Huge congratulations to Louise O’Neill who has been shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards in the categories of ‘Author of the Year’ and ‘Popular Fiction Book of the Year’ for her latest novel, Idol.

The Irish Book Awards are dedicated to the celebration of the best Irish writers and writing across all genres of publishing. The awards were set up by a coalition of Irish booksellers in 2007 and it’s up to thousands of ordinary readers to select the winners each year.

In 2021 Louise won Crime Fiction Book of the Year for her first crime fiction book, After the Silence, which was published by Quercus in the UK.

About Idol:

‘Follow your heart and speak your truth.’

For Samantha Miller’s young fans – her ‘girls’ – she’s everything they want to be. She’s an oracle, telling them how to live their lives, how to be happy, how to find and honour their ‘truth’.

And her career is booming: she’s just hit three million followers, her new book Chaste has gone straight to the top of the bestseller lists and she’s appearing at sell-out events.

Determined to speak her truth and bare all to her adoring fans, she’s written an essay about her sexual awakening as a teenager, with her female best friend, Lisa. She’s never told a soul but now she’s telling the world. The essay goes viral.

But then – years since they last spoke – Lisa gets in touch to say that she doesn’t remember it that way at all. Her memory of that night is far darker. It’s Sam’s word against Lisa’s – so who gets to tell the story? Whose ‘truth’ is really a lie?

‘You put yourself on that pedestal, Samantha. You only have yourself to blame.’

Voting closes on 10th November: https://www.irishbookawards.ie/vote/