To find out more about the shortlisted books just click on the award category you are interested in.
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Costa First Novel Award 2019
Costa Novel Award 2019
Costa Biography Award 2019
Costa Poetry Award 2019
Costa Children's Book Award 2019
Winner of the 2019 Biography Award and Costa Book of the Year.
The Old Bailey, 1826 and Frannie Langton stands in court accused of the brutal murder of her former master and mistress. But “there was love between me and her”, she tells the court as she relates her story from 1812, when she worked at Paradise plantation, Jamaica. With the skills of reading and writing “packed inside” her, &...
The country is changing and, up and down the land, cracks are appearing - within families and between generations. In the Midlands Benjamin Trotter tries to help his aged father navigate a Britain that seems to have forgotten he exists, while in London his friend Doug doesn't understand why his teenage daughter is eternally enraged. Meanwhile, newlyweds Sophie and Ian ...
Winner of the 2019 Biography Award and Costa Book of the Year.
POETRY BOOK SOCIETY RECOMMENDATION Flèche (the French word for 'arrow') is an offensive technique commonly used in fencing, a sport of Mary Jean Chan's young adult years, when she competed locally and internationally for her home city, Hong Kong. This cross-linguistic pun presents the queer, non-white body as both vulnerable ('flesh') and weaponised ('fleche'), and evokes the difficulties ...
Shortlisted for the Costa Children's Book Award 2019 Rich in drama, and suffused in the spirituality and atmosphere of the author’s native Northern Punjab, Jasbinder Bilan’s debut is a delightful, hope-bathed treat for 9+ year-olds. With money tight, Asha’s father has gone to the big city to work ...
Costa Book Awards 2019
The Costa Book Awards is one of the UK's most prestigious and popular literary prizes and recognises some of the most enjoyable books of the year, written by authors based in the UK and Ireland.
Since their launch in 1971, the awards have rewarded a wide range of excellent books and authors across all genres.
Uniquely, the prize has five categories - First Novel, Novel, Biography, Poetry and Children's Book - with one of the five winning books selected as the overall Costa Book of the Year. It is the only prize which places children’s books alongside adult books in this way.
The judging panel for the 2019 Costa Book Awards includes: Clare Mackintosh, Will Smith, Mahsuda Snaith, John Boyne, Francesca Brown, Sarah Turner, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb, James Marriott, Will Rycroft, Kate Clanchy, Jade Cuttle, Rohan Silva, Charlotte Eyre, Bali Rai, Danny Van Emden, Sarah Franklin, Joe Haddow, Adele Parks, Simon Trewin, Kit De Waal.
The judges will select their favourite book in each category and these books will then be shortlisted for the 2019 Costa Book of the Year. The overall winner will be announced at an awards ceremony in central London on Tuesday 28th January 2020.
For more information visit www.costa.co.uk/costa-book-awards and keep up with the latest news @CostaBookAwards
