Virginia Evans is the inaugural winner of the James Patterson & Bookshop.org Prize, given to a debut English-language book, for her novel, The Correspondent.
Evans’ novel, published last May by Crown, follows an irascible woman who spends her days writing letters to a variety of people and is forced to come to terms with a painful time in her life. A critic for Kirkus called the novel “an affecting portrait of a prickly woman.”
The novel won the PEN/Hemingway Award and was longlisted for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, the Women’s Prize for Fiction, and the Andrew Carnegie Medal.
The runner-up for the James Patterson & Bookshop.org Prize was The Lilac People by Milo Todd, a novel about a transgender man in World War II–era Berlin. Also shortlisted for the award were Sarah Aziza for The Hollow Half, Venessa Vida Kelley for When the Tides Held the Moon, and Joss Richard for It’s Different This Time.
The establishment of the James Patterson & Bookshop.org Prize, a collaboration between the prolific author and the online marketplace that partners with independent bookstores, was announced last September. Nominations for the prize are made by booksellers at indie retailers, who also select the winner. The prize comes with a cash award of $15,000, with $10,000 going to the runner-up.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
