Drift: Winner of the Wales Book of the Year

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When she pulls the body of a military prisoner from the sea, she doesn't think twice about helping him. Moving between the wild Welsh coast and war-torn Syria, Drift is a love story with a difference, and a hypnotic tale of lost identity, the quest for home and the wondrous resilience of the human spirit.

It is sooo beautifully written, atmospheric, powerful, magical, tender, dark and heartbreaking; exploring love, loss and sacrifice 😭 One of those books that when you’ve finished, you just sit in awe for a while.The Fiction Award and Overall Welsh-language Wales Book of the Year Award went to Titus for Pridd (Gwasg y Bwthyn).

In addition, the Wales Arts Review’s People’s Choice Award and Golwg360’s Barn y Bobl Award winners were announced, revealing which books were the favourites among the public. On Thursday 13 July, during a live ceremony at the Tramshed in Cardiff, Literature Wales announced that Drift by Caryl Lewis (Doubleday – an imprint of Transworld, Penguin Random House) has been named Wales Book of the Year 2023, whilst Pridd by Llŷr Titus (Gwasg y Bwthyn) is the Wales Book of the Year 2023 in Welsh. I was more invested in Efa and Emry's story, and even Joseph came across as a deeper character with more engaging complexities.

We are incredibly pleased that, year-on-year, the Wales Book of the Year Award demonstrates the huge wealth of literary talent in and from Wales. In addition, there was never any real sense of threat from the external forces supposedly trying to tear Nefyn and Hamza apart. He didn’t question it, he just said, “Well this is where we live, this is where I am now, and this is the language that will connect me to the people and to the landscape,” and he just learnt the language and speaks it fluently. For Hamza wants to leave Wales, desperately needs to find his family, especially his son, not knowing whether he is alive or dead. It centres around a small welsh village by the sea, and the life of twins, one boy, one girl, who live there.

She is a visiting lecturer in Creative Writing at Cardiff University, and lives with her family on a farm near Aberystwyth. As he recuperates at the cottage, they open up about their pasts, and we learn that Hamza’s wife was killed by a stray bullet and his son is missing. Come down the travelators, exit Sainsbury's, turn right and follow the pedestrianised walkway to Crown Walk and turn right - and Coles will be right in front of you. Caryl: My mother was a singer, so when I was younger I spent a lot of time with my grandmothers who lived near Llangrannog, which is a beautiful, beautiful stretch of coastline in West Wales, and along the coast from Llangrannog at Aberporth is an Army base which tests munitions for use in conflict abroad. For fans of THE LAMPLIGHTERS and EXIT WEST, the hauntingly atmospheric English-language debut from the acclaimed, multi-award-winning Welsh author: a mesmerising love story between a young Welsh woman and a Syrian mapmaker.At the heart of this shimmering marvel of a book sits an unexpected relationship, a brief, intense love affair between highly unusual lovers whose lives drift together like sea-wrack.