Winners and shortlisted titles of the 2023 the Indie Book Awards are now available in the Vision Australia Library catalogue.
Entries for the awards are both nominated and judged by independent book sellers and categories included fiction, debut fiction and non-fiction.
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Overall winner
Runt by Craig Silvey (also Children’s Book winner)
When a greedy local landowner puts Annie Shearer’s family's home at risk, Annie directs her dog Runt's extraordinary talents towards a different pursuit - winning at the lucrative Krumpets Dog Show in London. With all eyes on them, Annie and Runt must beat the odds and the fastest dogs in the world to save her farm
Fiction
Winner
Horse by Geraldine Brooks
An enthralling novel and a gripping reckoning with the legacy of enslavement and racism in America.
Shortlisted
Seven Skins of Esther Wilding by Holly Ringland
To seek the truth about her sister's death, Esther reluctantly follows the trail of the stories Aura left behind: seven fairy tales about selkies, swans and women, alongside cryptic verses Aura wrote and had secretly tattooed on her body.
Limberlost by Robbi Arnott
Ned falls for Callie, the tough, capable sister of his best friend, and together they learn the lessons of love, loss, and hardship. When a storm decimates the Limberlost crop and shakes the orchard's future, Ned must decide what to protect: his childhood dreams, or the people and the land that surround him...
Seeing Other People by Diana Reid
Best friends Eleanor and Charlie are finally ready to pursue their dreams-if only they can work out what it is they really want. When principles and desires clash, they’re forced to ask: where is the line between self-love and selfishness?
Non-Fiction
Winner
The Book of Roads and Kingdoms by Richard Fidler
The story of the medieval wanderers who travelled out to the edges of the known world during Islam's fabled Golden Age—an era when the caliphs of Baghdad presided over a dominion greater than the Roman Empire at its peak, stretching from North Africa to India.
Short listed
Ninth Life of a Diamond Miner: A Memoir by Grace Tame
this book is sharply intelligent, deeply felt, wildly unexpected and often blisteringly funny. And, as with all her work, it offers a constructive and optimistic vision for a better future for all of us
The First Astronomers: How Indigenous Elders Read the Stars by Duane Hamacher (not available at the Library).
Guided by six First Nations Elders, Duane Hamacher takes us on a journey across space and time to reveal the wisdom of the first astronomers.
Nothing Bad Ever Happens Here by Heather Rose
A deeply personal collection filled with reflections on love, death, creativity and healing, from the award-winning author of Bruny and The Museum of Modern Love.
Debut Fiction
Winner
All That’s Left Unsaid by Tracey Lien – Currently not available at the library.
Both a study of the effects of inherited trauma and social discrimination, and a compulsively readable literary thriller that expertly holds the reader in its grip until the final page.
Short listed
Wake by Shelley Burr.
Since the disappearance of her sister, Mina McCreery's life has been defined by the intense public interest in the case. When Lane, a private investigator, reinvestigate the case, his unconventional methods show promise, but he has his own motivations for wanting to solve the case, and his obsession with the answer will ultimately risk both their lives.
Son of Sin by Omar Sakr
An estranged father. An abused and abusive mother. An army of relatives. A tapestry of violence, woven across generations and geographies, from Turkey to Lebanon to Western Sydney. This is the legacy left to Jamal Smith, a young queer Muslim trying to escape a past in which memory and rumour trace ugly shapes in the dark.
Dirt Town by Hayley Scrivenor.
On a sweltering Friday afternoon in Durton, best friends Ronnie and Esther leave school together. Esther never makes it home. Ronnie's going to find her, she has a plan. Lewis will help but he can't reveal what he saw that afternoon at the creek without exposing his own secret.
Young Adult
Winner
The Brink by Holden Sheppard.
A group of school-leavers: free at last, ready to party, expectations high. A remote island on the Western Australian coast wasn't exactly the plan, but they're not going to let that hold them back. But the party takes a dangerous turn when a man is found dead on the beach
Unnecessary Drama by Nina Kenwood.
Eighteen-year-old Brooke always follows the rules--and she plans to keep it that way during her first year of university. Her new share house is rules-lite. But 'no unnecessary drama' means no fights, tension, or romance between housemates. When one of her housemates turns out to be Jesse, her high-school nemesis, Brooke is nervously confident she can handle it. but it turns out Jesse isn't so easy to ignore.