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__NOTOC__
{{adsense4}}
<br>
Entries for the 2011 Awards clsed on 24 June 2011. The shortlists were aannounced on 15 November and we'll hear about the category winners on 4 January 2012. The presentation ceremony follows on 24 January.
'''The Shortlists'''
'''Costa First Novel Award'''
{{topten
|author=Kevin Barry
|title=City of Bohane
|rating=
|genre=
|summary=
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224090577</amazonuk>
}}
{{topten
|author=Patrick McGuinness
|title=The Last Hundred Days
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=
'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>
}}
{{topten
|author=Kerry Young
|title=Pao
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=In her Costa Prize short-listed first novel, Kerry Young brings together a huge number of elements that make up a good story. Set in Jamaica, the time period covers 1938 to almost present day, it is the political backdrop of independence and control over Jamaica's assets that informs much of the story. But while the politics of Jamaica resound throughout the book, it's also a very personal story about the life of the eponymous Yang Pao. Issues of race, class, love, family, ambition and business philosophy - Pao's guiding light is Sun Tzu's The Art of War - are skilfully woven into the mix to make this a great book to curl up with on a cold winter's night.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140881207X</amazonuk>
}}
'''Costa Novel Award'''
{{topten
|author=Julian Barnes
|title=The Sense of an Ending
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary='The Sense of an Ending' is almost more of a novella - it's a slim volume but exquisitely written, as you might expect from Julian Barnes. It starts off describing the relationships between four friends at school, narrated by one of the friends, Tony Webster, but quickly it becomes clear that this is written many years later. Barnes has long been a terrific observer of the English middle classes and his style invariably contains satire and dry humour. And this being Barnes, this school clique is intellectual in interest, as the narrator recalls English and History teachers and student philosophising.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224094157</amazonuk>
}}
{{topten
|author=John Burnside
|title=A Summer of Drowning
|rating=
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=
|amazonuk=<amazonuk></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 Young
|title=My Dear I Wanted To Tell You
|rating=
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007361432</amazonuk>
}}
'''Costa Poetry Award'''
{{topten
|author=Carol Ann Duffy
|title=The Bees
|rating=Unreviewed
|summary=Unfortunately we don't have a review of this book. The judges said ''These tender, fluent, surprising poems feel at once contemporary and alive
with the history of poetry.''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330442449</amazonuk>
}}
{{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.''
|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.''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330513370</amazonuk>
}}
{{topten
|author=Sean O'Brien
|title=November
|rating=Unreviewed
|summary=Unfortunately we don't have a review of this book. The judges said ''The mythic combines with the modern in incantatory poems that thrum with verbal and intellectual energy.''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330535005</amazonuk>
}}
'''Costa Biography Award'''
{{topten
|author=Julia Blackburn
|title=Thin Paths: Journeys In and Around an Italian Mountain Village
|rating=4
|genre=Biography
|summary=
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224090682</amazonuk>
}}
{{topten
|author=Patrick Cockburn and Henry Cockburn
|title=Henry's Demons: Living with Schizophrenia. a Father and Son's Story
|rating=4.5
|genre=Biography
|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 life
|rating=5
|genre=Biography
|summary=A very full account of the life of one of the best-known Victorian writers, from one of the most acclaimed of contemporary biographers, highlighting his virtues and less agreeable side in equal measure.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670917672</amazonuk>
}}
'''Costa Children's Book Award'''
{{topten
|author=Martyn Bedford
|title=Flip
|rating=5
|genre=Teens
|summary=An awesome psychological thriller with a fascinating premise, a plot that is paced spectacularly well, and a protagonist you will come to really empathise with. Enjoyed it immensely, and comes thoroughly recommended.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1406329894</amazonuk>
}}
{{topten
|author=The Unforgotten Coat
|title=Frank Cottrell Boyce
|rating=
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1406333859</amazonuk>
}}
{{topten
|author=Lissa Evans
|title=Small Change for Stuart
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|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>
}}
{{commentfeature}}
[[Category:Lists|Costa Prize 2011]]
[[Category:Literary Fiction|*Costa Prize 2011]]
{{adsense4}}
<br>
Entries for the 2011 Awards clsed on 24 June 2011. The shortlists were aannounced on 15 November and we'll hear about the category winners on 4 January 2012. The presentation ceremony follows on 24 January.
