Award Winning Books of 2023!

Posted On December 26, 2023

Hi Readers! It is that time of the year again! With a very busy December, I won’t be able to do everything like usual, but I am going to do the basics and share the best 12 books I read, best movies and web series I watched and then share the 2024 reading templates! Here is the annual ritual where I collate all the books that won major awards in 2023, which includes The Nobel Prize in Literature, The Pulitzer Prize, The International Booker Prize, The Booker Prize, Women’s Prize for Literature, JCB Prize for Literature, National Book Awards, , British Book Awards, The Walter Scott Prize, Tata Literature Live Awards and lastly Goodreads Choice Awards. I hope you get to pick your next read from this very long list of award winning book recommendations! Whether you like fiction or any specific sub genres within fiction or nonfiction, you will find a book in this list!

Please note that wherever there is only one winner, I have added the blurb from Goodreads.

If you want to check the previous years award winning books, you can read them here: 2022, 2021, 2020!

~~THE NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE~~

Jon Fosse won the Nobel Prize in Literature “for his innovative plays and prose which give voice to the unsayable.” The Norwegian author is best known for his Septology books.

~~THE PULITZER PRIZE~~

WINNER for FICTION

Demon Copperhead, by Barbara Kingsolver

Trust, by Hernan Diaz (Review here!)

FINALISTS

The Immortal King Rao, by Vauhini Vara (W. W. Norton & Company)

WINNER for DRAMA

English, by Sanaz Toossi

FINALISTS

On Sugarland, by Aleshea Harris

The Far Country, by Lloyd Suh

WINNER for HISTORY

Freedom’s Dominion: A Saga of White Resistance to Federal Power, by Jefferson Cowie

FINALISTS

Seeing Red: Indigenous Land, American Expansion, and the Political Economy of Plunder in North America, by Michael John Witgen

Watergate: A New History, by Garrett M. Graff

WINNER for BIOGRAPHY

G-Man: J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century, by Beverly Gage

FINALISTS

His Name Is George Floyd: One Man’s Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice, by Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa

Mr. B: George Balanchine’s 20th Century, by Jennifer Homans

WINNER for MEMOIR OR AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Stay True, by Hua Hsu

FINALISTS

Easy Beauty: A Memoir, by Chloé Cooper Jones

The Man Who Could Move Clouds: A Memoir, by Ingrid Rojas Contreras

WINNER for POETRY

Then the War: And Selected Poems, 2007-2020, by Carl Phillips

FINALISTS

Blood Snow, by dg nanouk okpik

Still Life, by the late Jay Hopler

WINNER for GENERAL NONFICTION

His Name Is George Floyd: One Man’s Life and the Struggle for Racial Justice, by Robert Samuels and Toluse Olorunnipa

FINALISTS

Kingdom of Characters: The Language Revolution That Made China Modern, by Jing Tsu

Sounds Wild and Broken: Sonic Marvels, Evolution’s Creativity, and the Crisis of Sensory Extinction, by David George Haskell

Under the Skin: The Hidden Toll of Racism on American Lives and on the Health of Our Nation, by Linda Villarosa

~~THE INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE~~

WINNER

Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov translated by Angela Rodel

Award-winning Bulgarian author Georgi Gospodinov has enthralled readers around the world with his labyrinth-like, Kafkaesque tales of contemporary Europe.

In Time Shelter, an enigmatic flâneur named Gaustine opens a “clinic for the past” that offers a promising treatment for Alzheimer’s sufferers: each floor reproduces a decade in minute detail, transporting patients back in time. As Gaustine’s assistant, the unnamed narrator is tasked with collecting the flotsam and jetsam of the past, from 1960s furniture and 1940s shirt buttons to scents and even afternoon light. But as the rooms become more convincing, an increasing number of healthy people seek out the clinic as a “time shelter”—a development that results in an unexpected conundrum when the past begins to invade the present. Intricately crafted, and eloquently translated by Angela Rodel, Time Shelter announces Gospodinov to American readers as an essential voice in international literature.

THE SHORTLIST

Still Born (Review here!)

Standing Heavy

Time Shelter

The Gospel According to the New World

Whale

Boulder

THE LONGLIST

Ninth Building

A System So Magnificent It Is Blinding

Still Born

Pyre

While We Were Dreaming

The Birthday Party

Jimi Hendrix Live in Lviv

Is Mother Dead

Standing Heavy

Time Shelter

The Gospel According to the New World

Whale

Boulder

~~THE BOOKER PRIZE~~

WINNER

Prophet Song by Paul Lynch

A fearless portrait of a society on the brink as a mother faces a terrible choice, from an internationally award-winning author

On a dark, wet evening in Dublin, scientist and mother-of-four Eilish Stack answers her front door to find the GNSB on her step. Two officers from Ireland’s newly formed secret police are here to interrogate her husband, a trade unionist.

Ireland is falling apart. The country is in the grip of a government turning towards tyranny and Eilish can only watch helplessly as the world she knew disappears. When first her husband and then her eldest son vanish, Eilish finds herself caught within the nightmare logic of a collapsing society.

How far will she go to save her family? And what – or who – is she willing to leave behind?

