Comox Valley resident Jennifer Spruit’s debut novel, A Handbook For Beautiful People (Inanna Publications, 2017), has been awarded the Bronze Medal for Popular Fiction by the International Publisher Book Awards.
Conducted annually, the Independent Publisher Book Awards honour the year’s best independently published titles from around the world.
The IPPY awards are open to independent authors and publishers worldwide who produce books intended for an English speaking audience.
The novel centers on the equally frustrating and endearing Marla.
When 22-year-old Marla finds herself unexpectedly pregnant, she wishes for a family, but faces precariousness: an uncertain future with her talented, exacting boyfriend, Liam; constant danger from her roommate, Dani, a sometime prostitute and entrenched drug addict; and the unannounced but overwhelming needs of her younger brother, Gavin, whom she has brought home for the first time from deaf school.
Forcing her hand is Marla’s fetal alcohol syndrome, which sets her apart but also carries her through.
Spruit will be traveling to New York City to accept her bronze medal at the IPPY awards ceremony on May 29 at The Copacabana Times Square.
A Handbook for Beautiful People is available at Laughing Oyster Bookstore and other booksellers.