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.”

Source: http://www.thereader.ca/2008/11/8-great-fiction-reading-suggestons-from.html