Local Author Wins YA Book Prize 2019

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Goodbye, Perfect by Sara Barnard has won the YA Book Prize 2019.

YA Book Prize

Launched in 2014, the YA Book Prize award is the first UK and Ireland prize to focus on fiction for young adults. It addresses an important need for a prize in the growing YA market.

Sara lives in Brighton and does all her best writing on trains. She has been writing ever since she was too small to reach the “on” switch on the family Amstrad computer. After that, her father helped foster a love of books.

© Sara Barnard via Waterstones Facebook

Goodbye, Perfect

Sara won with her third novel, Goodbye, Perfect. 

The novel tells the story of Eden Kinley, a teenage girl who questions everything when her best friend Bonnie runs away with a music teacher before the start of their GCSEs. As a result, Eden’s forced to weigh up betraying her best friend with police questioning, suspicious parents and her own growing doubts.

In her inspiration to write Goodbye, Perfect, Sara said:

“I was interested in all the stories that don’t get told when there’s a big scandal on a national stage. All the friends, family and wider community that aren’t given a voice. So though this story features a student running away with a teacher, that’s not what the story is actually about. It’s about how it affects those closest to her and the people left behind.”

Everyday Sexism founder, writer and this years contest judge, Laura Bates, commented on the book:

“a tender portrayal of family and sibling relationships, of flawed and poignant female friendships and of the nuanced reality of teenage experiences and the journey to discovering who you are and what you stand for.”

Sara’s first novel, Beautiful Broken Things, was shortlisted in 2017 for the YA Book Prize. Her newest release, Fierce, Fragile Hearts, is a follow-up to this.

 

Featured Image:  ©  Book. Pixabay.

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