8 Great Fiction Reading Suggestons from The Costa Book Awards

The Costa Book Awards have released their 2011 short lists. Formerly known as the Whitbread Book Awards, these awards aim to recognise "well-written, enjoyable books that they would strongly recommend to anyone to read." Who can argue with a criteria that?

Listed below are the nominees in the Novel and First Novel categories:

Novels:

My Dear I Wanted to Tell You (M)
by Louisa Young

Judges: “A fresh take on seemingly familiar territory – World War One. A harrowing story and gripping romance of equal appeal to men and women.”

Pure (M)
by Andrew Miller

Judges: “As compassionate as it is ingenious, Pure confirms Miller as a superlative technician - a master of register, narrative and characterisation.”

A Summer of Drowning (M)
by John Burnside

Judges: “We were enthralled and haunted by this ambiguous and unsettling evocation of a lonely girl’s preoccupation with the darker shores of Nordic myth.”

The Sense of an Ending (M)
by Julian Barnes

Judges: “The work of a superb writer with all the quiet confidence of maturity. A tale crafted with a watchmaker’s art that questions our ideas of truth and memory.”

First Novels:

City of Bohane (M)
by Kevin Barry

Judges: “Startlingly original – a tour de force of language and imagination.”

The Last Hundred Days (M)
by Patrick McGuinness

Judges: “Drags you through the smoky backrooms of the dying days of Communist Romania. Funny, insightful and compelling.”

Tiny Sunbirds Far Away (M)
by Christie Watson

Judges: “Funny, heartbreaking and utterly real: the characters lodge in your imagination
long after you finish the book.”

Pao (M)
by Kerry Young

Judges: “A dazzling multi-cultural story that gives a real insight into growing up in pre-independence Jamaica and beyond.”