The Indie Awards Chosen by Australian independent booksellers, this new $19,000 prize will honour an Australian author for the best book of the past twelve months.

The award is being managed by Leading Edge Books, a group of independent bookstores with member stores across Australia, both metropolitan and regional, including many of Australia's iconic independent bookshops. The award demonstrates independent booksellers' commitment to Australian books and writers, with over 120 bookshops working together to sponsor this annual award.

Tim Winton's, Breath , Wins the Inaugural $19,000 Australian ‘Indie’ Award'

breath_cover 7th October- Australia’s independent booksellers have awarded the 2008 Indie Award to Tim Winton for his novel Breath. The $19,000 prize for the Best Australian Book of the past 12 months has been donated entirely by over 120 independent booksellers across the country, underlining their commitment to Australian books and writers. Tim Winton said independent booksellers have supported him throughout his career:

“I’m very pleased to have had the support of independent booksellers for the last 25 years and I've never felt that more vividly than this year. There are few countries in the world where a literary novel from a regional writer will be embraced so widely in the local book trade and fewer still where that novel can reach the widest possible audience with the aid of small, grass roots and independent bookshops.

People don't always realize that independent bookselling has become endangered elsewhere in the English-speaking world while here at home independents are a significant slice of the trade. Faced, as we are, with yet another blundering assault on the book industry, it's worth remembering that a vibrant book culture has flowered here despite immense geographical, logistical and historical challenges. Something so hard-won shouldn't be squandered.”

Tim Winton won the Indie Award from a shortlist of four titles in the categories of Fiction, Debut Fiction (Toni Jordan’s Addition), Non Fiction (Don Watson’s American Journeys) and Children’s Book (Shaun Tan’s Tales from Outer Suburbia). These four titles were shortlisted from over 100 titles submitted by Australian publishers in May 2008.

Tim said he was “honoured to have won the inaugural award and wanted to thank all those booksellers who still take books as personally as they take their business. We'd be buggered without you.”

The Indie Award has been managed by Leading Edge Books, a large group of independent bookstores with member stores across Australia, both metropolitan and regional, including many of Australia’s iconic independent bookshops. Leading Edge Books General Manager Chris Burgess says the award is designed to remind people of the key role of independent bookshops.

“Independent bookshops continue to retain their market share at over 20% of all books sold in Australia. This compares very favourably with under 10% in the UK and under 5% in the US. Independent bookstores hold a special place in the hearts of their customers as havens of enjoyment, stimulation and relaxation in an ever-busier world. We feel the launch of The Indie Award sees them take their rightful place in the spotlight as key supporters of Australian authors. Their incredible passion and knowledge of books makes them uniquely placed to judge and recommend the best Australian books of the past year to their customers and the general reading public.”

Other Shortlisted

Breath Book Description and Judges Comments

Tim Winton's Breath Website

Tim Winton on Face Book

Reviews

Windsor Star review of Breath Read Robert Wiersema's review of Breath in Canada's Windsor Star

New York Review of Books reviews Breath Read Cathleen Schine's review of Breath in the NYRB

Tim Winton interview – the Guardian Read an extensive interview with Tim Winton in the Guardian

Ian Mcgillis reviews Breath for Canadian press Read Ian Mcgillis' review of Breath in the Montreal Gazette and the Calgary Herald

Winnipeg Free Press reviews Breath Read Helen Falding's review of Breath in the Winnipeg Free Press

Breath reviewed in Canada's National Post Read the National Post review of Breath

Bookmunch reviews Breath Read what UK literary bloggers Bookmunch thought of Breath

Washington Post review of Breath Read Carolyn See's review of Breath in the Washington Post

German edition of Breath Luchterhand publish the German edition of Breath - June 2008

New York Times Sunday Book Review - Editor's Choice Read Jennifer Schuessler's review of Breath

2008 Shortlist

AUSTRALIA’S INDEPENDENT BOOKSELLERS SHORT LIST WINNERS FOR THE INAUGURAL ‘INDIE’ AWARD Australia’s independent booksellers have selected the four short listed titles for their major new prize, The Indie Award. The $19,000 prize will honour an Australian author for the best book of the past twelve months, with the winner to be chosen by independent booksellers and announced on Monday 6th October 2008.

