Indie Book Awards 2021 winner: Tamarind and the Star of Ishta by Jasbinder Bilan

Jasbinder Bilan took home the Children's Fiction Award at the 2021 Indie Book Awards for Tamarind and the Star of Ishta.

About Tamarind and the Star of Ishta:
Tamarind never knew her Indian mum, Chinty, who died soon after she was born. So when she arrives at her ancestral home, a huge mansion in the Himalayas surrounded by luxuriant gardens, she’s full of questions for her extended family. But instead of answers, she finds an ominous silence – and a trickle of intriguing clues: an abandoned hut, a friendly monkey, a glowing star ring, and a strange girl in the garden who calls herself Ishta. Slowly, Tamarind unravels a mystery at the heart of who she is.

Honouring the paperback books of the summer as voted for by independent booksellers, the Indie Book Awards celebrate the best reads for the summer, recommending the books that readers should be taking on holiday (or on their staycations) this summer. The winners were announced on Scala Radio, the official media partner of the Indie Book Awards.

The judging panel for the Adult categories consists of booksellers Tina Gaisford-Waller (Winstone’s Hunting Raven Books), Saber Khan (Toppings, Bath), Sam Fisher (Burley Fisher Books), Alice Carr (Blackwell’s, Edinburgh) and Hachette author Will Dean.

The Children’s categories were judged by Nicola Lee (Children’s Bookshop, Lindley), Mariana Mouzinho (Seven Stories, The National Centre for Children’s Books), India Chambers (Round Table Books), Gill Edwards (Little Ripon Bookshop) and Hachette author Patrice Lawrence.