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Penguin books triumph at 2021 Costa Book Awards

Caleb Azumah Nelson, Manjeet Mann, Clare Fuller and John Preston have been announced as the category winners of the 2021 Costa Book Awards.

The covers of Unsettled Ground, Open Water and Fall, which have won Costa Category Prizes
Prize-winners: Unsettled Ground, Open Water and Fall. Image: Rebecca Hendin For Penguin

Four books published by Penguin Random House have been named category winners for this year’s Costa Book Award.

In the Costa Biography Award, John Preston’s incendiary retelling of the life of media mogul Robert Maxwell, Fall, has won. Claire Fuller's novel Unsettled Ground, about two reclusive, middle-aged siblings who must re-learn their lives after the death of their mother, has been announced the winner of the Costa Novel Award and Caleb Azumah Nelson has won the First Novel category for his debut, Open Water, which tells the love story of two anonymous protagonists in modern-day South London. Finally, in the Children's Book Award, Manjeet Mann won for her novel about two teenagers from opposite worlds, The Crossing.

The Costa Book Awards are in their 50th year and are unique in celebrating five literary categories: First Novel, Novel, Biography, Poetry and Children’s Book. One of the five winning books from each category will then be chosen for the overall Costa Book of the Year.

The Costa Book of the Year will be announced on Tuesday, 1 February.

In 2020, Monique Roffey won the Costa Book of the Year award for her novel, The Mermaid of the Black Conch.

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