The four shortlisted titles for the inaugural Indie Award are:

Debut Fiction: Addition by Toni Jordan (Text Publishing) Judges Comments: It’s a love story with a difference, sensitive and bold in its approach to mental illness, it is both entertaining and thought provoking…This remarkable novel is cleaver, funny and tender; it ticks all the right boxes and will appeal to a broad readership…I believe Jordan is a fresh, brave and clever new voice in Australian literature who will continue to bring quality work to the reading public…

Book Description:

Addition is novel about being in love with numbers. The main character is Grace Vandenburg - damaged and screwy, but not a victim: she's quick-witted, flirtatious and headstrong. She's not the least bit sentimental but she may be about to lose count of the number of ways she can fall in love. Debut novel from an Australian author.

Fiction: Breath by Tim Winton (Penguin Group Australia) Judges Comments: The rhythm of breathing and ebb and flow of the ocean pervade every sentence of Winton's recent masterpiece...We watch, mesmerized, with baited breath, the unfolding of a warm, dark drama as age and youth, fear and courage, friendship and bitter anger play out in an elemental story amongst cave sized waves and intense human encounters that engulf and churn souls in a blinding spray…

Book Description:

When paramedic Bruce Pike arrives too late to save a boy found hanged in his bedroom he senses immediately that this lonely death is an accident. Pike knows the difference between suicide and misadventure. He understands only too well the forces that can propel a kid toward oblivion. Not just because he's an ambulanceman but because of the life he's lived, the boy he once was, addicted to extremes, flirting with death, pushing every boundary in the struggle to be extraordinary, barely knowing where or how to stop. So begins a story about the damage you do to yourself when you're young and think you're immortal. In his first novel for seven years, Tim Winton has achieved a new level of mastery. Breath confirms him as one of the world's finest storytellers, whose work is both accessible and profound, relentlessly gripping and deeply moving.

Non - Fiction: American Journeys by Don Watson (Random House Australia) Judges Comments: Watson’s American road trip is all you would expect – immensely readable, witty and acerbic – all recorded with a fine ear and a sharp pen…A wonderful, witty insight into what makes American the country we love and hate, I think this is Watson's best book…Through his wonderful prose Watson really draws us into his experiences and brings to life the many contrasts of what it is that makes America the nation it is, warts and all…

Book Description:

In May 2005, on a sudden impulse, Don Watson took a train called The Southwest Chief from Chicago to Los Angeles: like a woodworm, he thought, drilling a tiny groove into the bark of the republic. Long before it reached LA, Watson had decided to catch more trains to more places in America. The Southwest Chief had cast an irresistible spell: long days with the American landscape and American towns and American history unfolding on the outside, while on the inside a tiny particle of the American people talked among themselves. Here was a unique and seductive means of peering into the United States. Five months later, Watson had returned with a plan to travel everywhere that a train could take him. The result is this charming, witty and above all fascinating book -- an extraordinary portrait of the most powerful democracy on earth, home to the best and worst of everything. This is no rant about America -- there have been many such books in recent years -- more an authentic snapshot of what America is and what it means. Here is Watsons reaction to the experience of American life laid bare, from frustration to fury, affection to amusement, anger to anxiety.Only in America are the most extreme contradictions possible. Only with Don Watson as our guide can we see the true character of Uncle Sam.

Children’s Book: Tales from Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan (Allen & Unwin) Judges Comments: The text and the illustrations have a depth that will reach a wide audience on many different levels making it perfect and satisfying for not only children but also young adults and grown ups alike…The words and images blend seamlessly to create luminous tales that weeks later still make the reader smile…

Book Description:

Do you remember the water buffalo at the end of our street? Or the deep-sea diver we found near the underpass? Do you know why dogs bark in the middle of the night? Shaun Tan, creator of The Arrival, The Lost Thing and The Red Tree, reveals the quiet mysteries of everyday life: homemade pets, dangerous weddings, stranded sea mammals, tiny exchange students and secret rooms filled with darkness and delight. Fifteen intriguing illustrated stories about the mysteries that lurk below the surface of suburban life.