Costa Book Award - Best Novel

This is one of the 759 lists we use to generate our main The Greatest Books list.

About this list

Costa Coffee, 57 Books

The Costa Book Awards are a series of literary awards given to books by authors based in the United Kingdom and Ireland. They were known as the Whitbread Book Awards until 2005, after which Costa Coffee, a subsidiary of Whitbread, took over sponsorship.
The awards, launched in 1971, are given both for high literary merit but also for works that are enjoyable reading and whose aim is to convey the enjoyment of reading to the widest possible audience. As such, they are a more populist literary prize than the Booker Prize.

This list is a yearly book award, and was added to this site over 12 years ago.

View: List Grid Table
Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
17161 English Passengers Matthew Kneale 2000 British English
17161 Twelve Bar Blues Patrick Neate 2001 British English
6907 Spies Michael Frayn 2002 British English
1812 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time Mark Haddon 2003 British English
2487 Small Island Andrea Levy 2004 British English
7845 The Accidental Ali Smith 2005 British English
17161 Restless William Boyd 2006 British English
8099 Day A. L. Kennedy 2007 British English
4888 The Secret Scripture Sebastian Barry 2008 Irish English
17161 The Destiny Waltz Gerda Charles 1968 British English
17161 The Bird of Night Susan Hill 1972 British English
17161 The Chip Chip Gatherers Shiva Naipaul 1973 Trinidadian English
17161 The Sacred and Profane Love Machine Iris Murdoch 1974 British English
17161 Docherty William McIlvanney 1975 Scottish English
17161 The Children of Dynmouth William Trevor 1976 British English
14985 Injury Time Beryl Bainbridge 1977 British English
17161 Picture Palace Paul Theroux 1978 American English
17161 The Old Jest Jennifer Johnston 1979 Irish English
14360 How Far Can You Go? David Lodge 1980 British English
17161 Silver City Maurice Leitch 1976 Irish English
17161 Young Shoulders John Wain 1982 British English
10925 Fools of Fortune William Trevor 1983 Irish English
17161 Kruger's Alp Christopher Hope 1984 South African English
1461 Oranges are not the only Fruit Jeanette Winterson 1985 British English
3069 An Artist of the Floating World Kazuo Ishiguro 1986 British English
17161 Elegies Douglas Dunn 1985 Scottish English
2640 The Child in Time Ian McEwan 1987 British English
17161 Under the Eye of the Clock Christopher Nolan 1987 Irish English
17161 The Comforts of Madness Paul Sayer 1988 British English
17161 The Chymical Wedding Lindsay Clarke 1989 British English
5158 Coleridge Richard Holmes 1989 British English
17161 Hopeful Monsters Nicholas Mosley 1990 British English
17161 The Queen of the Tambourine Jane Gardam 1991 British English
4718 A Life of Picasso John Richardson 1991 British English
14985 Poor Things Alasdair Gray 1992 Scottish English
17161 Swing Hammer Swing! Jeff Torrington 1992 Scottish English
17161 Theory of War Joan Brady 1993 American English
11794 Felicia's Journey William Trevor 1994 British English
4369 The Moor's Last Sigh Salman Rushdie 1995 British English
3578 Behind the Scenes at the Museum Kate Atkinson 1995 British English
14985 Every Man for Himself Beryl Bainbridge 1996 British English
17161 The Spirit Level Seamus Heaney 1996 Irish English
5154 Quarantine Jim Crace 1997 British English
14985 Tales from Ovid Ted Hughes 1997 British English
17161 Leading the Cheers Justin Cartwright 1998 British English
4078 Birthday Letters Ted Hughes 1998 British English
4871 Music and Silence Rose Tremain 1999 British English
17161 Samuel Pepys Claire Tomalin 2002 British English
17161 The Tenderness of Wolves Stef Penney 2006 British English
2368 Brooklyn Colm Toibin 2009 Irish English
14985 The Hand That First Held Mine Maggie O'Farrell 2010 British English
17161 Pure Andrew Miller 2011 British English
2919 Bring Up the Bodies Hilary Mantel 2012 British English
534 Satanic Verses Salman Rushdie 1988 British English
669 Beowulf Unknown 1000 Unknown Old english
2336 How to be both Ali Smith 2014 British English
11405 A God in Ruins Kate Atkinson 2015 British English