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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
National
Lauren Del Fabbro

Debut novel set in sun-soaked southern France wins Waterstones Book of the Year

Author Lucy Steeds has won the Waterstones Book Of The Year award with her debut novel (Paul Stuart/PA) -

A romantic-mystery debut novel based in sun-soaked southern France has won the 2025 Waterstones Book of the Year.

Set across a Provencal summer in 1920, Lucy Steeds’ The Artist follows an enigmatic painter, his niece and a British journalist who is keen on writing a piece about him, before tensions begin to build between them all.

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