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The Irish Book Awards Winners

The Irish Book Awards Winners

Celebrating the very best of Irish writing.

The An Post Irish Book Awards celebrate the very best of Irish writing. With the winners now announced, this year's books showcase an impressive range of talent across various categories, featuring brilliant books by Irish writers, poets, illustrators, and public figures.

The Dubray Biography of the Year Winner

A TIME FOR TRUTH

A Time For Truth - Sarah Corbett Lynch

A shocking true story of heartbreak and survival by Sarah Corbett Lynch, daughter of Jason Corbett - an Irish Times Number 1 bestseller and now the subject of NETFLIX documentary A Deadly American Marriage. A Time for Truth is a unique testimony of devastation, survival and hope, against the odds.

A Time for Truth

The Novel of the Year Winner

Nesting - Roisín O'Donnell

An extraordinary and urgent debut by a prize-winning Irish writer, Nesting introduces an unforgettable new voice in fiction.

Tense, beautiful, and underpinned by an unassailable love, hope and resilience, this is the story of one woman's bid to start over.

(Paperback edition out 11/12/25)

Nesting

NESTING

The Sports Book of the Year Winner

Heart on My Sleeve

Heart on My Sleeve - Andrew Porter

From the heartbreak of losing his mother to breast cancer at just 12 years old, to battling mental health struggles throughout his teens, Andrew Porter's journey is one of extraordinary resilience. In this deeply personal and inspiring account, the Irish rugby star opens up about the challenges that shaped him - on and off the pitch.

A testament to the power of perseverance, vulnerability, and the human spirit.

Heart on my Sleeve

The History Book of the Year Winner

Great Irish Wives - Nicola Pierce

Throughout history, the stories of women's lives and work have been overshadowed by those of men. Wives, especially, disappear, unacknowledged as patrons and champions of their husband's work, as collaborators, muses, carers and managers of the family domain. Great Irish Wives shines a spotlight on ten such wives: Matilda Tone, Mary O'Connell, Constance Wilde, Charlotte Shaw, Emily Shackleton, Annette Carson, Sinead de Valera, Margaret Clarke, George Yeats and Beatrice Behan.

Great Irish Wives

Great Irish Wives

The Children’s Book of the Year - Junior Winner

Run Home, Little Fox

Run Home Little Fox - Tom McCaughren & Erika McGann

Illustrated by Shannon Bergin

Foxy loves to hear stories about the Wild Wood, where there are all sorts of creatures: rabbits and badgers, squirrels and owls, and the tall, thin deer, with antlers like tree branches.

He decides to set out on his own wild adventure. Can he learn to be a fox of the Wild Wood?

Run Home Little Fox

The Teen & Young Adult Book of the Year Winner

Solo - Gráinne O'Brien

A novel in verse about teenage love and friendships, lost and found. Congratulations to Gráinne, our fellow Irish bookseller for their beautiful novel about finding harmony after heartbreak.

Solo

Solo

The Non-Fiction Book of the Year Winner

DEADLY SILENCE

Deadly Silence - Jacqueline Connolly

The heart-breaking account of a search for the truth behind the brutal killings that shocked a nation. Deadly Silence holds a lens up to a society that often excuses perpetrators for heinous acts of violence, just as it outlines an inspiring personal journey of healing from severe trauma and loss, and a sister's determination to find truth and justice.

Deadly Silence

The Newcomer of the Year Winner

Show Me Where it Hurts - Claire Gleeson

How do you survive the unsurvivable? Rachel lives with her husband Tom and their two children: it's the comfortable family life she always thought she'd have. All of that changes in an instant - when Tom runs the family car off the road, seeking to end his own life, and take his wife and children with him. Impossible to turn away from, Show Me Where It Hurts is utterly compelling and heartbreaking. It is a story of recovery and unexpected hope.

Show Me Where it Hurts

Show Me Where It Hurts

The Crime Fiction Book of the Year Winner

IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN YOU

It Should Have Been You - Andrea Mara

Have you ever sent a message to the wrong person? Susan sends her sister a gossipy message about their neighbour. But she accidentally posts it on the neighbourhood WhatsApp group instead. It's an innocent mistake that could happen to anyone, but rumours quickly spread and the backlash spirals. Soon that one wrong message leads to murder.

It Should Have Been You

The Last Word Listeners’ Choice Award Winner

The Ghosts of Rome - Joseph O'Connor

February 1944. Six months since Nazi forces occupied Rome. Inside the beleaguered city, the Contessa Giovanna Landini is a member of the band of Escape Line activists known as 'The Choir'. Their mission is to smuggle refugees to safety and help Allied soldiers, all under the nose of Gestapo boss Paul Hauptmann.

The Ghosts of Rome

THE GHOSTS OF ROME

The Best Irish-published Book of the Year Winner

Ninety Nine Words for Rain

Ninety-Nine Words For Rain - Manchán Magan

Meet the néaladóirì (cloud-watchers) and réadóirì (stargazers) from our past who, without the luxury of Met Éireann at their disposal, observed birds, trees, animals, as well as markers on land and sea for signs of weather change. Evoking countless sodden, shivery experiences on this Atlantic-swept island of ours, this beautifully illustrated gift book uses Irish words to grasp an almost-lost world through the wisdom stored in the Irish language.

Ninety-Nine Words For Rain

The Popular Fiction Book of the Year Winner

Paper Heart - Cecelia Ahern

Pip's world is small. But it's about to become a whole lot bigger.For years she's tucked away her dreams, shrinking herself into the space left behind - like the delicate origami she creates alone in her room.Then hope comes from an unlikely place: an astronomer from the local observatory. He teaches her to look up at the stars, and to see a world far bigger and more beautiful than she ever imagined.

The heartwarming and uplifting emotional new love story from bestselling author Cecelia Ahern.

Paper Heart

Paper Heart