The Costa Book Awards Category Winners 2017

It only seems the other day that I was getting asked to judge the Costa Book Awards (a moment that left me in a 50/50 mixture of shock and delight) and now my job is done as we announce the category  winners, I was judging the debut category if you missed it. So here they all are…

Costa Children’s Book of the Year: The Explorer by Katherine Rundell
Costa Poetry Collection of the Year: Inside the Wave by Helen Dunmore
Costa Biography of the Year: In The Days of Rain by Rebecca Stott
Costa Novel of the Year: Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor
Costa First Novel of the Year: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

So there you have it. These five books now go head to head for the Costa Book of the Year 2017 and I have decided I am going to read them in time for the party (which I am taking my mother to, she is thrilled) and the announcement on Tuesday January 30th 2018. It also means I can finally share some reviews of the Costa shortlisted books I have read and some of the submissions that didn’t make the debut shortlist but I am desperate to talk to you about and send you off to read. All in due course.

So what do you make of the category winners? Which have you read and what did you think? Which really take your fancy and which do you think will win, I would love to know all of this, so do tell me in the comments below.

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The Costa Book Award 2017 Shortlists…

Are here… finally. I love this prize and have done for ages, this year being all the more special because I am judging the First Novel Award and can finally talk about the shortlist. But before I do in more depth in the next day or so here are the shortlists, tell me what you think about all of them.

2017 Costa Novel Award shortlist

• Jon McGregor for Reservoir 13 (4^th Estate)
• Stef Penney for Under a Pole Star (Quercus)
• Kamila Shamsie for Home Fire (Bloomsbury Circus)
• Sarah Winman for Tin Man (Tinder Press)

2017 Costa First Novel Award shortlist

• Xan Brooks for The Clocks in This House All Tell Different Times (Salt)
• Karl Geary for Montpelier Parade (Harvill Secker)
• Gail Honeyman for Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine (HarperCollins)
• Rebecca F. John for The Haunting of Henry Twist (Serpent’s Tail)

2017 Costa Biography Award shortlist

• Xiaolu Guo for Once Upon a Time in the East: A Story of Growing Up (Chatto & Windus)
• Caroline Moorehead for A Bold and Dangerous Family: The Rossellis and the Fight Against Mussolini (Chatto & Windus)
• Rebecca Stott for In The Days of Rain (4^th Estate)
• Professor Stephen Westaby for Fragile Lives: A Heart Surgeon’s Stories of Life and Death on the Operating Table (HarperCollins)

2017 Costa Poetry Award shortlist

• Kayo Chingonyi for Kumukanda (Chatto & Windus)
• Helen Dunmore for Inside the Wave (Bloodaxe Books)
• Sinéad Morrissey for On Balance (Carcanet)
• Richard Osmond for Useful Verses (Picador)

2017 Costa Children’s Book Award shortlist

• Sarah Crossan for Moonrise (Bloomsbury Children’s Books)
• Lissa Evans for Wed Wabbit (David Fickling Books)
• Kiran Millwood Hargrave for The Island at the End of Everything (Chicken House)
• Katherine Rundell for The Explorer (Bloomsbury Children’s Books)

Which ones have you read, which ones are you excited to read and, of course, what do you think of the debut category. I am very excited to be able to talk about them all…