__NOTOC__
{{adsense4}}
<br>'''WINNER''' {{topten|author=Andrew Miller|title=Pure|rating=4|genre=Literary FictionEntries for |summary=I've read Miller's Oxygen and The Optimists so I was looking forward to reading this novel. The story opens in the 2011 Awards clsed on 24 June 2011opulence of the Palace of Versailles. The shortlists were aannounced on 15 November We are given vivid descriptions of both the scale of the palace and weits grandeur. Jean-Baptiste Baratte, the young engineer, seems completely over-awed by the whole occasion. Even although he'll hear about the category winners on 4 January 2012s not entirely sure what is expected of him in Paris, he accepts. The presentation ceremony follows on 24 JanuaryHe needs to eat, after all.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444724258</amazonuk>}}
'''The Shortlists'''
'''Costa First Novel Award'''
'''Winner'''
{{topten
|author=Christie Watson
|title=Tiny Sunbirds Far Away
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=''Tiny Sunbirds Far Away'' starts in Lagos but soon moves to the rural, oil producing Niger Delta. This allows Christie Watson's young narrator, 12 year old Blessing, to view the traditional ways afresh. It's a clever device and young Blessing is shocked by the rural conditions after a relatively luxurious life in Lagos with a good school and a modern apartment. But when her mother discovers her father on top of another woman, she takes Blessing and her older brother, the asthmatic Ezikiel, back to her family home.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184916374X</amazonuk>
}}
'''The rest of the shortlist'''
{{topten
|author=Kevin Barry
|title=City of Bohane
|rating=5|genre=General Fiction|summary=Hugely cinematic in style, this gangland take set 50 years in the future in a parallel Ireland is breathtakingly original and distinctive. Told in a vernacular style it is a lust and drug fuelled romp of a story that you won't easily forget.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224090577</amazonuk>
}}
'The Last Hundred Days' in question here are the final days of Ceausescu's Romania in late 1989. Narrated by an unnamed young British expat who has a job offer from the English department of Bucharest University, despite never having interviewed for the job, we get an insight into the life under communist rule as Eastern bloc countries all around start to open up after the fall of the Berlin Wall. We are told that McGuinness lived in Romania in the years leading up to the revolution, and this is no surprise as there is an authenticity here that could only have come from some level of inside knowledge.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1854115413</amazonuk>
}}
{{topten
|author=Christie Watson
|title=Tiny Sunbirds Far Away
|rating=
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184916374X</amazonuk>
}}
'''Costa Novel Award'''
'''Winner'''
{{topten
|author=Andrew Miller
|title=Pure
|rating=4
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=I've read Miller's Oxygen and The Optimists so I was looking forward to reading this novel. The story opens in the opulence of the Palace of Versailles. We are given vivid descriptions of both the scale of the palace and its grandeur. Jean-Baptiste Baratte, the young engineer, seems completely over-awed by the whole occasion. Even although he's not entirely sure what is expected of him in Paris, he accepts. He needs to eat, after all.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444724258</amazonuk>
}}
'''The rest of the shortlist'''
{{topten
|author=John Burnside
|title=A Summer of Drowning
|rating=3.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary= ''A Summer of Drowning'' is a book in which for much of the time not a lot happens - but always spookily. Set on the Norwegian island of Kvaløya in the Arctic Circle, the story is narrated by Liv who is now 28 but who recalls events of a summer when she was 18. Liv resides with her artist mother in, if not isolation, then certainly seclusion. The book makes much of the midsummer madness that 24 hour daylight induces and in that respect it is wholly successful. It aims for a dream-like and timeless quality which it largely achieves.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>022406178X</amazonuk>
}}
{{topten
|author=Andrew Miller|title=Pure|rating=4|genre=Literary Fiction|summary=I've read Miller's Oxygen and The Optimists so I was looking forward to reading this novel. The story opens in the opulence of the Palace of Versailles. We are given vivid descriptions of both the scale of the palace and its grandeur. Jean-Baptiste Baratte, the young engineer, seems completely over-awed by the whole occasion. Even although he's not entirely sure what is expected of him in Paris, he accepts. He needs to eat, after all. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444724258</amazonuk>}} {{topten|author=Moira Louisa Young|title=My Dear I Wanted To to Tell You |rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=It takes a while for the full power of Louisa Young's remarkable ''My Dear I Wanted To Tell You'' to become apparent, but when it does, it can hardly fail to move you. Set just before and during World War One, it's a story of love and human spirit against the odds. The impact of the book is in what happens to the characters, so I don't want to give too much away, but it's worth pointing out that it's not for the overly squeamish reader particularly in some of the descriptions of surgical procedures, which have clearly been meticulously researched by Young. The title itself it taken from the opening words of the standard letters that the wounded were given to send to loved ones back home. The wounded were required to fill in the blanks.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007361432</amazonuk>
