'The publishing world is awash with hundreds of new books published every week.

It can be hard for a new author to stand out from the crowd so the Waterstones prize for Debut Fiction was devised to showcase new talent and champion new authors.

Voted for by Waterstones booksellers from a very strong shortlist, the winner of the first award is The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty.

The novel describes the lives of residents of the Rabbit Hutch, an affordable housing complex in a North American Rust Belt town.

At the centre of the story is Blandine, a beautiful and highly intelligent young girl who reads to escape the limits of her reality. It is a classic coming of age story - one young girl finding her place in the world despite the odds being stacked against her.

A seriously impressive first novel by a true star of the future.