Artist Lucy Steeds wins Waterstones Book of the Year Award | books

The Artist by Lucy Steeds has been named Waterstones Book of the Year.

The novel, which is set in 1920s Provence and blends mystery with romance, also won the Waterstones Prize for First Novel earlier this year and was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction.

At the beginning of the novel we meet English journalist Joseph, who visits the home of a talented but nervous painter who lives with his submissive niece, Etty. Joseph hopes to write a profile of the reclusive artist, but to his surprise he soon becomes a model. “A seductive blend of romance, mysteries and poetry, The Artist also offers a thoughtful interrogation of the value of art,” Christobel Kent wrote in The Guardian review of the novel.

Waterstones’ head of books, Pia Carvalho, described it as “a wonderful escape novel that seamlessly transports the reader into the sticky heat of sun-soaked southern France in the 1920s.” She added that Steeds is “a writer of an amazing and rare talent, and it has been a pleasure to see this booksellers’ favorite become a sensation.”

Meanwhile, The Café at the Edge of the Woods by Mickey Blaze has been named Children’s Book of the Year, having won the Children’s Prize in March. Padilla’s book, a pasta cookbook, was chosen as Gift of the Year.

The winners will receive “the full and committed support of Waterstones stores and booksellers across the UK”.

Alongside the three winning titles, the Book of the Year shortlist – made up of fiction, non-fiction and competing children’s books – included Ocean by David Attenborough and Colin Botfield, Cosmopolitan by Natasha Brown, and Donut Squad: Takeover the World! by Neil Cameron, Harvest Sunrise by Suzanne Collins, Craftland by James Fox, The Scholar of the Crow by Antonia Hodgson, Alice with Why by Anna James, Catabasis by R. F. Kuang, Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell, Leave Them Theory by Mel Robbins, Mother Mary Comes to Me by Arundhati Roy and Strange Pictures by Ukitsu.

The Book of the Year is chosen by a committee of Waterstones staff, who choose from a shortlist consisting of titles nominated by booksellers. Last year’s winner was Butter by Asako Yuzuki, while I Rebel by Ross Montgomery was named Children’s Book of the Year.