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NORMAL PEOPLE BY Mayo writer Sally Rooney and From A Low and Quiet Sea by Tipperary man Donal Ryan have been shortlisted for the prestigious Costa Novel Award.
The awards are the only major book prize open solely to authors resident in Ireland and the UK. The winner will take home a £5,000 cheque as well as being in the running for the Costa Book of the Year award, whose winner will scoop £30,000.
Pat Barker’s The Silence of the Girls and The Italian Teacher by journalist Tom Rachman fill out the nominees in the Novel category.
Ryan’s book follows three men from vastly different backgrounds who are each trying to overcome their past to find some version of home. Rooney’s Normal People details the life-changing relationship between Connell and Marianne who grow up in a small town in rural Ireland.
The category will be judged by The Guardian’s Fiction Editor Justine Jordan, author Rachel Joyce and Zool Verjee of the bookseller Blackwell’s Oxford.
They described Ryan’s novel as “compassionate, profound and masterfully written” and Rooney’s as “bold, fresh and intensely modern”.
Both of the books also made it on to the longlist for this year’s Man Booker Prize, which was won by Belfast author Anna Burns for her novel Milkman.
The two authors have garnered numerous prizes and nominations in their careers to date. Rooney is the youngest-ever winner of the Sunday Times PFD Young Writer of the Year Award. Ryan’s first novel The Spinning Heart was recently voted Irish Book of the Decade.
This is the 47th year of the book awards which were known as the Whitbread awards until 2006.
As well as Novel there are also First Novel, Biography, Poetry and Children’s Book categories. The winners of each of the categories will be announced on January 7 while the Costa Book of the Year will be revealed at a ceremony at the end of January.
RTÉ broadcaster Rick O’Shea is one of the judges for the children’s book award.
Here’s all of the nominees in all of the categories:
Novel Award shortlist
| Pat Barker | The Silence of the Girls | Hamish Hamilton |
| Tom Rachman | The Italian Teacher | riverrun |
| Sally Rooney | Normal People | Faber & Faber |
| Donal Ryan | From a Low and Quiet Sea | Doubleday |
First Novel Award shortlist
| Natalie Hart | Pieces of Me | Legend Press |
| Elisa Lodato | An Unremarkable Body | Weidenfeld & Nicolson |
| Stuart Turton | The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle | Raven Books |
| Anne Youngson | Meet Me at the Museum | Doubleday |
Biography Award shortlist
| Viv Albertine | To Throw Away Unopened | Faber & Faber |
| Bart van Es | The Cut Out Girl | Fig Tree |
| Raynor Winn | The Salt Path | Michael Joseph |
| Benjamin Zephaniah | The Life and Rhymes of Benjamin Zephaniah: The Autobiography | Scribner |
Poetry Award shortlist
| Zaffar Kunial | Us | Faber & Faber |
| J. O. Morgan | Assurances | Jonathan Cape |
| Richard Scott | Soho | Faber & Faber |
| Hannah Sullivan | Three Poems | Faber & Faber |
Children’s Book Award shortlist
| David Almond | The Colour of the Sun | Hodder Children’s Books |
| Candy Gourlay | Bone Talk | David Fickling Books |
| Matt Killeen | Orphan Monster Spy | Usborne |
| Hilary McKay | The Skylarks’ War | Macmillan Children’s Books |
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Poor girl. If this is true the sentence will be minimal…to add to her distress.
Worrying trend of assaults lately. And punishments are silly.
I hope she will be ok.
Totally unrelated to this story,but how come on Facebook the journal post the story of the chap stabbed to death & anyone can comment on it but nobody can comment here.
Regardless of the fact Facebook may have different rules.The main reason i see comments not allowed on the journal is for legal reasons,then why bother to post them on Facebook if it has legal ramifications ? surely the eyes of the law don’t care if its the comment section on the journal or Facebook.
Young as 10 are allowed out of the premises unsupervised. Toilets are unsupervised where a lot off the action takes place. OK I could go on. But my heart goes out to that poor girl and her family. They will get the toerags who have done but that won’t alleviate the pain for this young girl
@Warthog: How do I know this? Firstly I have a 12 yr old daughter. Secondly i have direct information from othet students, guards and bouncers. Parents are failing on their duty og care by letting their children go to these money grabbing very poorly supervised events. People should be arrested. We have a youth club underage disco where we have parents montitoring everything. Parents have to collect their children. While at the disco they are not allowed out the door unless a parent is their to collect them or they are with one of the supervising parents.
@Warthog: Messed up on the word count and lost first part of my first message… Young as 10…
Was saying before that is that these underage discos are “sex events “. Alcohol, some drugs are taken before the discos. Girls go commando. Slut runs of different varieties are normal as is the swooping of different bodily fluids. The supervision is non existent. These events need to be stopped or come under a whole new set of “care” rules. All these places want Is cash as they dont give a damn aboutvthe kids.
@Warthog: WTF is a “slut run?”
@Warthog: Ah yes I remember being 10 years old during summer time: video games, bit of soccer, riding our BMXs round the neighbourhood, and when we were too tuckered out from all that we’d snort a few lines bought with saved up pocket-money and get in the finger-bang queue down the local sex event
Sure a bit of hyperbole never hurt anyone
@Warthog: ya a friend of mine does security, and it’s truly shocking what goes on at these events. They can’t control them. And these are seasoned security personnel.
@Warthog: surely you are thinking of an older age group?? I find your comments a bit disturbing. I run a disco for 10 to 12 year olds. NONE of that happens. Where are you talking about?
Slut runs??? Wtf? Disgusting turn of phrase.
Its being reported as a gang-rape in other media. but not here.
have your say