We did it. In this year of all years, we brought the Not the Booker prize to a conclusion – and a very satisfactory one at that. We have an excellent winner. Hello Friend We Missed You won the public vote and, after a little back and forth, also won enough support from our judges to allow it to grab the title and to ensure that the coveted Guardian mug is making its way to Richard Owain Roberts. For the record, here’s how the public voting played out: Hello Friend We Missed You received 97 eligible votes. Next was Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell with 62. Close behind that Underdogs: Tooth And Nail by Chris Bonnello with 41 votes. Extremely close behind that, Hashim & Family by Shahnaz Ahsan with 39 votes. And then we have The Girl With the Louding Voice by Abi Daré and Akin by Emma Donoghue with 12 and five votes respectively. That meant that Hello Friend We Missed You carried over two votes into our final meeting. But it wasn’t a foregone conclusion. Each of our three judges had one vote to allot – and strong opinions to go with them. There were other serious contenders. Graham Fulcher made a very strong case for Underdogs: Tooth And Nail and the unique way it provides voice (not to mention adventure and excitement) for neurodiverse characters. Kate Chapman and Christine Ashby put in eloquent advocacy for The Girl With the Louding Voice, its linguistic fecundity and emotional punch. They both also loved Hamnet – a novel many people think should also have made it on to the actual Booker longlist. Meanwhile, there was broad agreement that Hashim & Family was a fine contender and that even if Akin wasn’t Emma Donoghue’s best work, she’s still a writer to be reckoned with. In other words, it was a fine shortlist that required serious deliberations before we could decide on a winner – you can catch up with our discussion on the video below. At the end of this process, we have a worthy winner. Hello Friend We Missed You is just the kind of book we hope to find with the Not the Booker prize. It’s a title that has not yet been widely reviewed, from a small publisher and – most importantly – by a writer of real talent and potential. It took me by surprise when I read it, and it’s haunted me ever since. It’s formally daring, with clipped sentences, short elliptical chapters, and almost impressionistic streams of thought. It’s also very funny. (The title itself turns out to be a fine joke about Domino’s Pizza.) But it’s the emotional complexity and gentle melancholy of the book that endures. It’s a moving experience – and that matters. Especially in a difficult year such as this one. It’s been a tonic to talk about literature and to do it as part of such a well-informed and passionate community of readers. So: thank you to everyone who has taken part. I hope we can reconnect before too long. And many congratulations to our winner.