Costa Book Award for Novel

The Costa Book Award for Novel, formerly known as the Whitbread Award (1971–2005), was an annual literary award for novels, as part of the Costa Book Awards.

The awards were dissolved in 2022.^[1]

Recipients

Costa Books of the Year are distinguished with a blue ribbon (). Award winners are listed in bold.

Costa Book Award for Novel winners and finalists^[2]

Year	Author	Title	Result	Ref.
1971	Gerda Charles	The Destiny Waltz	Winner
1972	Susan Hill	The Bird of Night	Winner
1973	Shiva Naipaul	The Chip-Chip Gatherers	Winner
1974	Iris Murdoch	The Sacred and Profane Love Machine	Winner
1975	William McIlvanney	Docherty	Winner
1976	William Trevor	The Children of Dynmouth	Winner
1977	Beryl Bainbridge	Injury Time	Winner
1978	Paul Theroux	Picture Palace	Winner
1979	Jennifer Johnston	The Old Jest	Winner
1980	David Lodge	How Far Can You Go?	Winner
1981	Maurice Leitch	Silver's City	Winner
1982	John Wain	Young Shoulders	Winner
1983	William Trevor	Fools of Fortune	Winner
1984	Christopher Hope	Kruger's Alp	Winner
1985	Peter Ackroyd	Hawksmoor	Winner
1986	Kazuo Ishiguro	An Artist of the Floating World	Winner
1987	Ian McEwan	The Child in Time	Winner
1988	Salman Rushdie	The Satanic Verses	Winner
1989	Lindsay Clarke	The Chymical Wedding	Winner
1990	Nicholas Mosley	Hopeful Monsters	Winner
1991	Jane Gardam	The Queen of the Tambourine	Winner
1992	Alasdair Gray	Poor Things	Winner
1993	Joan Brady	Theory of War	Winner
1994	William Trevor	Felicia's Journey	Winner
1995	Salman Rushdie	The Moor's Last Sigh	Winner
	Martin Amis	The Information	Shortlist
	Pat Barker	The Ghost Road
	Justin Cartwright	In Every Face I Meet
	Kazuo Ishiguro	The Unconsoled
1996	Beryl Bainbridge	Every Man for Himself	Winner
	Neil Bartlett	Mr Clive & Mr Page	Shortlist
	J. G. Ballard	Cocaine Nights
	Patrick McGrath	Asylum
	Graham Swift	Last Orders
	Fay Weldon	Worst Fears
1997	Jim Crace	Quarantine	Winner
	John Banville	The Untouchable	Shortlist
	Bernard MacLaverty	Grace Notes
	Ian McEwan	Enduring Love
	Geoff Nicholson	Bleeding London
1998	Justin Cartwright	Leading the Cheers	Winner
	Ronan Bennett	the catastrophist	Shortlist
	Barbara Trapido	The Travelling Hornplayer
1999	Rose Tremain	Music and Silence	Winner
	Jim Crace	Being Dead	Shortlist
	Michael Frayn	Headlong
	Joanne Harris	Chocolat
2000	Matthew Kneale	English Passengers	Winner
	Jill Dawson	Fred & Edie	Shortlist
	Anne Enright	What Are You Like?
	Kazuo Ishiguro	When We Were Orphans
	Will Self	How the Dead Live
2001	Patrick Neate	Twelve Bar Blues	Winner
	Helen Dunmore	The Siege	Shortlist
	Ian McEwan	Atonement
	Andrew Miller	Oxygen
2002	Michael Frayn	Spies	Winner
	Justin Cartwright	White Lightning	Shortlist
	Tim Lott	Rumours of a Hurricane
	William Trevor	The Story of Lucy Gault
2003	Mark Haddon	The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time	Winner
	Rachel Cusk	The Lucky Ones	Shortlist
	Shena Mackay	Heligoland
	Barbara Trapido	Frankie & Stankie
2004	Andrea Levy	Small Island	Winner
	Kate Atkinson	Case Histories	Shortlist
