Nero Gold, Audie award winners announced

In London, Maurice and Maralyn: An Extraordinary True Story of Shipwreck, Survival and Love by Sophie Elmhirst (Vintage), has won the 2024 Nero Gold Prize, worth £30,000 (AU$60,948), reports the Bookseller.

The book, which also won the Nero prize for nonfiction, edged out the Nero prize winners in three other categories: Wild Houses (Colin Barrett, Vintage) (fiction), Lost in the Garden (Adam S Leslie, Cinder House) (debut), and The Twelve (Liz Hyder, illus by Tom de Freston, Pushkin Children’s) (children’s).

Chair of judges Bill Bryson said the judges ‘unanimously agreed’ the book ‘reaches the highest literary eminence’. ‘Maurice and Maralyn is an enthralling, engrossing story of survival and the resilience of the human spirit,’ said Bryson. ‘Impressively novelistic in its narrative approach, it is a gripping retelling of a true but forgotten story. It is a story of a marriage as much as of an adventure at sea, one that subtly explores the dynamics of a relationship under the greatest imaginable stress. Shining through is the heroine’s courage and fortitude; as Maurice flounders, it is Maralyn’s strength that allows them to survive at sea for 118 days – the book is a tribute to Maralyn’s grit. Sophie Elmhirst’s writing is understated but powerful, immersing the reader intimately in the unfolding drama and the horror of struggling to survive against the odds with very few resources.’

The Nero Book Awards celebrate the best writers based in the UK and Ireland across four categories. Last year’s winner was The Bee Sting by Paul Murray.

Audie award winners

In New York City, the winner of the 2025 Audie award for audiobook of the year has been presented to My Name is Barbra, written and narrated by Barbra Streisand (Cornerstone Digital). The title also won in the autobiography/memoir category. Other winners across the 28 awards categories included:

• Bookshops and Bonedust (Travis Baldree, narrated by the author, Macmillan Audio) for fantasy
• James (Percival Everett, narrated by Dominic Hoffman, PRH Audio) for literary fiction and classics
• The Millicent Quibb School of Etiquette for Young Ladies of Mad Science (Kate McKinnon, narrated by McKinnon & Emily Lynne, Hachette Audio) for humour
• Nothing: John Cage and the 4’33” (Nicholas Day, narrated by Fred Berman, Live Oak Media) for young listeners
• Rednecks (Taylor Brown, narrated by Ramiz Monsef, Recorded Books, Inc) for fiction
• There’s Always This Year (Hanif Abdurraqib, narrated by Abdurraqib, PRH Audio) for nonfiction.

The Audie Awards are presented by the US Audio Publishers Association and recognise ‘distinction in audiobooks and spoken-word entertainment’.

Category: International news