}}
'''Costa Poetry Award'''
{{toptenWe don't review poetry, but here's a list of the runners and riders:|author='''Winner''' '''The Bees'' by Carol Ann Duffy|title='''The Beesrest of the shortlist'''|rating=Unreviewed|summary=Unfortunately we don't have a review of this book. The judges said 'Night''These tender, fluent, surprising poems feel at once contemporary and aliveby David Harsent with the history of poetry.''Fiere'' by Jackie Kay |amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330442449</amazonuk>}}''November'' by Sean O'Brien
{{topten|author=David Harsent|title=Night|rating=Unreviewed|summary=Unfortunately we don't have a review of this book. The judges said ''Harsent’s long luxuriant lines are lit by jewel-like images. Formally ambitious,complex and mysterious.Costa Biography Award'''|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571255639</amazonuk>}}
{{topten|author=Jackie Kay|title=Fiere|rating=Unreviewed|summary=Unfortunately we don't have a review of this book. The judges said ''These poems are open-armed and generous, warmly emotional without being sentimental. They welcome you in.Winner'''|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330513370</amazonuk>}}
{{topten
|author=Sean O'BrienMatthew Hollis|title=NovemberNow All Roads Lead to France: The Last Years of Edward Thomas|rating=Unreviewed5|genre=Biography|summary=Unfortunately we don't have A biography of Edward Thomas, a review prolific writer and literary critic who only turned to poetry in 1914 yet became one of this book. The judges said ''The mythic combines with the modern most renowned poets of his generation despite being killed in incantatory poems that thrum with verbal and intellectual energyaction less than three years later.''|amazonuk=<amazonuk>03305350050571245986</amazonuk>
}}
'''Costa Biography AwardThe rest of the shortlist'''
{{topten
|author=Julia Blackburn
|title=Thin Paths: Journeys In in and Around an Italian Mountain Village
|rating=4
|genre=Biography
|summary= Julia Blackburn had known Herman for many years, but they had drifted apart. She put the postcard which she received from him in an album: it mentioned a cottage he had discovered in Liguria and which he was renovating. Some time later there was another postcard and an invitation to visit. Over time the cottage would become her home and Herman her husband. 'Thin Paths' is the stories of the people who inhabit this harsh, wild landscape and of the way in which the landscape has formed the people. The thin paths join the people and the places together in a way of life which is rare.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224090682</amazonuk>
}}
|summary=A poignant, moving account of one family's living with a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic. Patrick tells most of the story, though his elder son Henry, the sufferer, has written some chapters from his point of view.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847377033</amazonuk>
}}
{{topten
|author=Matthew Hollis
|title=Now All Roads Lead to France: The Last Years of Edward Thomas
|rating=
|genre=Biography
|summary=
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571245986</amazonuk>
}}
{{topten
|author=Claire Tomalin
|title=Charles Dickens: A lifeLife
|rating=5
|genre=Biography
'''Costa Children's Book Award'''
'''Winner'''
{{topten
|author=Moira Young
|title=Blood Red Road
|rating=5
|genre=Teens
|summary=Fabulous quest novel set in a future dystopian society and in the current vogue style of a revenge Western. It's beautifully done in spare prose and has a marvellous central character. Bookbag loved it.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1407124250</amazonuk>
}}
'''The rest of the shortlist'''
{{topten
|author=Frank Cottrell Boyce
|title=The Unforgotten Coat
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=Gorgeous and slightly surreal story about friendship, difference and enrichment. And a more-than-welcome antidote to anti-immigration rhetoric. Just don't buy it on Kindle!
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1406333859</amazonuk>
}}
|summary=A wonderful story full of interesting, quirky characters...perfect for lovers of magic, or those who just enjoy a good action, adventure and mystery story!
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>038561800X</amazonuk>
}}
{{topten
|author=Moira Young
|title=Blood Red Road
|rating=5
|genre=Teens
|summary=Fabulous quest novel set in a future dystopian society and in the current vogue style of a revenge Western. It's beautifully done in spare prose and has a marvellous central character. Bookbag loved it.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1407124250</amazonuk>
}}