foyles will sell an exclusive black and gold glitter edition, signed by Patel, numbered and limited to 1,000 copies. Patel said: “I am so pleased that I’m a Fan has been chosen as Foyles Fiction Book of the Year in the company of such a strong shortlist. Foyles is an institution and has been so supportive, for which I am very grateful.”  

Otherlands: A World in the Making is the first book by paleobiologist Halliday. Taking readers back through 500 million years of Earth’s history through 16 different times and places across a changing world, Otherlands extrapolates the lives and ecosystems of the deep past from the fossil record, conjuring prehistoric worlds in lush, descriptive language.

Foyles will sell signed editions of Otherlands with a free print. Halliday said: “How amazing to be chosen as the Foyles Non-Fiction Book of the Year! In a category that could have chosen from innumerable different genres, I’m glad that a series of tales about the distant past could be considered timely. The Earth is and has always been an extraordinary place, but its future paths are defined by our actions today, guided by our understanding of its past. Many, many thanks to the staff at Foyles for continually supporting Otherlands since publication, and for this unanticipated honour.”

Tyger by award-winning children’s author Said, illustrated by Dave McKean, is a chapter book for the 9-12 age range with “stunning” black and white illustrations. Tyger is set in an alternate world where the British Empire still reigns. When the young Adam Alhambra meets with a talking Tyger, taking refuge in an abandoned building, he begins a journey that thrusts him amid the battle between eternal powers and the destiny of worlds – and Adam and his friend Zadie can only stand up for what is right by learning three powers that Tyger teaches them.  

On winning, Said commented: “When I was a child, my grandfather would sometimes take me to Foyles as a treat. It’s still where I go when I want to be reminded of why I love books and bookshops. So it means the world to me to learn that Tyger is the Foyles Children’s Book of the Year 2022 – thank you so much!” 

McKean added: “It’s always great when a book finds itself illuminated by a little spotlight of attention in this oversaturated media forest, so a big thank you to Foyles for allowing the Tyger to burn bright.”