Tóibín and Murphy on Costa book shortlists

PAMELA DUNCAN

IRISH AUTHORS Colm Tóibín and Peter Murphy have been shortlisted for a Costa Book Award.

Tóibín’s sixth novel, Brooklyn , is featured on the 2009 shortlist for the Costa Novel Award, formerly the Whitbread Awards.

The author will compete against 2009 Booker winner Hilary Mantel, whose novel Wolf Hall is shortlisted in the same category alongside Penelope Lively for Family Album and Christopher Nicholson for The Elephant Keeper .

Hot Press writer Peter Murphy has been nominated for the Costa First Novel Award for John the Revelator, which the judges described as a “dark and gripping story” that powerfully merges fact and fiction.

For the first time in the history of the awards, the shortlists feature two posthumous nominations. One of them, Siobhán Dowd, appears in the children’s book category for Solace of the Road . Dowd, who was born in London to Irish parents, spent much of her youth visiting the family homes in Waterford and Wicklow. She died of cancer in 2007.

The awards were established in 1971 by Whitbread, but coffee-shop chain Costa took over the sponsorship of the prize in 2006.

The awards recognise the most enjoyable books in five categories: novel, first novel, biography, poetry and children’s book.

The winner in each category receives £5,000 (€5,500), while the overall winner receives a further £25,000. The winner will be announced at an awards ceremony in central London on January 26th.