Books of the Year FICTION: DÉBUT
WINNER LULLABY LEÏLA SLIMANI, TRANSLATED BY SAM TAYLOR FABER & FABER
“Beautifully written”… “dark and nuanced”… “confident and accomplished”: the judges of the British Book Awards were as captivated by Leïla Slimani’s Lullaby as critics and the 170,000 people who bought it in its various formats in 2018. A little-known début author in translation didn’t seem the most
promising acquisition for Faber & Faber in commercial terms. But the claustrophobic tension and mounting dread—brilliantly preserved by Sam Taylor’s sensitive translation—engrossed retailers, reviewers and readers in turn.
This was a book that traversed genres and that hit the sweet
spot between literary and commercial fiction. Pitched at first into psychological thriller territory as the French Gone Girl, it appealed to horror and literary fans alike, and seemed to capture the zeitgeist of middle-class parental angst, without being exploitative or cynical. Faber published it with great passion, with packaging and promotion that appealed to a wide range of readers and an energetic publicity campaign. For a début author Slimani proved to be a superb promoter too, and has laid the foundations for potentially even greater sales for future titles. Lullaby contributed to a remarkable 2018 for Faber, which also
published the Book of the Year, Sally Rooney’s Normal People, and scooped the title of Independent Publisher of the Year. “Faber did an incredible job of launching Lullaby with such confidence and gusto,” said the judges. “To get that kind of coverage and those kind of sales from a writer in translation and with no UK profile is an extraordinary achievement.”
SHORTLIST
THE MERMAID AND MRS HANCOCK IMOGEN HERMES GOWAR HARVILL SECKER Bestselling début of 2018 and earned the Publicity Campaign of the Year
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NEVER GREENER RUTH JONES BANTAM PRESS Turned an actor and screenwriter into an author and was named W H Smith Fiction Book of the Year
THE TATTOOIST OF AUSCHWITZ HEATHER MORRIS ZAFFRE Shifted 370,000 copies through the TCM in 2018, and sales are rolling on this year
DEAR MRS BIRD A J PEARCE PICADOR Heartwarming début story about courage and love in the face of adversity that generated huge support from Pan Macmillan
THE SEVEN DEATHS OF EVELYN HARDCASTLE STUART TURTON RAVEN BOOKS Hard-to-categorise novel that took the Costa First Novel Award and helped Raven start with a bang
THE BRITISH BOOK AWARDS WINNERS 2019
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