A Skinful of Shadows shortlisted for Waterstones Book of the Year 2017

We are thrilled that the new novel by Frances Hardinge, A Skinful of Shadows has been shortlisted for the 2017 Waterstones Book of the Year award.

Read an exclusive interview with Frances about the inspiration for her new novel here.

A Skinful of Shadows is joined on the shortlist by the following books:

• Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls by Elena Favilli, Francesca Cavallo
• Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
• The Book of Dust by Philip Pullman
• Mr Lear by Jenny Uglow
• Talking to My Daughter About the Economy by Yanis Varoufakis
• The Lost Words by Robert MacFarlane and Jackie Morris 

The Waterstones Book of the Year 2017 is the retailer’s annual celebration of the finest books of the past twelve months, with the winner to be announced on 30th November 2017. Previous winners of the accolade include Jessie Burton’s The Miniaturist, The Fox and the Star by Coralie Bickford-Smith and Sarah Perry’s The Essex Serpent.

A Skinful of Shadows, the new novel by the Costa Book Award winning author of The Lie Tree Frances Hardinge, is published in hardback, ebook and audiobook and is available now. 

Set during the English Civil War,  A Skinful of Shadows is the story of Makepeace, a courageous girl with a mysterious past. Each night Makepeace defends herself from the ghosts which try to possess her until one night, a dreadful event causes her to drop her guard for a moment, causing her life to change forever.

A Skinful of Shadows is Hardinge’s first novel since winning the Costa Book Award for The Lie Tree in 2015.