Costa Book Awards shortlists unveiled
17th November 2010
The 19 works shortlisted in the 2010 Costa Book Awards' five categories have been revealed.
Contesting the best novel honour are Whatever You Love by Louise Doughty, Nigel Farndale's The Blasphemer, The Hand That First Held Mine by Maggie O'Farrell and Paul Murray's Skippy
Dies.
Witness the Night by Kishwar Desai, Nikesh Shukla's Coconut Unlimited, The Temple-Goers by Aatish Taseer and Simon Thirsk's Not Quite White are the titles in the running for the first novel
award.
Meanwhile, the best biography shortlist features Sarah Bakewell's How to Live, My Father's Fortune by Michael Frayn and Edmund de Waal's The Hare with Amber Eyes.
Standard Midland by Roy Fisher, Robin Robertson's The Wrecking Light, Of Mutability by Jo Shapcott and Sam Willetts' New Light for the Old Dark are the collections selected for the poetry
accolade.
Finally, the children's book award shortlist boasts Flyaway by Lucy Christopher, Sharon Dogar's Annexed, Bartimaeus: The Ring of Solomon by Jonathan Stroud and Jason Wallace's Out of Shadows.
The winners of the five individual categories will be named on January 5th, with the announcement of the overall 2010 Costa Book of the Year following on January 25th.
Last year, Christopher Reid won the Costa Book of the Year honour with his poetry collection A Scattering.