Blogging Librarian

The results of the 2006 Costa Book Awards were released yesterday. The winner of the “Book of the Year” is a debut author.

Stef Penney beat the odds and other more established authors to win the first-ever Costa Book Award, formerly the Whitbread Book Award, for her novel, Tenderness of Wolves, which is a murder saga set in the snowy wastes of 19th century Canada. It is also the 2006 Costa First Novel Award winner.

An interesting point to note about the novel is that the author has actually never stepped foot on Canada. Her entire novel was researched in the British Library. Now you can see the power of the library.

Here’s the report from The Guardian.

And the rest of the nominees for the Costa Book of the Year Award:

• William Boyd - Restless (2006 Costa Novel Award winner) (Click here for availability in NLB Catalogue)
• Linda Newbery - Set in Stone (2006 Costa Children’s Book Award winner)(Click here for availability in NLB Catalogue)
• John Haynes - Letter to Patience (2006 Costa Poetry Award winner)
• Brian Thompson - Keeping Mum (2006 Costa Biography Award winner)

Technorati Tags: book awards, books, stef penney