LONDON – Derry-born author Maggie O'Farrell has won the 2010 Costa novel award for her fifth novel, The Hand That First Held Mine.
She is the the author of four previous novels, including The Distance Between Us, which won a Somerset Maugham Award. The judges said that her novel was "a powerful story full of dynamic characters, crafted with panache and lyricism". It was one of five category winners at the awards, which honour writers based in the UK and Ireland.
Each category winner receives £5,000 (€5,860) and has a chance to claim the overall Costa Book of the Year Award, worth a further £30,000. The overall winner will be announced in London on January 25th.
The complete list of category winners is: Costa Novel Award – The Hand That First Held Mineby Maggie O'Farrell; Costa First Novel Award – Witness the Nightby Kishwar Desai; Costa Biography Award – The Hare with Amber Eyesby Edmund de Waal; Costa Poetry Award – Of Mutabilityby Jo Shapcott; Costa Children's Book Award – Out of Shadowsby Jason Wallace. – (Reuters)