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This is the Best Book of the Year, According to Barnes & Noble

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Recently, Barnes & Noble shared their books for the Best Books of the Year (plural), which included 12 books in a range of genres and age categories. Today, they’ve announced their overall Book of the Year for 2023: The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride, which they describe as a “stunning novel about a small town and the bonds of community that are formed between marginalized groups in order to survive.”

Barnes & Noble CEO James Daunt said,

“Everyone who reads The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store becomes a passionate advocate for the book. You just want others to share in the sheer pleasure it gives. Booksellers pride themselves on their ability to initiate the exponential surge of recommendation, reader to reader, that makes a spectacular bestseller. Thank you to the booksellers who started this ball rolling. In James McBride’s The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store we have a stunningly good 2023 Book of the Year, one in which we take great pride and great joy in celebrating. Please read it!”

This year, Barnes & Noble also announced their Author of the Year for the first time. The inaugural winner of this award is David Grann, author of Killers of the Flower Moon, The Wager, and The Lost City of Z, among others. B&N says, “Grann’s writing style, mixing thriller-like stakes and riveting history, solidifies him as one of the literary world’s essential nonfiction voices.”

You can read more about Barnes & Noble’s Book of the Year and Author of the Year at their website.

Find more news and stories of interest from the book world in Breaking in Books.