Discover the best Penguin Random House books of 2022 with this list of award-winning and shortlisted titles this year.
2022 was a wonderful year for Penguin Random House books.
With books across genres taking home awards of all kinds, we’re extremely proud of what our authors have achieved.
Each of these recognitions is well-deserved. And if you haven’t read these award-winning and shortlisted books yet, we highly recommend you add them to your reading list ASAP.
Scroll on to see the award winners this year, and a huge congratulations to all of our winning authors.
2022 Award-winning and shortlisted books
Winning Titles
- A Glasshouse of Stars by Shirley Marr
- CBCA Book of the Year, Younger Readers 2022
- Banquet by Debi Marshal
- Ned Kelly Awards, Best True Crime
- Corporal Hitler’s Pistol by Tom Keneally
- Cutters End by Margaret Hickey
- Danger Prize (BAD Sydney Crime Writers Festival)
- Killernova by Omar Musa
- ACT Notable Book Awards, Poetry 2021 Big Press
- Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
- Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy
- Davitt Awards, Adult Crime Novel
- Indie Book Awards, Best Fiction
- Semut by Christine Helliwell
- 2022 Les Carlyon Literary Prize
- 2022 Prime Minister's Literary Awards, Australian History Prize
- She’s on the Money by Victoria Devine
- Australian Book Industry Awards, General Non-Fiction Book of the Year
- Summertime by Danielle Celemajer
- ACT Notable Book Awards, Nonfiction 2021 Big Press
- The Chase by Candice Fox
- Ned Kelly Awards, Best Crime Fiction
- The Prison Healer by Lynette Noni
- Australian Book Industry Awards, Book of the Year for Older Children (Ages 13+)
- The Scrap Iron Flotilla by Mike Carlton
- The Silent Listener by Lyn Yeowart
- Indie Book Awards, Best Debut Fiction
Shortlisted titles
- Anything but Fine by Tobias Madden
- Australian Book Industry Awards, Book of the Year for Older Children (Ages 13+)
- Banquet by Debi Marshal
- Davitt Awards, Nonfiction crime book
- Blue Flower by Sonya Hartnett and Gabriel Evans
- CBCA, Picture book of the Year
- Bob Hawke by Troy Branston
- Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid
- Cutters End by Margaret Hickey
- Ned Kelly Awards, Best Debut Crime Fiction
- Death to Jar Sauce by Nat’s What I Reckon
- Australian Book Industry Awards, Illustrated Book of the Year
- Emotional Female by Yumiko Kadota
- Australian Book Industry Awards, Audiobook of the Year
- Australian Book Industry Awards, Biography Book of the Year
- Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson
- Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo
- Here Goes Nothing by Steve Toltz
- Oh William! by Elizabet Strout
- Ottolenghi Test Kitchen: Shelf Love by Yotam Ottolenghi and Noor Murad
- Australian Book Industry Awards, International Book of the Year
- Puff Piece by John Safran
- 2022 Prime Minister's Literary Awards, Non-fiction
- Semut by Christine Helliwell
- The Reid Prize, for the most significant book contributing to the understanding of Asia
- ACT Notable Book Awards, Nonfiction 2021 Big Press
- NSW Premier's History Awards
- SAHR Templer Medal, first runner-up
- The Bass Rock by Evie Wyld
- The Deep by Kyle Perry
- Ned Kelly Awards, Best Crime Fiction
- The Prison Healer by Lynette Noni
- Indie Book Awards, Best Young Adult
- The Silent Listener by Lyn Yeowart
- Davitt Awards, Adult crime novels
- Davitt Awards, Debut crime book
- Danger Prize (BAD Sydney Crime Writers Festival)
- Toxic: The Rotting Underbelly of the Tasmanian Salmon Industry by Richard Flanagan
- Australian Book Industry Awards, General Non-Fiction Book of the Year
- Indie Book Awards, Best Non-Fiction
- Why You Should Give a F*ck About Farming by Gabrielle Chan
- ACT Notable Book Awards, Nonfiction 2021 Big Press
- You’re Doing it Wrong: A History of Bad and Bonkers Advice to Women by Kaz Cooke
- Australian Book Industry Awards, Illustrated Book of the Year
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A Glasshouse of Stars
An exquisite, heartbreakingly beautiful gem of a novel for anyone who loved Wonder, Lenny's Book of Everything, A Monster Calls or When You Reach Me.
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Banquet: The Untold Story of Adelaide's Family Murders
Shortlisted for Best True Crime in the 2022 Ned Kelly Awards
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Cutters End
An award-winning crime thriller, set in the South Australian outback town of Cutters End. A mysterious death on New Year’s Eve 1989 leads to a shocking murder investigation 32 years later . . .
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Once There Were Wolves
**A Journey into the Wild and the Human Heart**
From the author of the international bestseller Migrations comes a pulse-pounding new novel set in the wild Scottish Highlands
Semut
Winner of the Les Carlyon Literary Prize and the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards Australian History Prize.
First Runner Up for Templer Medal Book Prize (UK).
Shortlisted for the NSW Premier's Australian History Prize, the ACT Notable Book Awards, and the Reid Prize.
A remarkable new book about Operation Semut, an Australian secret military operation launched by the organisation popularly known as Z Special Unit in the final months of WWII.
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Why you should give a f*ck about farming
'I ask that if you were to read one nonfiction book this year, please make it this one.'
Readings Monthly
There is no farmers and others. If you eat or wear clothes, the decisions you make influence farming.
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The Silent Listener
'A wickedly dark debut - haunting and unputdownable.' Christian White, author of The Nowhere Child
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She’s on the Money: The award-winning #1 finance bestseller
The ultimate millennial money guide, from the creator of Australia’s #1 finance podcast
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The Prison Healer
'Lynette Noni is a masterful storyteller. A must-read for any fantasy lover!' SARAH J. MAAS, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author
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Blue Flower
A beautifully told picture book about self-esteem, resilience and the discovery that being different can be something wonderful. From award-winning author Sonya Hartnett, with stunning illustrations by Gabriel Evans.
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Death to Jar Sauce
SHORTLISTED FOR ABIA ILLUSTRATED BOOK OF THE YEAR 2022
Our favourite sweary anti-jar-sauce warrior is back . . . and he’s actually written a whole cookbook this time.
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Emotional Female
A passionate account of the toxic culture of bullying and overwork that junior doctors can experience in the workplace as part of their training.
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Here Goes Nothing
The virtuoso new novel from the author of the Booker-shortlisted A Fraction of the Whole.
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Ottolenghi Test Kitchen: Shelf Love
This is Ottolenghi, unplugged. The Ottolenghi Test Kitchen team takes you on a journey through your kitchen cupboards, creating inspired recipes using humble ingredients.
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The Bass Rock
The lives of three women weave together across four centuries in the dazzling book from Evie Wyld, winner of the Miles Franklin Award and the Stella Prize.
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You’re Doing it Wrong: A History of Bad & Bonkers Advice to Women
You’re Doing it Wrong is an outrageous tour through the centuries of bonkers and bad advice handed down and foisted upon women, told as only Kaz Cooke can – with humour and rage, intelligence and wit.
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Lessons in Chemistry
Apple TV + tie-in of the multi-million-copy No. 1 Sunday Times, No. 1 New York Times and No. 1 international bestseller and prizewinner
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Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone
Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle meet Knives Out and The Thursday Murder Club in an ingenious blend of classic and modern murder mystery.
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