Irish authors lead the shortlist at the inaugural Nero Book Awards

Irish writers make up 50% of the shortlisted authors in the inaugural Caffe Nero Awards for Fiction and Debut Fiction, echoing the prominence of Irish authors in this year’s Booker Prize longlist and shortlist, where a third of the shortlist were Irish.

Of the eight shortlisted authors in both categories Fiction and Debut Fiction, four were Irish.

Paul Murray is shortlisted in the Fiction category for his acclaimed tragicomic novel The Bee Sting. The Bee Sting is also shortlisted for the Irish Novel of the Year Award, to be announced in Dublin tomorrow, and the Booker Prize, to be announced next Sunday.

Another shortlisted author on the fiction list was Waterford novelist Megan Nolan for Ordinary Human Failings, her second novel. Set in ’90s London, where ruthless tabloid hack Tom Hargreaves is seeking to further his career as a reporter. Hargreaves accidentally stumbles upon a “splash” – a child found dead on a London estate – whose parents are well known in the community. Ordinary Human Failings is a crime novel which has been listed by The Times, The Guardian and The Sunday Times as the book of 2023.

Nolan's debut novel, 'Acts of Desperation' was longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize and shortlisted for the Betty Trask Award for debut novels.

In the Debut Fiction Category there were two Irish nominees. Michael Magee’s Close to Home – which has already won the Rooney Prize for Literature 2023 and was shortlisted for the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize 2023 – is set in Belfast, deals working-class young man wrestling with masculinity and lack of opportunity. Magee is shortlisted for Newcomer of the Year at tomorrow’s Irish Book Awards.

Chloe Michelle Howarth’s Sunburn, which is also shortlisted for best Debut Fiction, is a coming-of-age novel dealing with a sapphic love story,  set in the West Cork countryside, where Howarth spent her childhood. She now lives in Brighton.

Interestingly, the Non Fiction category contained an all female shortlist,  three of them by debut authors Fern Brady, Freya Bromley and Victoria Smith.

Strong Female Character by the autistic Scottish comedian Fern Brady, and Hags by the feminist journalist Victoria Smith, both tackle misogyny and its intersections with factors of neurodiversity and age, respectively.

Undercurrent by the Cornish writer and poet Natasha Carthew – also the founder and artistic director of the Working Class Writers Festival who writes all her books exclusively outside – highlights the issue of rural poverty and a life defined by the beauty of nature. The Tidal Year, by Londoner Freya Bromley is an exploration of grief and the healing power of wild swimming. Bromley is the host of a podcast which shares its name with the book.

The Nero Book Awards are seen as filling the void left by the Costa Book Awards after their abrupt termination in 2022, having been awarded for 50 years since 1971, originally as the Whitbread Book Prizes. The Costa Book Awards were seen as awards given for both high literary merit and for works that were enjoyable reading, and their aim was to convey the enjoyment of reading to the widest possible audience. The Costa award was considered a more populist literary prize than the Booker Prize, which focuses on literary works.

The 2023 Nero Awards cover four categories: Fiction, Debut Fiction, Children's Fiction and Non-Fiction.

Speaking on the new prize, Gerry Ford, Founder and CEO of Caffè Nero commented: “The Nero Book Awards are important to Caffè Nero and to me because of our interest in bringing the arts, cultural programmes and intellectual pursuits to our coffee houses".

A winning title from each of the four categories will be announced on 16th January 2024 and, of those, one book will be selected as the overall winner – The Nero Gold Prize – by a final panel of judges and announced at a ceremony in late February 2024. Each of the category winners receives £5,000, with the overall Nero Gold Prize - Book of the Year winner receiving an additional £30,000.