The Bookseller.com

2nd December 2008

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Némirovsky, Morpurgo win indie awards

17.12.07 Graeme Neill

Irène Némirovsky's posthumous Suite Française (Chatto) has been named the Independent Booksellers' Book of the Year. The inaugural award, which was organised by the Booksellers Association's Small Business Forum, was voted on by independent bookshops and their customers. Alone on a Wide Wide Sea by Michael Morpurgo (HarperCollins) won the children's award.

Independent members of the BA were invited to vote for a shortlist of 10 books from a longlist derived by indies' sales data. Customers were then able to vote on the shortlist between October and 10th December. The awards are part of the BA's larger Independent Booksellers Week, which will take place in early July 2008 and celebrate indies.

Némirovsky's daughter Denise Epstein said: "On behalf of my mother, Irène Némirovsky, I would like to express my immense gratitude to independent booksellers who have worked so hard to bring her talent such wide recognition, especially in Britain. It is thanks to the publishers, to you the booksellers, to its readers and to its translator that my mother's work has been able to cross international boundaries."

"I cherish my independence with a passion," added Morpurgo. "I cherish it as a writer. I cherish it with bookshops too. So it means a great deal to me to win this award, for I know that those who have chosen it are of an independent mind, and love books with a passion."

Graeme Neill Independents Booksellers Association