	Louis de Bernières	Birds Without Wings
	Alan Hollinghurst	The Line of Beauty
	Andrea Levy	Small Island
2005	Ali Smith	The Accidental	Winner
	Nick Hornby	A Long Way Down	Shortlist
	Salman Rushdie	Shalimar the Clown
	Christopher Wilson	The Ballad of Lee Cotton
2006	William Boyd	Restless	Winner
	Neil Griffiths	Saving Caravaggio	Shortlist	[3]
	Mark Haddon	A Spot of Bother
	David Mitchell	Black Swan Green
2007	A.L. Kennedy	Day	Winner	[4]
	Neil Bartlett	Skin Lane	Shortlist
	Rupert Thomson	Death of a Murderer
	Rose Tremain	The Road Home
2008	Sebastian Barry	The Secret Scripture	Winner	[5]
	Chris Cleave	The Other Hand	Shortlist
	Louis de Bernières	A Partisan's Daughter
	Patrick McGrath	Trauma
2009	Colm Tóibin	Brooklyn	Winner	[6]
	Penelope Lively	Family Album	Shortlist
	Hilary Mantel	Wolf Hall
	Christopher Nicholson	The Elephant Keeper
2010	Maggie O'Farrell	The Hand That First Held Mine	Winner	[7]
	Louise Doughty	Whatever You Love	Shortlist	[8]
	Nigel Farndale	The Blasphemer
	Paul Murray	Skippy Dies
2011	Andrew Miller	Pure	Winner	[9]
	Julian Barnes	The Sense of an Ending	Shortlist	[10]
	John Burnside	A Summer of Drowning
	Louisa Young	My Dear I Wanted to Tell You
2012	Hilary Mantel	Bring Up the Bodies	Winner	[11]
	Stephen May	Life! Death! Prizes!	Shortlist
	James Meek	The Heart Broke In
	Joff Winterhart	Days of the Bagnold Summer
2013	Kate Atkinson	Life after Life	Winner	[12][13]
	Bernardine Bishop	Unexpected Lessons in Love	Shortlist	[14]
	Maggie O'Farrell	Instructions for a Heatwave
	Evie Wyld	All the Birds, Singing
2014	Ali Smith	How to Be Both	Winner	[15][16]
	Neel Mukherjee	The Lives of Others	Shortlist	[17]
	Monique Roffey	House of Ashes
	Colm Tóibín	Nora Webster
2015	Kate Atkinson	A God in Ruins	Winner	[18]
	Anne Enright	The Green Road	Shortlist	[19]
	Patrick Gale	A Place Called Winter
	Melissa Harrison	At Hawthorn Time
2016	Sebastian Barry	Days Without End	Winner	[20]
	Maggie O'Farrell	This Must Be the Place	Shortlist	[21]
	Sarah Perry	The Essex Serpent
	Rose Tremain	The Gustav Sonata
2017	Jon McGregor	Reservoir 13	Winner	[22]
	Steph Penney	Under a Pole Star	Shortlist	[23]
	Kamila Shamsie	Home Fire
	Sarah Winman	Tin Man
2018	Sally Rooney	Normal People	Winner	[24]
	Pat Barker	The Silence of the Girls	Shortlist	[25]
	Tom Rachman	The Italian Teacher
	Donal Ryan	From a Low and Quiet Sea
2019	Jonathan Coe	Middle England	Winner	[26]
	Sophie Hardach	Confession with Blue Horses	Shortlist	[27]
	Rowan Hisayo Buchanan	Starling Days
	Joseph O'Connor	Shadowplay
2020	Monique Roffey	The Mermaid of Black Conch	Winner	[28]
	Susanna Clarke	Piranesi	Shortlist	[29]
	Tim Finch	Peace Talks
	Denise Mina	The Less Dead
2021	Claire Fuller	Unsettled Ground	Winner	[30]
	Jessie Greengrass	The High House	Shortlist	[31]
	Nadifa Mohamed	The Fortune Men
	Elif Shafak	The Island of Missing Trees

See also

• Costa Book Award for Biography
• Costa Book Award for Children's Books
• Costa Book Award for First Novel
• Costa Book Award for Poetry
• Costa Book Award for Short Story
• Costa Book Awards