Galaxy National Book Awards nominations announced

October 17, 2011

The shortlists for the eleven categories of the Galaxy National Book Awards have been released and Jane Harris, Jennifer Egan, Marian Keyes, Haruki Murakami, William Boyd and the late Eva Ibbotson have all been nominated.

The winners of the prestigious awards will be announced on 4th November, with the ceremony broadcast in a six-part series on More4 between 13th November and 17th December.

Jane Harris's Gillespie and I, the follow up to Harris's critically acclaimed The Observations, has been nominated in the Popular Fiction Book of the Year category. The novel, set in 1930s London and Victorian Glasgow, relates elderly Harriet Baxter's friendship with the bohemian Gillespie family in her youth.

In the category of WHSmith Paperback of the Year, comes Marian Keyes's latest best-selling novel, The Brightest Star in the Sky, about the occupants of 66 Star Street in Dublin and the mysterious stranger who changes their lives forever.

Jennifer Egan and Haruki Murakami will be competing for the International Author of the Year award. Jennifer's nominated novel, A Visit From the Goon Squad won the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. It follows 13 individuals over fifty years, ranging from the San Francisco 1970s music scene to the pre-Internet nineties to a post-war future. Haruki Murakami has been nominated for his much-anticipated novel 1Q84, which is published in the UK on 18th October (Books 1 & 2) and 25th October (Book 3).

Eva Ibbotson has been nominated for the Children's Book of the Year award for her final book One Dog and His Boy - the story of Hal and Fleck and their grand canine adventure together.

Finally, Any Human Heart, William Boyd's story of the ordinary and yet extraordinary life of Logan Mountstuart, has been nominated in the audible.co.uk Audiobook of the Year category. Channel 4's adaptation of Any Human Heart starring Jim Broadbent and Matthew Macfadyen won the 2011 BAFTA for best Drama Serial.

The full list of categories and nominees can be seen at www.galaxynationalbookawards.com