Vintage have had a fantastic four nominations for this year's Costa Book Awards, which recognise the most enjoyable books of the year written by writers based in the UK and Ireland.
Harvill Secker author Karl Geary is nominated in the First Novel Award category for Montpelier Parade, a debut which unfolds in the sea-bright Dublin of early spring, about the things that remain unspoken between lovers. It is Karl's first novel, after stints as a scriptwriter and actor. The judges praised Montpelier Parade as "A beautifully-written story about the pain and wonder of love found in unexpected places."
The Biography Award sees Xiaolu Guo's Once Upon a Time in the East: A Story of Growing Up and Caroline Moorehead's A Bold and Dangerous Family: The Rosselllis and the Fight Against Mussolini both nominated.
Once Upon a Time in the East (Chatto & Windus) follows Xiaolu's own story from a run-down shack to a film school in a rapidly-changing Beijing, navigating Western boyfriends, underground art and censorship, before moving to Britain on a scholarship. The nomination is Xialou's latest, having previously received nominations for the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction, the Orange Prize for Fiction and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.
Caroline Moorehead receives her second Costa Biography Award nomination for A Bold and Dangerous Family (also Chatto & Windus), where she revisits the horros of Mussolini's Italy through the eyes of a bold and uncompromising family from Florence: Amelia, Carlo and Nello Rosselli. Through spending time with the surviving members of the family and by researching letters and diaries never previously translated into English, Caroline reveals – in all its intimacy – a family driven by loyalty, duty and courage, yet susceptible to all the self-doubt and fear that humans are prey to.
In the Poetry Award, Kayo Chingonyi caps off Vintage and Chatto's stellar year with Kumukanda, his debut collection, which is a a powerful exploration of race, identity and masculinity, celebrating what it means to be British and not British, all at once. Celebrating its nomination, the judges called Kumukanda "energetic, skilled, tender and bold - this is an outstanding collection by a major new talent."