Exhilarating, terrifying and propulsive, Prophet Song is a work of breathtaking originality, offering a devastating vision of a country at war and a deeply human portrait of a mother’s fight to hold her family together.

THE SHORTLIST

The Bee Sting

Western Lane

Prophet Song

This Other Eden

If I Survive You

Study for Obedience

THE LONGLIST

The House of Doors

The Bee Sting

Western Lane

In Ascension

Prophet Song

All the Little Bird-Hearts

Pearl

This Other Eden

How to Build a Boat

If I Survive You

Study for Obedience

Old God’s Time

A Spell of Good Things

~~WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR FICTION~~

WINNER

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

“Anyone will tell you the born of this world are marked from the get-out, win or lose.”

Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, this is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father’s good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. In a plot that never pauses for breath, relayed in his own unsparing voice, he braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. Through all of it, he reckons with his own invisibility in a popular culture where even the superheroes have abandoned rural people in favor of cities.

Many generations ago, Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield from his experience as a survivor of institutional poverty and its damages to children in his society. Those problems have yet to be solved in ours. Dickens is not a prerequisite for readers of this novel, but he provided its inspiration. In transposing a Victorian epic novel to the contemporary American South, Barbara Kingsolver enlists Dickens’ anger and compassion, and above all, his faith in the transformative powers of a good story. Demon Copperhead speaks for a new generation of lost boys, and all those born into beautiful, cursed places they can’t imagine leaving behind.

THE SHORTLIST

Black Butterflies by Priscilla Morris

Pod by Laline Paull

Fire Rush by Jacqueline Crooks

Trespasses by Louise Kennedy

The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

THE LONGLIST

Black Butterflies by Priscilla Morris

Children of Paradise by Camilla Grudova

Cursed Bread by Sophie Mackintosh

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

Fire Rush by Jacqueline Crooks

Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo

Homesick by Jennifer Croft

I’m a Fan by Sheena Patel

Memphis by Tara M. Stringfellow

Pod by Laline Paull

Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes

The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff

The Dog of the North by Elizabeth McKenzie

The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell

Trespasses by Louise Kennedy

Wandering Souls by Cecile Pin

~~JCB PRIZE FOR LITERATURE~~

WINNER

Fire Bird by Perumal Murugan

Fire Bird is a masterfully crafted tale of one man’s search for the elusive concept of permanence. Muthu has his world turned upside down when his father divides the family land, leaving him with practically nothing and causing irreparable damage to his family’s bonds. Through the unscrupulous actions of his once-revered eldest brother, Muthu is forced to leave his once-perfect world behind and seek out a new life for himself, his wife and his children.

In this transcendental novel, Perumal Murugan draws from his own life experiences of displacement and movement, and explores the fragility of our fundamental attraction to permanence and our ultimately futile efforts to attain it. Translated from the nearly untranslatable Aalandapatchi , which alludes to a mystical bird in Tamil, the titular fire bird perfectly encapsulates the illusory and migratory nature of this pursuit.

Fire Bird is a thought-provoking and beautifully written exploration of the human desire for stability in an ever-changing world.

THE SHORTLIST

The Secret of More by Tejaswini Apte-Rahm

The Nemesis by Manoranjan Byapari, translated from the Bengali by V. Ramaswamy

Fire Bird by Perumal Murugan, translated from the Tamil by Janani Kannan

Mansur by Vikramajit Ram

I Named my Sister Silence by Manoj Rupda, translated from the Hindi by Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar

THE LONGLIST

The Secret of More, Tejaswini Apte-Rahm

The Nemesis, Manoranjan Byapari, translated from the Bengali by V Ramaswamy

The East Indian, Brinda Charry

Simsim, Geet Chaturvedi, translated from the Hindi by Anita Gopalan

Fire Bird, Perumal Murugan, translated from the Tamil by Janani Kannan

Everything the Light Touches, Janice Pariat

Mansur, Vikramjit Ram

I Named my Sister Silence, Manoj Rupda, translated from the Hindi by Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar

The Colony of Shadows, Bikram Sharma

Manjhi’s Mayhem, Tanuj Solanki

~~NATIONAL BOOK AWARDS~~

WINNER in FICTION

Blackouts by Justin Torres

FINALISTS

Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

Temple Folk by Aaliyah Bilal

This Other Edenby Paul Harding

The End of Drum-Time by Hanna Pylväinen

WINNER in NONFICTION

The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History by Ned Blackhawk

FINALISTS

Liliana’s Invincible Summer: A Sister’s Search for Justice by Cristina Rivera Garza

Ordinary Notes by Christina Sharpe

We Could Have Been Friends, My Father and I: A Palestinian Memoir by Raja Shehadeh

Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World by John Vaillant

WINNER in POETRY

from unincorporated territory [åmot] by Craig Santos Perez

FINALISTS

How to Communicate by John Lee Clark

suddenly we by Evie Shockley

Tripas by Brandon Som

From From by Monica Youn

WINNER in TRASNLATED LITERATURE

The Words That Remain by Stênio Gardel, Bruna Dantas Lobato

FINALISTS

Cursed Bunny by Bora Chung, Anton Hur (Review here!)

