# Costa Book Award for Novel

The Costa Book Award for Novel, formerly known as the Whitbread Award (1971–2005), was an annual literary award for novels, as part of the Costa Book Awards.
The awards were dissolved in 2022.

## Recipients

Costa Books of the Year are distinguished with a blue ribbon. Award winners are listed in bold.
Costa Book Award for Novel winners and finalists :
| Year | Author | Title | Result |
| 1971 | Gerda Charles | The Destiny Waltz | Winner |
| 1972 | Susan Hill | The Bird of Night | Winner |
| 1973 | Shiva Naipaul | The Chip-Chip Gatherers | Winner |
| 1974 | Iris Murdoch | The Sacred and Profane Love Machine | Winner |
| 1975 | William McIlvanney | Docherty | Winner |
| 1976 | William Trevor | The Children of Dynmouth | Winner |
| 1977 | Beryl Bainbridge | Injury Time | Winner |
| 1978 | Paul Theroux | Picture Palace | Winner |
| 1979 | Jennifer Johnston | The Old Jest | Winner |
| 1980 | David Lodge | How Far Can You Go? | Winner |
| 1981 | Maurice Leitch | Silver's City | Winner |
| 1982 | John Wain | Young Shoulders | Winner |
| 1983 | William Trevor | Fools of Fortune | Winner |
| 1984 | Christopher Hope | Kruger's Alp | Winner |
| 1985 | Peter Ackroyd | Hawksmoor | Winner |
| 1986 | Kazuo Ishiguro | An Artist of the Floating World | Winner |
| 1987 | Ian McEwan | The Child in Time | Winner |
| 1988 | Salman Rushdie | The Satanic Verses | Winner |
| 1989 | Lindsay Clarke | The Chymical Wedding | Winner |
| 1990 | Nicholas Mosley | Hopeful Monsters | Winner |
| 1991 | Jane Gardam | The Queen of the Tambourine | Winner |
| 1992 | Alasdair Gray | Poor Things | Winner |
| 1993 | Joan Brady | Theory of War | Winner |
| 1994 | William Trevor | Felicia's Journey | Winner |
| 1995 | Salman Rushdie | The Moor's Last Sigh | Winner |
| 1995 | Martin Amis | The Information | Shortlist |
| 1995 | Pat Barker | The Ghost Road | Shortlist |
| 1995 | Justin Cartwright | In Every Face I Meet | Shortlist |
| 1995 | Kazuo Ishiguro | The Unconsoled | Shortlist |
| 1996 | Beryl Bainbridge | Every Man for Himself | Winner |
| 1996 | Neil Bartlett | Mr Clive & Mr Page | Shortlist |
| 1996 | J. G. Ballard | Cocaine Nights | Shortlist |
| 1996 | Patrick McGrath | Asylum | Shortlist |
| 1996 | Graham Swift | Last Orders | Shortlist |
| 1996 | Fay Weldon | Worst Fears | Shortlist |
| 1997 | Jim Crace | Quarantine | Winner |
| 1997 | John Banville | The Untouchable | Shortlist |
| 1997 | Bernard MacLaverty | Grace Notes | Shortlist |
| 1997 | Ian McEwan | Enduring Love | Shortlist |
| 1997 | Geoff Nicholson | Bleeding London | Shortlist |
| 1998 | Justin Cartwright | Leading the Cheers | Winner |
| 1998 | Ronan Bennett | the catastrophist | Shortlist |
| 1998 | Barbara Trapido | The Travelling Hornplayer | Shortlist |
| 1999 | Rose Tremain | Music and Silence | Winner |
| 1999 | Jim Crace | Being Dead | Shortlist |
| 1999 | Michael Frayn | Headlong | Shortlist |
| 1999 | Joanne Harris | Chocolat | Shortlist |
| 2000 | Matthew Kneale | English Passengers | Winner |
| 2000 | Jill Dawson | Fred & Edie | Shortlist |
| 2000 | Anne Enright | What Are You Like? | Shortlist |
| 2000 | Kazuo Ishiguro | When We Were Orphans | Shortlist |
| 2000 | Will Self | How the Dead Live | Shortlist |
| 2001 | Patrick Neate | Twelve Bar Blues | Winner |
| 2001 | Helen Dunmore | The Siege | Shortlist |
| 2001 | Ian McEwan | Atonement | Shortlist |
| 2001 | Andrew Miller | Oxygen | Shortlist |
| 2002 | Michael Frayn | Spies | Winner |
| 2002 | Justin Cartwright | White Lightning | Shortlist |
| 2002 | Tim Lott | Rumours of a Hurricane | Shortlist |
| 2002 | William Trevor | The Story of Lucy Gault | Shortlist |
| 2003 | Mark Haddon | The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time | Winner |
| 2003 | Rachel Cusk | The Lucky Ones | Shortlist |
| 2003 | Shena Mackay | Heligoland | Shortlist |
| 2003 | Barbara Trapido | Frankie & Stankie | Shortlist |
| 2004 | Andrea Levy | Small Island | Winner |
| 2004 | Kate Atkinson | Case Histories | Shortlist |
