BOOKS OF THE YEAR FICTION


OVERVIEW Featuring both winners of the Booker Prize and four shortlisted books from across Penguin Random House,  shortlist showcases the mass-market success of  Themes this year generally focused on the issues facing the public today, from a mass identity crisis to “fake news”. All the titles were backed with lengthy, creative and often global campaigns which unsurprisingly resulted in huge commercial success across the board.


THE TESTAMENTS One of the most anticipated publishing events of the year, Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments benefited from a 10-month pre-publication campaign, a now-iconic jacket and a joint Booker win to close 2019 as the bestselling hard- back of the year, with 300,000 copies sold. Global coverage of the launch at Waterstones Piccadilly generated a literary, political and cultural moment.


GIRL, WOMAN, OTHER In 2019, Bernardine Evaristo became the first black woman to win the Booker Prize with her polyphonic novel Girl, Woman, Other, which follows the lives and struggles of 12 black British women. The publicity campaign aimed to break Evaristo’s work to a wider readership, culminating in a “revolutionary moment” (Guardian) for this much- admired literary novelist.


CILKA’S JOURNEY This sequel had to be handled with care if it wanted to reach the same levels of success as The Tattooist of Auschwitz, Heather Morris’ bestselling début. The true story followed Cilka Klein, the girl who saved Lale Sokolov, to a prison camp in Siberia. With a big consumer marketing push from Bonnier and by tapping into fans of the first book, Cilka’s Journey achieved huge sales.


PUBLISHERS 1 CHATTO & WINDUS 2 HAMISH HAMILTON 3 ZAFFRE 4 MICHAEL JOSEPH 5 HQ


6 PENGUIN RANDOM HOUSE CHILDRENS & DAVID FICKLING BOOKS


LIES LIES LIES The return to two characters from Adele Parks’ 2000 début, Playing Away, brought the first paperback number one of her career. This tale of marriage, secrets and addiction advan- tageously tapped into the public mood of mistrust, fake news and broken promises. HQ delivered a standout marketing and publicity campaign, which resulted in pre-orders up 65% on her previous novel.


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THE SECRET COMMONWEALTH The second volume in Philip Pullman’s The Book of Dust series returned to his beloved central character, but Lyra Silvertongue is now 20 years old. As the characters from His Dark Materials have aged, so have the readers, and this novel was positioned for new adult readers too. The book had fantastic reviews, and TCM sales of 220,000 copies.


THE GIVER OF STARS Inspired by a true story, Jojo Moyes’ latest is set in Depression-era America and follows five women who form a travelling library and are passionate about bringing books to everyone, something Moyes has in common with her characters: an exclusive edition was donated to every UK library. The novel has sold over 100,000 copies across all formats to date.


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