COSTA BOOK AWARDS 2015 - Patrick Gale and Sally Nicholls

Patrick Gale's A PLACE CALLED WINTER, published by Tinder Press in 2015, has been shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award, alongside Kate Atkinson's 'A God in Ruins', Anne Enright's 'The Green Road' and Melissa Harrison's 'At Hawthorn Time'. 

A PLACE CALLED WINTER

A privileged elder son and stammeringly shy, Harry Cane has followed convention at every step. Even the beginnings of an illicit, dangerous affair do little to shake the foundations of his muted existence - until the shock of discovery and the threat of arrest cost him everything. Forced to abandon his wife and child, Harry signs up for emigration to the newly colonised Canadian prairies. Remote and unforgiving, his allotted homestead in a place called Winter is a world away from the golden suburbs of turn-of-the-century Edwardian England. And yet it is here, isolated in a seemingly harsh landscape, under the threat of war, madness and an evil man of undeniable magnetism that the fight for survival w

The judges described Gale's novel as “a sensitive, beautifully structured story of loss, fear, exile and hope.”

Sally Nicholls' OUR ISLAND OF OUR OWN (Scholastic 2015) has been shortlisted for the Children's Book Award, competing against Frances Hardinge's 'The Lie Tree', Hayley Long's 'Sophie Someone' and Andrew Norriss' 'Jessica's Ghost'.

OUR ISLAND OF OUR OWN:

Siblings Jonathan, Holly and Davy have been struggling to survive since the death of their mother, and are determined to avoid being taken into care. When the family's wealthy but eccentric Great-Aunt Irene has a stroke, they go to visit her. Unable to speak or write, she gives Holly some photographs that might lead them to an inheritance that could solve all their problems. But they're not the only ones after the treasure...

Nicholls' book was acclaimed as “a very modern book which has the feel of a classic as well as heaps of heart" by the judges.

The Category Winners will be announced on Monday 4th January 2016 and the Costa Book of the Year will be announced on Tuesday 26th January 2016.