| 2004 | Louis de Bernières | Birds Without Wings | Shortlist |
| 2004 | Alan Hollinghurst | The Line of Beauty | Shortlist |
| 2004 | Andrea Levy | Small Island | Shortlist |
| 2005 | Ali Smith | The Accidental | Winner |
| 2005 | Nick Hornby | A Long Way Down | Shortlist |
| 2005 | Salman Rushdie | Shalimar the Clown | Shortlist |
| 2005 | Christopher Wilson | The Ballad of Lee Cotton | Shortlist |
| 2006 | William Boyd | Restless | Winner |
| 2006 | Neil Griffiths | Saving Caravaggio | Shortlist |
| 2006 | Mark Haddon | A Spot of Bother | Shortlist |
| 2006 | David Mitchell | Black Swan Green | Shortlist |
| 2007 | A.L. Kennedy | Day | Winner |
| 2007 | Neil Bartlett | Skin Lane | Shortlist |
| 2007 | Rupert Thomson | Death of a Murderer | Shortlist |
| 2007 | Rose Tremain | The Road Home | Shortlist |
| 2008 | Sebastian Barry | The Secret Scripture | Winner |
| 2008 | Chris Cleave | The Other Hand | Shortlist |
| 2008 | Louis de Bernières | A Partisan's Daughter | Shortlist |
| 2008 | Patrick McGrath | Trauma | Shortlist |
| 2009 | Colm Tóibin | Brooklyn | Winner |
| 2009 | Penelope Lively | Family Album | Shortlist |
| 2009 | Hilary Mantel | Wolf Hall | Shortlist |
| 2009 | Christopher Nicholson | The Elephant Keeper | Shortlist |
| 2010 | Maggie O'Farrell | The Hand That First Held Mine | Winner |
| 2010 | Louise Doughty | Whatever You Love | Shortlist |
| 2010 | Nigel Farndale | The Blasphemer | Shortlist |
| 2010 | Paul Murray | Skippy Dies | Shortlist |
| 2011 | Andrew Miller | Pure | Winner |
| 2011 | Julian Barnes | The Sense of an Ending | Shortlist |
| 2011 | John Burnside | A Summer of Drowning | Shortlist |
| 2011 | Louisa Young | My Dear I Wanted to Tell You | Shortlist |
| 2012 | Hilary Mantel | Bring Up the Bodies | Winner |
| 2012 | Stephen May | Life! Death! Prizes! | Shortlist |
| 2012 | James Meek | The Heart Broke In | Shortlist |
| 2012 | Joff Winterhart | Days of the Bagnold Summer | Shortlist |
| 2013 | Kate Atkinson | Life after Life | Winner |
| 2013 | Bernardine Bishop | Unexpected Lessons in Love | Shortlist |
| 2013 | Maggie O'Farrell | Instructions for a Heatwave | Shortlist |
| 2013 | Evie Wyld | All the Birds, Singing | Shortlist |
| 2014 | Ali Smith | How to Be Both | Winner |
| 2014 | Neel Mukherjee | The Lives of Others | Shortlist |
| 2014 | Monique Roffey | House of Ashes | Shortlist |
| 2014 | Colm Tóibín | Nora Webster | Shortlist |
| 2015 | Kate Atkinson | A God in Ruins | Winner |
| 2015 | Anne Enright | The Green Road | Shortlist |
| 2015 | Patrick Gale | A Place Called Winter | Shortlist |
| 2015 | Melissa Harrison | At Hawthorn Time | Shortlist |
| 2016 | Sebastian Barry | Days Without End | Winner |
| 2016 | Maggie O'Farrell | This Must Be the Place | Shortlist |
| 2016 | Sarah Perry | The Essex Serpent | Shortlist |
| 2016 | Rose Tremain | The Gustav Sonata | Shortlist |
| 2017 | Jon McGregor | Reservoir 13 | Winner |
| 2017 | Steph Penney | Under a Pole Star | Shortlist |
| 2017 | Kamila Shamsie | Home Fire | Shortlist |
| 2017 | Sarah Winman | Tin Man | Shortlist |
| 2018 | Sally Rooney | Normal People | Winner |
| 2018 | Pat Barker | The Silence of the Girls | Shortlist |
| 2018 | Tom Rachman | The Italian Teacher | Shortlist |
| 2018 | Donal Ryan | From a Low and Quiet Sea | Shortlist |
| 2019 | Jonathan Coe | Middle England | Winner |
| 2019 | Sophie Hardach | Confession with Blue Horses | Shortlist |
| 2019 | Rowan Hisayo Buchanan | Starling Days | Shortlist |
| 2019 | Joseph O'Connor | Shadowplay | Shortlist |
| 2020 | Monique Roffey | The Mermaid of Black Conch | Winner |
| 2020 | Susanna Clarke | Piranesi | Shortlist |
| 2020 | Tim Finch | Peace Talks | Shortlist |
| 2020 | Denise Mina | The Less Dead | Shortlist |
| 2021 | Claire Fuller | Unsettled Ground | Winner |
| 2021 | Jessie Greengrass | The High House | Shortlist |
| 2021 | Nadifa Mohamed | The Fortune Men | Shortlist |
| 2021 | Elif Shafak | The Island of Missing Trees | Shortlist |