NOVEL OF THE YEAR 2022 WINNER

The Novel of the Year Award 2022 winner was announced during this year’s Dalkey Book Festival live event.

The winners of this year’s Dalkey Literary Awards presented by Zurich have been announced at the Dalkey Book Festival, in conjunction with Zurich Insurance plc. Sally Rooney’s Beautiful World, Where Are You has been announced as Novel of the Year award winner.

This is the third year of the Dalkey Literary Awards, and with a total prize fund of €30,000, they are the biggest prize value awards solely for Irish writers. As well as the prestige of winning the awards, Sally Rooney will receive €20,000.

The Judging Panel for the Novel of the Year category were Frederick Studemann, Elaine Feeney and Willie White. The judges commended Beautiful World, Where are You as the most ambitious of Sally Rooney’s books so far and they said “it is exciting to experience her accomplishment in this determinedly contemporary Irish novel. 

“Her characters are minutely and sympathetically observed, and her handling of tone, language and abundant ideas assured as she weaves a story of love and sex and friendship through an Anthropocene of vicious ideologies, failing systems and failed communication. As well as being earnest and serious, Beautiful World, Where Are You is also often very funny."