Beyond the Door of No Return by David Diop, Sam Taylor

Abyss by Pilar Quintana, Lisa Dillman

On a Woman’s Madness by Astrid Roemer, Lucy Scott

WINNER in YOUNG PEOPLE’S LITERATURE

A First Time for Everything by Dan Santat

FINALISTS

Gather by Kenneth M. Cadow

Huda F Cares? by Huda Fahmy

Big by Vashti Harrison

The Lost Year: A Survival Story of the Ukrainian Famine by Katherine Marsh

~~BRITISH BOOK AWARDS~~

FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR WINNER

Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: an Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution: Exclusive Edition by R.F. Kuang

DEBUT FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR WINNER

Trespasses: Exclusive Edition by Louise Kennedy

CRIME & THRILLER BOOK OF THE YEAR WINNER

The Twyford Code by Janice Hallett

NON-FICTION LIFESTYLE BOOK OF THE YEAR WINNER

Menopausing: The Positive Roadmap to Your Second Spring by Davina McCall, Dr. Naomi Potter

NON-FICTION NARRATIVE BOOK OF THE YEAR WINNER

Super-Infinite by Katherine Rundell

PAGETURNER BOOK OF THE YEAR WINNER

Verity by Colleen Hoover (Review here!)

THE DISCOVER BOOK OF THE YEAR WINNER

I’m a Fan by Sheena Patel

~~THE WALTER SCOTT PRIZE~~

WINNER

These Days by Lucy Caldwell

Two sisters, four nights, one city.

April, 1941. Belfast has escaped the worst of the war — so far. Over the next two months, it’s going to be destroyed from above, so that people will say, in horror, My God, Belfast is finished.

Many won’t make it through, and no one who does will remain unchanged.

Following the lives of sisters Emma and Audrey — one engaged to be married, the other in a secret relationship with another woman — as they try to survive the horrors of the four nights of bombing which were the Belfast Blitz, These Days is a timeless and heart-breaking novel about living under duress, about family, and about how we try to stay true to ourselves.

THE SHORTLIST

These Days by Lucy Caldwell

The Geometer Lobachevsky by Adrian Duncan

Act Of Oblivion by Robert Harris

The Chosen by Elizabeth Lowry

The Sun Walks Down by Fiona Mcfarlane

Ancestry by Simon Mawer

I Am Not Your Eve by Devika Ponnambalam

THE LONGLIST

The Romantic by William Boyd

These Days by Lucy Caldwell

My Name Is Yip by Paddy Crewe

The Geometer Lobachevsky by Adrian Duncan

Act Of Oblivion by Robert Harris

The Secret Diaries Of Charles Ignatius Sancho by Paterson Joseph

The Chosen by Elizabeth Lowry

The Second Sight Of Zachary Cloudesley by Sean Lusk

The Sun Walks Down by Fiona Mcfarlane

Ancestry by Simon Mawer

I Am Not Your Eve by Devika Ponnambalam

The Settlement by Jock Serong

~~TATA LITERATURE LIVE AWARD~~

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

C S Lakshmi (Ambai)

POET LAUREATE AWARD

Mamang Dai

BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD – FICTION

The Secret of More by Tejaswini Apte-Rahm

BOOK OF THE YEAR AWARD – NONFICTION

Raw Umber by Sara Rai

FIRST BOOK AWARD – FICTION (DEBUT)

The Woman Who Climbed Trees by Smriti Ravindra

FIRST BOOK AWARD – NONFICTION (DEBUT)

Vajpayee: The ascent of the Hindu Right, 1924-1977 by Abhishek Choudhary

BUSINESS BOOK AWARD

Working To Restore: Why We Do Business In The Regenerative Era by Esha Chhabra

PUBLISHER OF THE YEAR AWARD

Pan Macmillan India

ROTARY WRITING FOR PEACE AWARD

Sanjoy Hazarika

~~GOODREADS CHOICE AWARDS~~

WINNER in FICTION

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang (Review here!)

WINNER in MYSTERY & THRILLER

The Housemaid’s Secret by Freida McFadden

WINNER in HISTORICAL FICTION

Weyward by Emilia Hart

WINNER in FANTASY

Hell Bent by Leigh Bardugo

WINNER in ROMANCE

Happy Place by Emily Henry (Review here!)

WINNER in ROMANTASY

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

WINNER in SCIENCE FICTION

In the Lives of Puppets by T.J. Klune

WINNER in HORROR

Holly by Stephen King

WINNER in HUMOR

Being Henry: The Fonz . . . and Beyond by Henry Winkler

WINNER in NONFICTION

Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond

WINNER in MEMOIR & AUTOBIOGRAPHY

The Woman in Me by Britney Spears

WINNER in HISTORY & BIOGRAPHY

The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder by David Grann

WINNER in DEBUT NOVEL

Weyward by Emilia Hart

WINNER in YOUNG ADULT FICTION

Check & Mate by Ali Hazelwood

WINNER in YOUNG ADULT FANTASY & SCIENCE FICTION

Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross

That is all, folks! Happy reading!

Until next time,