Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Winners Announced

Posted on June 14, 2010

Amazon.com and Penguin Group have named the winners of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. Two grand prizes were awarded this year for best general fiction novel and best young adult novel. The winners, selected by Amazon.com customers, were revealed at an event held at the Amazon campus in Seattle. Each winner received a publishing contract from Penguin Group USA that includes a $15,000 advance.

Patricia McArdle is the winner of the general fiction category for her novel, Farishta, which will be published by Riverhead Books. Amy Ackley is the winner in the young adult fiction category for her novel, Sign Language, which will be published by Viking Children's Books.

Patricia McArdle, a resident of Arlington, Virgina, is a retired American diplomat whose postings have taken her around the world, including northern Afghanistan. Her novel, Farishta, centers around a female American diplomat who, transferred to a volatile, remote outpost in northern Afghanistan, provides aid to refugee women fleeing the violence.

Young adult fiction winner Amy Ackley of Brighton, Michigan, is a mother of three whose career has included a variety of jobs, from public administration to labor relations for top automakers. Her novel, Sign Language, tells the story of 12-year-old Abby North and her discover that something is wrong with her father. Amy Ackley was inspired by the loss of her father and two close friends to cancer to write the novel.