2012 Atlantic Book Awards

The winners of the 2012 Atlantic Book Awards have been announced. Here for your reading consideration are the six winners from the adult categories:

Margaret and John Savage First Book Award

The Town That Drowned (M)
by Riel Nason

"The Town That Drowned' evokes the awkwardness of childhood, the thrill of first love, and the importance of having a place to call home. Deftly written in a deceptively unassuming style, Nason's keen insights into human nature and the depth of human attachment to place make this novel ripple in an amber tension of light and shadow." - publisher


Jim Connors Dartmouth Book Award (Fiction)

Great Village (M)
by Mary Rose Donnelly

"Retired school teacher Flossy O'Reilly has spent almost all of her eight decades in Great Village, Nova Scotia. Her quiet life is changed when Ruth, the teenaged granddaughter of an old friend, arrives from Ontario for a three-week stay. She starts to question whether maintaining the calm surface of her life is worth keeping secrets from and about those closest to her." - publisher



Ches Crosbie Barristers Fiction Award

Moonlight Sketches (M)
by Gerard Collins

"In Moonlight Sketches , Gerard Collins portrays a land of shadows, beyond the overpass, where cruelty and hope gnaw at your peace of mind as the brine patiently devours a wharf. With his trademark dark humour and a nod to the unknown, the author shines a light on the difficulty of being human and yet somehow surviving with grace, dignity, and a modicum of happiness." - publisher



APMA Best Atlantic-Published Book Award

Eco-Innovators: sustainability in Atlantic Canada (M)
by Chris Benjamin

"Eco-Innovators profiles some of the region's most innovative and forward-thinking leaders in sustainability. These entrepreneurs and educators, activists and agitators, farmers and fishers have all made measurable contributions both in their respective fields of interest and in motivating others to make change." - publisher



Dartmouth Book Award for Non-fiction in Memory of Robbie Robertson

The Atlantic Coast: a natural history (M)
by Harry Thurston

"Written by the Atlantic region's best-known nature writer, Harry Thurston , The Atlantic Coast draws upon the most up-to-date science on the ecology of the region as well as the author's lifetime experience as a biologist and naturalist. It is both a personal tribute and an accessible, comprehensive guide to an intriguing ecosystem." - publisher




Democracy 250 Atlantic Book Award for Historical Writing

Necessaries and Sufficiencies: planter society in Londonderry, Onslow and Truro townships, 1761-1780 (M)
by Carol Campbell and James F. Smith

"... a micro-history of three English colonies settled with Irish planters, so called for the farms and cities they would plant in the New England area--Londonderry, Truro and Onslow.
They describe patterns of migration and settlement, daily-life, occupations and husbandry, religion and education, government and justice, women and families, barter and land-division. Since they focus on 1761-1780 they also look closely at the tense relationship to the British crown and its loyalists and the revolutionary Americans they lived amongst." -publisher