Irish Independent Crime Fiction Book of the Year

Winner 2023

Strange Sally Diamond

Strange Sally Diamond

By Liz Nugent

Sally Diamond cannot understand why what she did was so strange. She was only doing what her father told her to do, to put him out with the rubbish when he died. 
 
Now Sally is the centre of attention, not only from the hungry media and worried police, but also a sinister voice from a past of which she has no memory. As she begins to discover the horrors of her childhood, recluse Sally steps into the world for the first time, making new friends, finding independence, and learning that people don’t always mean what they say. 
 
But when messages start arriving from a stranger who knows far more about her past than she knows herself, Sally’s life will be thrown into chaos once again . . .

About Liz Nugent...

Before becoming a full-time writer, Liz Nugent worked in film, theatre and television. Her five novels – Unravelling Oliver, Lying in Wait, Skin Deep, Our Little Cruelties and Strange Sally Diamond – have each been Number one bestsellers and she has won four Irish Book Awards, as well as the James Joyce Medal for Literature. She lives in Dublin. 

Explore the 2023 winners

TheJournal.ie Best Irish Published Book of the Year
Bookstation Lifestyle Book of the Year
Cookbook of the Year
Eason Sports Book of the Year, in association with Ireland AM
Dubray Non-Fiction Book of the Year
Bookselling Ireland Biography of the Year
The Last Word Listeners' Choice Award
Specsavers Children's Book of the Year (Junior)
Specsavers Children's Book of the Year (Senior)
International Education Services Teen & Young Adult Book of the Year, in honour of John Treacy
An Post Irish Bookshop of the Year
Foras na Gaeilge Irish Language Fiction Book of the Year Award
Writing.ie Short Story of the Year
National Book Tokens Popular Fiction Book of the Year
Sunday Independent Newcomer of the Year
Library Association of Ireland Author of the Year
Eason Novel of the Year
Listowel Writers' Week Poem of the Year