Recognising the best books from the last 12 months across Fiction, Non-Fiction, Debut Fiction and Children's Fiction, the Nero Book Awards have today announced the category shortlists. 

The Nero Book Awards are run as not-for-profit by Caffè Nero, the independent, family-owned coffee house group. The Awards are run in partnership with The Bookseller Association and Brunel University London. The mission of The Nero Book Awards is to direct readers of all ages and interests towards outstanding books and writers. The book awards are a part of a long-standing programme by Caffè Nero to sponsor and encourage the arts and culture in its coffee houses and the communities in which it operates.

The only set of multi-category awards open exclusively to writers based in the UK and Ireland, the Nero Book Awards helped to propel their inaugural winner, The Bee Sting by Paul Murray to a wider audience when the news was announced earlier this year. And so they progress to finding this year's winners. 

Award-winning authors, respected journalists, reputable booksellers and well-known industry professionals formed this year's panel of judges. The judges reviewed hundreds of books before deciding on the titles that make up the 2024 category shortlists.

The category judges have selected 16 books out of the hundreds of titles submitted. Winners for each of the four categories will be announced on the 14th January and from those, one book will be chosen as the overall winner, granted The Nero Gold Prize, Book of the Year by a final panel of judges. The Book of the Year announcement will take place at a ceremony on the 5th March 2025.

In this year's shortlist, 10 out of the 16 shortlisted books are written by women. More than half of the books in this year's shortlist are by debut authors. This year we also see an even split between books published by major publishing houses and independent presses. 

The category shortlists for The Nero Book Awards 2024 are:

Fiction Award Shortlist

Levitation For Beginners by Suzannah Dunn

The Hypocrite by Jo Hamya 

Lost in the Garden by Adam S Leslie

Heart, Be at Peace by Donal Ryan

Non-Fiction Award Shortlist

Pixel Flesh: How Toxic Beauty Culture Harms Women by Ellen Atlanta

An African History of Africa: From the Dawn of Humanity to Independence by Zeinab Badawi

Maurice and Maralyn: An Extraordinary True Story of Shipwreck, Survival and Love by Sophie Elmhirst

All That Glitters: A Story of Friendship, Fraud and Fine Art by Orlando Whitfield

Debut Fiction Award Shortlist

Wild Houses by Colin Barrett

Monumenta by Lara Haworth 

Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon 

No Small Thing by Orlaine McDonald

Children's Fiction Awards Shortlist

Bird Boy by Catherine Bruton 

How to Survive a Horror Movie by Scarlet Dunmore 

The Twelve written by Liz Hyder and illustrated by Tom De Freston

Chronicles of a Lizard Nobody written by Patrick Ness and illustrated by Tim Miller

To be eligible for the 2024 Nero Book Awards, books must have been first published in English in the UK or Ireland between the 1st of December 2023 and 30th of November 2024. At the time of entry, authors must have been alive and resident in the UK or Ireland for the past three years. Each of the category winners receives £5,000, with the overall Nero Gold Prize - Book of the Year winner receiving an additional £30,000.

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