Costa book awards 2010

2010 Costa children’s book award Out of Shadows by Jason Wallace Zimbabwe, 1980s. Robert Mugabe has come to power offering hope, land and freedom to black Africans. It is the end of the Old Way and the start of a promising new era. For Robert Jacklin, it’s all new – new continent, new country, new school. And very quickly he is forced to understand a new way of thinking, because for some of his classmates the sound of guns is still loud, and their battles rage on... Read an extract from Out of Shadows Photograph: Public Domain Photograph: Action images 2010 Costa poetry award Of Mutability by Jo Shapcott In Of Mutability, Shapcott is found writing at her most memorable and bold. In a series of fresh, unflinching poems, she movingly explores mortality and the nature of change: in the body and the natural world, and in shifting relationships between people. Read a poem from Of Mutability Read our review Jo Shapcott profile Photograph: Public Domain Photograph: Action images 2010 Costa first novel award Witness the Night by Kishwar Desai In a small town in the heart of India, a young girl, barely alive, is found in a sprawling home where 13 people lie dead. The girl has been beaten and abused. She is held in the local prison, awaiting interrogation for the murders that the local police believe she has committed. But an unconventional social worker, Simran Singh, is convinced of her innocence and attempts to break through the girl’s mute trance to find out what really happened. Read an extract from Witness the Night Read our review Photograph: Public Domain Photograph: Action images 2010 Costa biography award The Hare with Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal Apprentice potter Edmund de Waal is entranced by 264 miniature sculptures, or 'netsuke', that he inherits from his great uncle. In this memoir, he traces their history back through the great buildings his forebears once inhabited, uncovering a remarkable private history told against the backdrop of a tumultuous century. Edmund de Waal introduces a gallery of the netsuke that inspired his book Read our review Photograph: Public Domain Photograph: Action images 2010 Costa best novel award The Hand That First Held Mine by Maggie O’Farrell Fresh out of university and in disgrace, Lexie Sinclair is waiting for life to begin. When bohemian Innes Kent turns up on her doorstep in rural Devon, she realises that she can wait no longer, and leaves for London. There, at the heart of the 1950s Soho art scene, Lexie carves out a new life. In the present day, Elina and Ted are reeling from the difficult birth of their first child. Separated by 50 years, Lexie and Elina are connected in ways that neither of them could have expected… Read an extract from The Hand that First Held Mine Read our review Photograph: Public Domain Photograph: Action images