Thursday 7 January 2016

Costa Book awards - winners announced

The 2015 Costa Book Awards have been announced. Five category awards have been presented from which the overall Costa Book of the Year will be selected on January 20th.

A God In Ruins by Kate Atkinson has been awarded the Costa Novel Award. Atkinson previously won the award in 2013 for her novel, Life After Life and A God in Ruins is described as a companion piece rather than a sequel to the previous book. Anne Enright had been shortlisted in this category for her Irish family study The Green Road.

Andrew Michael Hurley has won the Costa First Novel Award for his gothic horror The Loney. Considered to be at the forefront of a new wave of British gothic fiction, the judges agreed that “this book is as close to the perfect first novel as you can get”. Sara Baume’s acclaimed one-man-and-his-dog chronicle Spill Simmer Falter Wither had been shortlisted for the award.

Andrea Wulf won the Biography Award for The Invention of Nature: The Adventures of Alexander Von Humboldt, The Lost Hero of Science, a book about a largely unknown scientist who inspired generations of thinkers and writers and has more things named after him than anyone who has ever lived.

Scottish poet Don Paterson was awarded the Costa Poetry Award for his collection of sonnets addressed to friends and strangers, the living and the dead and the author himself, dealing with contradiction, the dream world and the divided self.

The Children's Book Award went to Frances Hardinge for her dark Victorian murder-mystery The Lie Tree, a book that will grip readers of all ages with its blend of history and fantasy.

All winners of Costa Book Awards receive £5000 and will compete for the title of Costa Book of the Year.

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