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Blackwell's has revealed its contenders for its 2019 Book of the Year, with the all-female shortlist including titles by Booker shortlistee Elif Shafak and Candice Carty-Williams.
Booksellers voted for titles across four categories - fiction, non-fiction, children's and debut - with the shortlist dominated by Peguin Random House titlles.
Shafak wins fiction book of the year with Booker-shortlisted 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World (Viking) while Carty-Williams scores a nod for Orion and triumphs in the debut category with Queenie (Trapeze).
Royal Society Science Book Prize-winning Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez (Chatto & Windus) is named non-fiction book of the year and Robin Stevens tops the children's book of the year vote with Top Marks for Murder (Puffin).
Blackwell's Oxford Westgate manager Charlie Young said: "I’m proud that Blackwell’s has come up with these four books as our Books of the Year and, incidentally, it’s notable that we have an all-woman shortlist this year. I can’t wait to find out who the overall winner is."
The four titles will now go head-to-head, with Blackwell's booksellers from across the UK choosing the overall Blackwell’s Book of the Year. The winner will be announced on Friday 6th December.
Last year's prize was awarded to former Blackwell's bookseller Daisy Johnson for her "outstanding" Man Booker-shortlisted novel Everything Under (Jonathan Cape).
Blackwell's trade buying manager Katherine Fry said: "It has been a great joy counting up the votes and announcing the category winners in our Blackwell’s Books of the Year and we’re now looking forward to finding out which book our booksellers select as their overall book of the year. We had extraordinary success with sales of last year’s winner, Everything Under by Daisy Johnson, which was produced as an exclusive and beautiful Blackwell’s paperback edition."