World Literary Awards

← Back to Irish Book Awards

Irish Book Awards あいりっしゅ・ぶっく・あわーず

Edition 16 (2018)

Novel of the YearCrime Fiction Book of the YearBest Irish Published Book of the YearNon-Fiction Book of the YearCookbook of the YearPopular Fiction Book of the YearChildren's Book of the Year, JuniorChildren's Book of the Year, SeniorTeen & Young Adult Book of the YearSports Book of the YearNewcomer of the YearIrish Language Book of the YearLifestyle Book of the YearBiography of the YearAuthor of the YearShort Story of the YearPoem of the YearBookshop of the YearThe Last Word Listeners' Choice AwardNew Voices: The An Post Writing PrizeLifetime Achievement Award

Winners

6 people
Sally Rooney Winner

A novel following Connell and Marianne from school in the west of Ireland into university life. Through restrained dialogue and subtle psychological detail, it traces intimacy, miscommunication, class difference, and fragile self-worth.

A love story that follows two people over several years, capturing not only what they say but the silences between them.

100 pages
loveclasscoming of ageselfhood
Lynn Ruane Winner

A memoir tracing the author's childhood, drug use, teenage pregnancy, return to education, and path into public life. Through personal history, it speaks frankly about class, addiction, and young people left outside social systems.

A memoir about a woman who stops running from herself, faces her past, and finds a public voice for change.

288 pages
memoirclasseducationrecovery
Roger O'Reilly Excellence Award

An illustrated guide to lighthouses across Ireland. It presents their navigational function, coastal culture, history, and local character through both practical information and an evocative visual approach.

A book that portrays the lighthouses guarding Ireland's coast, together with the histories and memories of their places.

224 pages
lighthousescoastal culturearchitectureillustration
Emilie Pine Excellence Award

A collection of personal essays about family, addiction, the body, miscarriage, infertility, and pains that are often kept silent. By examining private experience with candor, it questions expectations placed on women to be strong and quiet.

An essay collection that turns difficult pain into language and brings hidden experience into the open.

183 pages
essayswomen's bodiesfamilyloss
Liz Nugent Winner

A psychological thriller about Cordelia, who has spent years on the French Riviera passing herself off as an English socialite. Beauty, lies, family wounds, and memories of flight gather beneath a glamorous surface until ruin breaks through.

A woman who has spent her life pretending to be someone else begins to unravel under the bright light of the Riviera.

384 pages
psychological thrillerdeceptionpast crimesfamily
Thomas Kinsella Lifetime Achievement Award