Benjamin Wood wins Nero fiction prize; Perry, Lynch and Gavin also named winners

Benjamin Wood has won this year’s Nero book award for fiction for his novel Seascraper. Claire Lynch won the debut fiction category for A Family Matter, Sarah Perry took the nonfiction prize for Death of an Ordinary Man, and Jamila Gavin was awarded the children’s fiction prize for My Soul, A Shining Tree.

The Nero book awards are run by Caffè Nero and were launched in 2023. Each of the four winning authors receives £5,000, with the overall Nero Gold prize carrying a further £30,000. The judges called Wood’s Seascraper an “utterly immersive read, steeped in atmosphere, that explores what constitutes a well-lived life”; the novel is set on a fictional stretch of the Merseyside coast and follows a shrimp fisher whose routines are disrupted by the arrival of a charismatic American stranger.

Perry’s Death of an Ordinary Man, described by the judges as “honest, revealing and generous” and “rendered with precision and delicacy”, is a personal account of the death of her father-in-law after a cancer diagnosis. Lynch’s debut was praised as “a delicately written yet powerful story of injustice” and Gavin’s book, based on the true story of Khudadad Khan, is told from four perspectives including that of a walnut tree.

The four category winners will now compete for the Nero Gold prize, with the overall winner to be announced at a ceremony in March.

Key Topics

Culture, Benjamin Wood, Seascraper, Nero Book Awards, Sarah Perry, Claire Lynch