# Waterstones Book of the Year

The Waterstones Book of the Year, established in 2012, is an annual award presented to a book published in the previous 12 months. Waterstones' booksellers nominate and vote to determine the winners and finalists for the prize.
Award winners receive "full and committed backing" from Waterstones both in-person and online.

## Recipients

Waterstones Book of the Year winners and finalists :
| Year | Author | Title | Result |
| 2012 | Russell Norman | Polpo: A Venetian Cookbook (of Sorts) | Won |
| 2012 | Laurent Binet | HHhH | Shortlisted |
| 2012 | Artemis Cooper | Patrick Leigh Fermor | Shortlisted |
| 2012 | Simon Garfield | On the Map | Shortlisted |
| 2012 | Robert Macfarlane | The Old Ways | Shortlisted |
| 2012 | Hilary Mantel | Bring Up the Bodies | Shortlisted |
| 2013 | John Williams | Stoner | Won |
| 2013 | Kate Atkinson | Life After Life | Shortlisted |
| 2013 | Julian Barnes | Levels of Life | Shortlisted |
| 2013 | Stephen Collins | The Gigantic Beard That Was Evil | Shortlisted |
| 2013 | Aleksandra Mizielińska | Maps | Shortlisted |
| 2013 | Nina Stibbe | Love, Nina: Despatches from Family Life | Shortlisted |
| 2014 | Jessie Burton | The Miniaturist | Won |
| 2014 | Laura Bates | Everyday Sexism | Shortlisted |
| 2014 | Richard Flanagan | The Narrow Road to the Deep North | Shortlisted |
| 2014 | Sabrina Ghayour | Persiana: Recipes from the Middle East & Beyond | Shortlisted |
| 2014 | Oliver Jeffers | Once Upon an Alphabet | Shortlisted |
| 2014 | Marina Keegan | The Opposite of Loneliness: Essays & Stories | Shortlisted |
| 2014 | Helen Macdonald | H Is for Hawk | Shortlisted |
| 2014 | Thomas Piketty | Capital in the Twenty-First Century | Shortlisted |
| 2015 | Coralie Bickford-Smith | The Fox and the Star | Won |
| 2015 | Harper Lee | Go Set a Watchman | Shortlisted |
| 2015 | Elena Ferrante | My Brilliant Friend | Shortlisted |
| 2015 | Paula Hawkins | The Girl on the Train | Shortlisted |
| 2015 | James Rebanks | The Shepherd's Life | Shortlisted |
| 2015 | Matt Haig | Reasons to Stay Alive | Shortlisted |
| 2015 | Mary Beard | SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome | Shortlisted |
| 2015 | Hanya Yanagihara | A Little Life | Shortlisted |
| 2016 | Sarah Perry | The Essex Serpent | Won |
| 2016 | J. K. Rowling | Harry Potter and the Cursed Child | Shortlisted |
| 2016 | Emma Jane Kirby | The Optician of Lampedusa | Shortlisted |
| 2016 | Beatrix Potter with Quentin Blake (illus.) | The Tale of Kitty-in-Boots | Shortlisted |
| 2016 | Christopher de Hamel | Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts | Shortlisted |
| 2016 | Paul Kalanithi | When Breath Becomes Air | Shortlisted |
| 2017 | Philip Pullman | La Belle Sauvage: Book of Dust Volume One | Won |
| 2017 | Elena Favilli and Francesca Cavallo | Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls | Shortlisted |
| 2017 | George Saunders | Lincoln in the Bardo | Shortlisted |
| 2017 | Jenny Uglow | Mr. Lear | Shortlisted |
| 2017 | Yanis Varoufakis | Talking to My Daughter About the Economy | Shortlisted |
| 2017 | Frances Hardinge | A Skinful of Shadows | Shortlisted |
| 2017 | Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris | The Lost Words | Shortlisted |
| 2018 | Sally Rooney | Normal People | Won |
| 2018 | Isabel Hardman | Why We Get the Wrong Politicians | Shortlisted |
| 2018 | Dan Jones and Marina Amaral | The Colour of Time: A New History of the World, 1850–1960 | Shortlisted |
| 2018 | The Secret Barrister | The Secret Barrister | Shortlisted |
| 2018 | Dolly Alderton | Everything I Know About Love | Shortlisted |
| 2018 | Henry Eliot | The Penguin Classics Book | Shortlisted |
