January 06, 2014 - 11:32 AM
LONDON - British writer Kate Atkinson has won the novel-of-the-year prize at Britain's Costa Book Awards with her reality-altering historical saga "Life After Life."
Other winners in the event's five categories include poet Michael Symmons Roberts for his collection "Drysalter" and mental health nurse Nathan Filer, who takes the first-novel prize for his saga of madness, "The Shock of the Fall."
Lucy Hughes-Hallett won the biography category for her portrait of an Italian Fascist, "The Pike," while author and illustrator Chris Riddell won the children's book prize for "Goth Girl and the Ghost of a Mouse."
One of the five books named Monday will be chosen as the overall winner and awarded 30,000 pounds ($50,000) at a Jan. 28 ceremony. The awards are open to writers based in Britain and Ireland.
News from © The Associated Press, 2014