Costa Prize Book of the Year 2016 Announced

And it’s quite the accolade

The Costa Book of the Year award is a respected literary award and to win is quite the privilege. The 2016 winner was announced yesterday as Sebastian Barry for Days without End and it’s an astonishing accomplishment as the author becomes the only novelist ever to win the prize twice from the Costa Shortlist announced in November.

Launched in 1971 the Costa Book of the Year is one of the most coveted and respected literary prizes in the world. Known originally as the Whitbread Literary Awards, Costa took up the chalice in 2006.

Sebastian Barry won the prize in 2008 with The Secret Scripture, and yesterday he claimed the award for the second time. The Dublin born author lives in County Wicklow with his wife and three children. He says he was inspired to write Days Without End when his son came out as gay. The novel is described as a “searing, magnificent and incredibly moving description of how the West was won”. The book centres on Thomas McNulty and his brother-in-arms John Cole who fight in the Indian Wars and the Civil war, and while the novel is brutal in parts, it’s juxtaposed with a beautiful love affair and friendship between the two men.

Days Without End US
Days Without End UK

While Barry is the only novelist to win the prize twice, the feat has also been achieved by poets Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes. Days Without End won the award after being whittled down from an original 596 entries and Barry takes home this prestigious accolade, and the cash prize of £30,000 for Book of the Year.