'''The Shortlists'''
'''Costa First Novel Award'''
{{topten
|author=Kevin Barry
|title=City of Bohane
|rating=
|genre=
|summary=
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224090577</amazonuk>
}}
{{topten
|author=Patrick McGuinness
|title=The Last Hundred Days
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=
'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>
}}
{{topten
|author=Kerry Young
|title=Pao
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=In her Costa Prize short-listed first novel, Kerry Young brings together a huge number of elements that make up a good story. Set in Jamaica, the time period covers 1938 to almost present day, it is the political backdrop of independence and control over Jamaica's assets that informs much of the story. But while the politics of Jamaica resound throughout the book, it's also a very personal story about the life of the eponymous Yang Pao. Issues of race, class, love, family, ambition and business philosophy - Pao's guiding light is Sun Tzu's The Art of War - are skilfully woven into the mix to make this a great book to curl up with on a cold winter's night.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>140881207X</amazonuk>
}}
'''Costa Novel Award'''
{{topten
|author=Julian Barnes
|title=The Sense of an Ending
|rating=4.5
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary='The Sense of an Ending' is almost more of a novella - it's a slim volume but exquisitely written, as you might expect from Julian Barnes. It starts off describing the relationships between four friends at school, narrated by one of the friends, Tony Webster, but quickly it becomes clear that this is written many years later. Barnes has long been a terrific observer of the English middle classes and his style invariably contains satire and dry humour. And this being Barnes, this school clique is intellectual in interest, as the narrator recalls English and History teachers and student philosophising.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224094157</amazonuk>
}}
{{topten
|author=John Burnside
|title=A Summer of Drowning
|rating=
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=
|amazonuk=<amazonuk></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 Young
|title=My Dear I Wanted To Tell You
|rating=
|genre=Literary Fiction
|summary=
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0007361432</amazonuk>
}}
'''Costa Poetry Award'''
{{topten
|author=Carol Ann Duffy
|title=The Bees
|rating=Unreviewed
|summary=Unfortunately we don't have a review of this book. The judges said ''These tender, fluent, surprising poems feel at once contemporary and alive
with the history of poetry.''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330442449</amazonuk>
}}
{{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.''
|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.''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330513370</amazonuk>
}}
{{topten
|author=Sean O'Brien
|title=November
|rating=Unreviewed
|summary=Unfortunately we don't have a review of this book. The judges said ''The mythic combines with the modern in incantatory poems that thrum with verbal and intellectual energy.''
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330535005</amazonuk>
}}
'''Costa Biography Award'''
{{topten
|author=Julia Blackburn
|title=Thin Paths: Journeys In and Around an Italian Mountain Village
|rating=4
|genre=Biography
|summary=
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224090682</amazonuk>
}}
{{topten
|author=Patrick Cockburn and Henry Cockburn
|title=Henry's Demons: Living with Schizophrenia. a Father and Son's Story
|rating=4.5
|genre=Biography
|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 life
|rating=5
|genre=Biography
|summary=A very full account of the life of one of the best-known Victorian writers, from one of the most acclaimed of contemporary biographers, highlighting his virtues and less agreeable side in equal measure.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670917672</amazonuk>
}}
'''Costa Children's Book Award'''
{{topten
|author=Martyn Bedford
|title=Flip
|rating=5
|genre=Teens
|summary=An awesome psychological thriller with a fascinating premise, a plot that is paced spectacularly well, and a protagonist you will come to really empathise with. Enjoyed it immensely, and comes thoroughly recommended.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1406329894</amazonuk>
}}
{{topten
|author=The Unforgotten Coat
|title=Frank Cottrell Boyce
|rating=
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1406333859</amazonuk>
}}
{{topten
|author=Lissa Evans
|title=Small Change for Stuart
|rating=4.5
|genre=Confident Readers
|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>
}}
{{commentfeature}}
[[Category:Lists|Costa Prize 2011]]
[[Category:Literary Fiction|*Costa Prize 2011]]