| 2018 | Madeline Miller | Circe | Shortlisted |
| 2018 | Fiona Waters and Frann Preston-Gannon | I Am the Seed that Grew the Tree | Shortlisted |
| 2019 | Charlie Mackesy | The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse | Won |
| 2019 | Margaret Atwood | The Testaments | Shortlisted |
| 2019 | Candice Carty-Williams | Queenie | Shortlisted |
| 2019 | Bridget Collins | The Binding | Shortlisted |
| 2019 | Robert Macfarlane | Underland | Shortlisted |
| 2019 | Max Porter | Lanny | Shortlisted |
| 2019 | Greta Thunberg | No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference | Shortlisted |
| 2020 | Maggie O'Farrell | Hamnet | Won |
| 2020 | Dara McAnulty | Diary of a Young Naturalist | Shortlisted |
| 2020 | Brit Bennett | The Vanishing Half | Shortlisted |
| 2020 | Michiko Kakutani | Ex Libris | Shortlisted |
| 2020 | Gavin Francis | Island Dreams | Shortlisted |
| 2020 | Philippe Sands | The Ratline | Shortlisted |
| 2020 | Craig Brown | One, Two, Three, Four: The Beatles in Time | Shortlisted |
| 2020 | Naoise Dolan | Exciting Times | Shortlisted |
| 2020 | Bolu Babalola | Love in Colour | Shortlisted |
| 2020 | David Olusoga | Black and British: A Short, Essential History | Shortlisted |
| 2020 | Fiona Waters with Britta Teckentrup (illus.) | Tiger, Tiger, Burning Bright! | Shortlisted |
| 2020 | Rundell Katherine (ed) | The Book of Hopes | Shortlisted |
| 2021 | Paul McCartney with Paul Muldoon (ed.) | The Lyrics | Won |
| 2021 | Jonathan Drori with Lucille Clerc (illus.) | Around the World in 80 Plants | Shortlisted |
| 2021 | Janice Hallett | The Appeal | Shortlisted |
| 2021 | Kiran Millwood Hargrave with Tom de Freston (illus.) | Julia and the Shark | Shortlisted |
| 2021 | Charlotte Higgins with Chris Ofili (illus.) | Greek Myths | Shortlisted |
| 2021 | Kazuo Ishiguro | Klara and the Sun | Shortlisted |
| 2021 | Amy Jeffs | Storyland | Shortlisted |
| 2021 | Caleb Azumah Nelson | Open Water | Shortlisted |
| 2021 | Marcus Rashford and Carl Anka | You Are a Champion | Shortlisted |
| 2021 | Jennifer Saint | Ariadne | Shortlisted |
| 2021 | Adam Silvera | They Both Die at the End | Shortlisted |
| 2021 | Colin Thubron | Amur River | Shortlisted |
| 2021 | Tracey Turner and Andrew Donkin with Libby VanderPloeg (illus.) | British Museum: History of the World in 25 Cities | Shortlisted |
| 2022 | Katy Hessel | The Story of Art without Men | Won |
| 2022 | Maggie O'Farrell | The Marriage Portrait | Shortlisted |
| 2022 | Alice Oseman | Heartstopper Volume 1 | Shortlisted |
| 2022 | Bonnie Garmus | Lessons in Chemistry | Shortlisted |
| 2022 | Jonathan Freedland | The Escape Artist | Shortlisted |
| 2022 | Thomas Halliday | Otherlands | Shortlisted |
| 2022 | Katherine Rundell with Talya Baldwin (illus.) | In the Golden Mole | Shortlisted |
| 2022 | Jeremy Lee | Cooking | Shortlisted |
| 2022 | R. F. Kuang | Babel | Shortlisted |
| 2022 | A. F. Steadman | Skandar and the Unicorn Thief | Shortlisted |
| 2023 | Katherine Rundell | Impossible Creatures | Won |
| 2023 | Chris Broad | Abroad in Japan | Shortlisted |
| 2023 | G. T. Karber | Murdle | Shortlisted |
| 2023 | Rebecca F. Kuang | Yellowface | Shortlisted |
| 2023 | Ann Patchett | Tom Lake | Shortlisted |
| 2023 | Rick Rubin | The Creative Act: A Way of Being | Shortlisted |
| 2023 | Zadie Smith | The Fraud | Shortlisted |
| 2023 | Chris van Tulleken | Ultra-Processed People: Why Do We All Eat Stuff That Isn't... | Shortlisted |
| 2023 | Alice Winn | In Memoriam | Shortlisted |
| 2023 | Rebecca Yarros | Fourth Wing | Shortlisted |
| 2023 | Lou Peacock and Matt Hunt | A Whale of a Time: A Funny Poem for Every Day of the Year | Shortlisted |
| 2023 | Mary Beard | Emperor of Rome | Shortlisted |