Costa First Novel Award

2021

Winner
Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson

Shortlist
The Manningtree Witches by AK Blakemore
Fault Lines by Emily Itami
The Stranding by Kate Sawyer

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Novel

2020

Winner
Love After Love by Ingrid Persaud

Shortlist
Big Girl, Small Town by Michelle Gallen
The Family Tree by Sairish Hussain
All the Water in the World by Karen Raney

2019

Winner
The Confessions of Frannie Langton by Sara Collins

Shortlist
Diary of a Somebody by Brian Bilston
Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams
The Other Half of Augusta Hope by Joanna Glen

2018

Winner
The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton

Shortlist
Pieces of Me by Natalie Hart
An Unremarkable Body by Elisa Lodato
Meet Me at the Museum by Anne Youngson

Winner
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

Shortlist
The Clocks in the House All Tell Different Times by Xan Brooks
Montpelier Parade by Karl Geary
The Haunting of Henry Twist by Rebecca F John

2016

Winner
Golden Hill by Francis Spufford

Shortlist
The Good Guy by Susan Beale
My Name is Leon by Kit de Waal
The Words in My Hand by Guinevere Glasfurd

2015

Winner
The Loney by Andrew Michael Hurley

Shortlist
Spill Simmer Falter Wither by Sara Baume
The Girl in the Red Coat by Kate Hamer
Things We Have In Common by Tasha Kavanagh

2014

Winner
Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey

Shortlist
A Song for Issy Bradley by Carys Bray
Academy Street by Mary Costello
Chop Chop by Simon Wroe

2013

Winner
The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filer

Shortlist
Idiopathy by Sam Byers
Meeting the English by Kate Clanchy
Marriage Material by Sathnam Sanghera

2012

Winner
The Innocents by Francesca Segal

Shortlist
The Notable Brain of Maximilian Ponder by JW Ironmonger
Snake Ropes by Jess Richards
The Bellwether Revivals by Benjamin Wood

2011

Winner
Tiny Sunbirds Far Away by Christie Watson

Shortlist
City of Bohane by Kevin Barry
The Last Hundred Days by Patrick McGuinness
Pao by Kerry Young

2010

Winner
Witness the Night by Kishwar Desai

Shortlist
Coconut Unlimited by Nikesh Shukla
The Temple Goers by Aatish Taseer
Not Quite White by Simon Thirsk

2009

Winner
Beauty by Raphael Selbourne

Shortlist
The Finest Type of English Womanhood by Rachel Heath
John the Revelator by Peter Murphy
The Girl with Glass Feet by Ali Shaw

2008

Winner
The Outcast by Sadie Jones

Shortlist
The Behaviour of Moths by Poppy Adams
Inside the Whale by Jennie Rooney
Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith

2007

Winner
What Was Lost by Catherine O'Flynn

Shortlist
A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam
Gifted by Nikita Lalwani
Mosquito by Roma Tearne

2006

Winner
The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney

Shortlist
The Meaning of Night by Michael Cox
Cloth Girl by Marilyn Heward Mills
The Amnesia Clinic by James Scudamore

Whitbread First Novel Award

2005

Winner
The Harmony Silk Factory by Tash Aw

Shortlist
26a by Diana Evans
The Short Day Dying by Peter Hobbs
Gem Squash Tokoloshe by Rachel Zadok

2004

Winner
Eve Green by Susan Fletcher

Shortlist
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
The Land as Viewed from the Sea by Richard Collins
The Maze by Panos Karnezis

2003

Winner
Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre

Shortlist
Buddha Da by Anne Donovan
An Evening of Long Goodbyes by Paul Murray
An Empty Room by Talitha Stevenson

2002

Winner
The Song of Names by Norman Lebrecht

Shortlist
The End of My Tether by Neil Astley
Homage to a Firing Squad by Tariq Goddard
The Impressionist by Hari Kunzru

2001

Winner
Something Like a House by Sid Smith

Shortlist
The Oversight by Will Eaves
Burning Worm by Carl Tighe
August by Gerard Woodward

2000

Winner
White Teeth by Zadie Smith

Shortlist
Under the Skin by Michel Faber
Danny Boy by Jo-Ann Goodwin
Born Free by Laura Hird

1999

Winner
White City Blue by Tim Lott

Shortlist
The Great Ideas by Suzanne Cleminshaw
Our Fathers by Andrew O'Hagan
A Foreign Country by Francine Stock

1998

Winner
The Last King of Scotland by Giles Foden

Shortlist
Shopping by Gavin Kramer
The Restraint of Beasts by Magnus Mills
Jelly Roll by Luke Sutherland

1997

Winner
The Ventriloquist’s Tale by Pauline Melville

Shortlist
One Day as a Tiger by Anne Haverty
The Underground Man by Mick Jackson
Beach Boy by Ardashir Vakil
Eclipse of the Sun by Phil Whitaker

1996

Winner
The Debt to Pleasure by John Lanchester

Shortlist
Reading In the Dark by Seamus Deane
The Arizona Game by Georgina Hammick
Mother of Pearl by Mary Morrissy