This year’s Booker prize winner will be the Christmas No 1 bestseller, predict UK booksellers.
The Booksellers Association (BA) asked bookshop staff which book they think could reach the festive top spot, and Orbital by Samantha Harvey was the most popular response.
The slim volume was “selling well even before the Booker prize win, and since then it has been flying off the shelves,” said Amanda Truman, who owns Truman Books in Farsley, West Yorkshire.
Fleur Sinclair, president of the BA and owner of Sevenoaks Bookshop in Kent, would be “amazed” if Orbital doesn’t top the charts. Between its Booker win and “accessible paperback format and price, so many of our customers are buying it both for themselves and as gifts”.
Orbital became the first Booker novel to hit No 1 on the UK bestseller chart in the week of its win, with 20,040 copies sold that week. The novel follows a day in the life of six astronauts on the International Space Station.
Aside from the novel “being a literary masterpiece, awards really help sell books”, said Jude Brosnan, marketing manager at Stanfords bookshops. “Along with all the extra promotion they provide, we find customers really appreciate recommendations – even more so at this time of year.”
Several booksellers suggested that a second novel from this year’s Booker shortlist will do well in the Christmas run-up: James by Percival Everett, a retelling of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of the enslaved Jim. The novel “left me feeling the enormous potential we have when we come together to change the world for the better and overcome injustices”, said Sinclair.
There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak was put forward as a possible contender for the charts by two bookshops, as was nonfiction title Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton. “A beautifully written and produced tale of an unusual relationship between Chloe and the wild hare she helps save,” said Marie Moser, owner of The Edinburgh Bookshop.
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However, Moser says the bookshop’s “top pick” would probably be All That Matters by Chris Hoy, which is selling especially well at the moment. “An honest, brave and inspiring book about living with a terminal diagnosis.”
The New Life by Tom Crewe, a novel about the struggle to change Britain’s laws related to homosexuality in the late 19th century, “promises to be one of this year’s Christmas picks”, said Tom Owen, owner of Gay on Wye, in Hay-on-Wye. “The novel’s themes of love, identity and freedom feel as relevant today as they did in the 1890s.”
Sally Rooney’s Intermezzo will also be a popular gift this Christmas, said Jenni Doherty, owner of Little Acorns Bookstore in Derry. Cosy escapist reads such as The Bookseller’s Gift by Felicity Hayes-McCoy will be up there too, along with sports biographies and pocket-sized stocking fillers such as Everything Is Mnásome: 365 Days of Celebrating Irish Women by Kunak McGann.
Saber Khan, a bookseller at Topping & Company Booksellers in Bath, said that along with Orbital and James, Gabriel’s Moon by William Boyd and The Glassmaker by Tracy Chevalier are proving popular with customers at the moment.
Booksellers were also asked for a “wildcard” pick – a dark horse that could unexpectedly land a place near the top of the Christmas chart, or a book that sells particularly well in their bookshop.
A Pawtobiography: My adventures on Gone Fishing by “Ted the Dog” is the wildcard for Chantal Farquhar, manager of The Little Bookshop, Cookham, Berkshire. The book makes “a great gift for that difficult-to-buy-for person in your life,” said Farquhar. “Even if you don’t like fishing you have probably enjoyed watching Bob and Paul messing about on the river with their trusty sidekick, Ted.”
Farsley’s Truman Books, meanwhile, has been surprised by the response to The 12 Murders of Christmas by Sarah Dunnakey. “It’s a mixture of stories and puzzles by an author who sets questions for the likes of Mastermind and Pointless,” said Truman. “I didn’t order it in at first, as there are plenty of Christmas-themed murder stories around, but the author popped in to tell us about it, and it’s been a steady seller ever since.”
Sinclair also put forward a murder-themed title: Your Guide to Not Getting Murdered in a Quaint English Village by Maureen Johnson. “Dark and hilarious, with perfect illustrations, this little book is exactly what we all need to find in our stockings on Christmas morning.”
For Cant a Mil bookshop in Cardiff, the current No 1 bestseller is the first Bluey book to be published in Welsh, said owner Jo Knell. “There has been a huge response to the Bluey phenomenon in Welsh.”
As expected, annuals and quiz books are in the mix too, with Stanfords making Prisoners of Geography: The Quiz Book their book of the month, and Topping & Company’s Khan suggesting the “perennial favourite” Private Eye Annual.
For Waterstones, their book of the year, Butter by Asako Yuzuki – translated from Japanese by Polly Barton – is expected to be the chain’s Christmas No 1.
“It’s invigorating to see all the different books that people are picking up – sometimes for other people, or as a present to themselves,” said Khan. “Bookshops are great hubs throughout the year, but never more than at Christmas when people can finally turn to much needed leisure.”