Costa Book Awards

The 2012 Costa Book Awards winners have been announced. Listed below are the winners of the three adult fiction categories. All three of which are now eligible for the Costa Book of the Year Prize, to be announced Jan 29th:

Costa Biography Award

Dotter of her Father’s Eyes (M)
by Mary and Bryan Talbot

"Part personal history, part biography, Dotter of her Father’s Eyes contrasts two coming-of-age narratives: that of Lucia, the daughter of James Joyce, and that of author Mary Talbot, daughter of the eminent Joycean scholar James S. Atherton. Social expectations and gender politics, thwarted ambitions and personal tragedy are played out against two contrasting historical backgrounds, poignantly evoked by the atmospheric visual storytelling of award-winning comic artist and graphic-novel pioneer, Bryan Talbot."

Costa First Novel Award

The Innocents (M)
by Francesca Segal

"Adam and Rachel, childhood sweethearts, are getting married at last. Rachel is everything Adam has ever imagined in a wife and her parents adore him. A life of easy contentment awaits, at the heart of the community. But then Rachel’s reckless American cousin returns to the family fold. Ellie represents everything that Adam has striven to avoid – and everything that is missing from his world. As the long-awaited wedding approaches, Adam is torn between duty and temptation, security and freedom, and must make a choice that will break either one heart, or many."

Costa Novel Award

Bring up the Bodies (M)
by Hilary Mantel

"The year is 1535 and Thomas Cromwell, Chief Minister to Henry VIII, must work both to please the king and keep the nation safe. Anne Boleyn, for whose sake Henry has broken with Rome and created his own church, has failed to do what she promised: bear a son to secure the Tudor line. As Henry develops a dangerous attraction to Wolf Hall’s Jane Seymour, Thomas must negotiate a ‘truth’ that will satisfy Henry and secure his own career. But neither minister nor king will emerge undamaged from the bloody theatre of Anne’s final days."