By Harry Banham, Florrie Hulbert, Daisy Shayegan, and Grace Briggs-Jones
The 2024 Books Are My Bag Awards are organised by National Book Tokens. National Book Tokens were initially created in the 1920s as a response to people avoiding buying books as Christmas presents for fear that the receiver would dislike the book chosen. Over ninety years later, National Book Tokens remains one of the most prestigious literary companies. The Books Are My Bag Awards are curated by readers and booksellers and represent a variety of literary tastes in multiple forms of writing throughout the UK and Ireland. Let’s have a look at the winners for this year!
David Nicholls stole readers' hearts with One Day, which was adapted into a huge Hollywood blockbuster in 2011 and, more recently, earlier this year on Netflix. His latest novel, You Are Here, focuses on unlikely romantic heroes Michael, a separated 42-year-old geography teacher, and Marnie, a divorced 38-year-old copywriter, as they embark on a walking holiday across the Lake District. Nicholls, as usual, takes the ordinary and makes it anything but. Soggy socks and the pains of walking feature alongside contemplations of loneliness as one approaches middle age and the potential to find happiness. A heart-warming, comforting story written with humour and realism – it is no wonder booksellers and readers alike love this novel.
Holly Jackson has recreated the success of her bestselling series A Good Girl's Guide to Murder in her latest novel, The Reappearance of Rachel Price, which won the Young Adult Fiction category. As true-crime documentaries and podcasts have gained popularity, Jackson makes it a worthy subject for a young adult novel. Dark themes, including murder and kidnapping, make it compelling for both young adult and adult readers. Balancing tension, emotion and mystery, Jackson crafts a story that keeps readers hooked until the final page.
Lobster: and Other Things I’m learning to Love by Hollie McNish is 2024’s poetry winner. In this new collection, McNish interrogates how we have been taught to hate by the world around us. Exploring topics from how we feel about our bodies to our embarrassment over pleasure, this is a funny and soul-nourishing exercise in learning to love again.
The Children’s Fiction Prize goes to I Am Rebel by Ross Montgomery. This heartwarming adventure follows Rebel, the eponymous canine protagonist, as he determines to save his master, Tom, from the perils of war. Beautiful and moving, I Am Rebel is thrilling for all ages and captures so well the special bond between a dog and their human.
The winner of Breakthrough Author is rising star Asako Yuzuki. Born in Tokyo in 1981, Yuzuki grew up reading foreign literature but, during a serious illness in junior high, turned to Japanese literature after discovering Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto. She attended Rikkyo University, studying French literature before working for a confectionery maker – a job she left to focus on writing. In 2008, Yuzuki won the 88th All Yomimono Prize for New Writers with her debut story, Forget Me, Not Blue, about bullying in a Protestant all-girls school. Since then, her career has flourished: in 2011, her novel Nageki no bijo became a TV comedy series; in 2015, her book Akka’s Lunches was adapted into a drama; and in 2018, her novel Ōhi no kikan became an NHK radio drama.
Yuzuki has also been nominated multiple times for the Naoki Prize, including the 150th, 151st, 153rd, and 157th rounds, the latter with her book Butter, which is also shortlisted for Waterstones Book of the Year 2024! Butter is loosely based on the real case of the convicted con woman and serial killer Kanae Kijima, or “The Konkatsu Killer”. Combining suspense with sharp cultural critique, Butter explores sexism, obsession, and pleasure through the lens of a famed female chef and an investigative journalist, becoming a Japanese cult classic. Yuzuki’s literary star continues to rise, and we eagerly await her next achievement!
Not only has Abroad in Japan by Chris Broad clinched the win for Non-Fiction, but it has also won the hearts of readers and managed to secure Readers’ Choice. Many may know Chris from his YouTube channel ‘Abroad in Japan’, which recounts a decade of living in a foreign land. When Chris landed in a rural village in Japan, he didn’t speak the language and had no teaching experience, yet there he was to become an English teacher. What follows is a hilarious and insightful travelogue of Japan based on Chris’ countless misadventures, from missile incidents to love hotels! From the lush rice paddies to the neon-lit streets of Tokyo, Abroad in Japan is an extraordinary and informative journey of an Englishman’s experiences in the Land of the Rising Sun. The book is also featured on the Waterstones Book of the Year 2023 Shortlist, so it should be on your TBR list!