The Indie Lit Awards Winners

Yesterday, the winners of the Indie Lit Awards were announced. It has been my pleasure and privilege to read all the shortlisted books for the literary fiction category, and I feel like we came up with extremely worthy winners.

The overall winner in our category was ‘Safe From the Sea’ by Peter Geye and the panel was unanimous in praising the atmosphere, spare writing, and perfectly measured balance between setting and story. It’s about a family shattered by a dramatic tragedy and becoming reconciled by necessity and circumstance. A few characters, brought back together in a claustrophobic cabin by a frozen lake to confront their past and their future. It’s a little bit Marilynne Robinson, a little bit Anita Shreve. This is Peter’s debut novel and so there should be plenty more awesomeness to come.

Our runner up was the beautiful ‘Great House’ by Nicole Krauss which is almost the exact opposite of Safe From the Sea. An epic sweep over decades and continents rather than the intense focus on a few individuals. Multiple characters tell their stories and secrets – all linked to a mysterious desk which looms ominously over all their lives. I absolutely adored Krauss’s previous book ‘The History of Love’ and this very much lived up to my expectations. The writing is incredibly beautiful and powerful and if you are prepared to deal with ambiguity and never being certain about what the truth really is then this is the book for you.