Winners Announced: Indie Book Awards 2026

Australian independent booksellers have announced Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy as the best book from the last year, and the winner of the Indie Book Awards 2026 Book of the Year.

The Book of the Year is voted by independent booksellers across the country from the six category winners. Bookseller judge Leisa Morton from Paperbark Merchants Albany (WA) described McConaghy’s book: “Wild Dark Shore was transportive. This is the perfect blend of literary fiction and thriller; filled with stunning lines exploring the emotions of the characters and philosophical thought about the future of humanity, paced expertly and threaded through with breath-catching tension. A truly remarkable novel takes something from the reader, and it nestles inside of them in return, and Wild Dark Shore has done this for me.”

Sentiments shared with bookseller judge Amy Lynch from The Book Warehouse Ballina (NSW) commenting on McConaghy’s book: “Wild Dark Shore is a beautifully atmospheric and emotionally layered read that completely pulls you into its rugged, windswept setting. The sense of isolation and untamed landscape seeps into every page, creating a haunting backdrop for a story driven by grief, resilience, and complicated human connection. The characters feel raw and authentic, each carrying their own quiet burdens, and the tension builds in a way that feels both intimate and unsettling. It’s the kind of novel that moves slowly but deliberately, rewarding you with depth, mood, and powerful emotional moments.”

On winning the Award, Charlotte McConaghy said: “I want to take this moment to express my profound gratitude. You (Independent booksellers) are a fundamental, crucial part of our arts industry, of our cultural identities, of the way we connect to ideas and stories, and to each other.”

Charlotte’s Publisher, Penguin Australia, said: “It is a testament to the passion and support of our exceptional independent booksellers that Charlotte McConaghy’s WILD DARK SHORE has found the readership that it has. Readers, authors and publishers owe the Indies so much.”

The Awards recognise and celebrate indie booksellers as the number one supporters of Australian authors. What makes indie booksellers uniquely placed to judge and recommend the best Aussie books of the past year, is their incredible passion and knowledge, their contribution to the cultural diversity of the Australian reading public, by recommending beyond the big brands, and above all, their love of quality writing.

The individual category winners in Fiction, Debut Fiction, Non-Fiction, Illustrated Non-Fiction, Children’s and Young Adult were also announced. From these six category winners, the independent booksellers selected the best of the best – The 2026 Indie Book of the Year.

Since the Awards inception, independent booksellers have a well-deserved reputation for picking the best of the best in Australian writing. Past Book of the Year winners have gone on to be bestsellers and win other major literary awards. Previous winners include: Dusk by Robbie Arnott; Killing for Country: A Family Story by David Marr; Love Stories by Trent Dalton; The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams; There Was Still Love by Favel Parrett; Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton; Nevermoor by Jessica Townsend; The Dry by Jane Harper; The Natural Way of Things by Charlotte Wood; The Bush by Don Watson; The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan; The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman; All That I Am by Anna Funder; The Happiest Refugee by Anh Do; and Breath by Tim Winton.

The Winners for the Indie Book Awards 2026 are:

BOOK OF THE YEAR
Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy

FICTION
Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy

NON-FICTION
Always Home, Always Homesick by Hannah Kent

DEBUT FICTION
When Sleeping Women Wake by Emma Pei Yin

ILLUSTRATED NON-FICTION
Wild by Design by Tim Pilgrim

CHILDRENS
Silverborn: The Mystery of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend

YOUNG ADULT
Eleanor Jones is Playing with Fire by Amy Doak

Learn more about the Indie Book Awards here.

Synopsis

Dominic Salt and his three children are caretakers of Shearwater, a tiny island not far from Antarctica. Home to the world’s largest seed bank, Shearwater was once full of researchers. But with sea levels rising, the Salts are now its final inhabitants, packing up the seeds before they are transported to safer ground. Despite the wild beauty of life here, isolation has taken its toll on the Salts. Raff, 18 and suffering his first heartbreak, can only find relief at his punching bag; Fen, 17, has started spending her nights on the beach among the seals; 9-year-old Orly, obsessed with botany, fears the loss of his beloved natural world; and Dominic can’t stop turning back towards the past, and the loss that drove the family to Shearwater in the first place.Then, during the worst storm the island has ever seen, a woman washes up on shore. As the Salts nurse the woman, Rowan, back to life, their suspicion gives way to affection, and they finally begin to feel like a family again. Rowan, long accustomed to protecting her heart, begins to fall for the Salts, too. But Rowan isn’t telling the whole truth about why she set out for Shearwater. And when she discovers the sabotaged radios and a freshly dug grave, she realises Dominic is keeping his own dark secrets. As the storms on Shearwater gather force, the characters must decide if they can trust each other enough to protect the precious seeds in their care before it’s too late—and if they can finally put the tragedies of the past behind them to create something new, together.

Charlotte McConaghy