Costa Book Awards 2016

The winners of the category awards are

1^st Novel

Francis Spufford, Golden Hill

One rainy evening in November, a handsome young stranger fresh off the boat pitches up at a counting-house door in Golden Hill Street: this is Mr Smith, amiable, charming, yet strangely determined to keep suspicion simmering. For in his pocket, he has what seems to be an order for a thousand pounds, a huge amount, and he won't explain why, or where he comes from, or what he can be planning to do in the colonies that requires so much money. Should the New York merchants trust him? Should they risk their credit and refuse to pay? Should they befriend him, seduce him, arrest him- maybe even kill him?

Novel

Sebastian Barry, Days Without End

Having signed up for the US army in the 1850s, aged barely 17, Thomas McNulty and his brother-in-arms, John Cole, go on to fight in the Indian wars and, ultimately, the Civil War. Orphans of terrible hardships themselves, they find these days to be vivid and alive, despite the horrors they both see and are complicit in.

Biography

Keggie Carew, Dadland: a journey into uncharted territory

Keggie Carew grew up in the gravitational field of an unorthodox father who lived on his wits and dazzling charm. As his memory begins to fail, she embarks on a quest to unravel his story and get to know who her father really was. Tom Carew was a left-handed stutterer, a maverick and a law unto himself. As a member of the Jedburghs, an elite SOE unit, he was parachuted behind enemy lines to raise resistance in France, then Burma, in the Second World War. But his wartime exploits are only the start of it, and Keggie soon finds herself in a far more astonishing and consuming place than she had bargained for. 'Dadland' is a manhunt. Keggie takes us on a spellbinding journey, in peace and war, into surprising and shady corners of history, her rackety English childhood, the poignant breakdown of her family, the corridors of dementia and beyond.

Poetry

Alice Oswald, Falling Awake

Alice Oswald's poems are always vivid and distinct, alert and deeply, physically, engaged in the natural world. Mutability - a sense that all matter is unstable in the face of mortality - is at the heart of this collection and each poem is involved in that drama: the held tension that is embodied life, and life's losing struggle with the gravity of nature.

Children’s Book

Brian Conaghan, The Bombs That Brought Us Together

Fourteen-year-old Charlie Law has lived in Little Town, on the border with Old Country, all his life. He knows the rules: no going out after dark; no drinking; no litter; no fighting. You don't want to get on the wrong side of the people who run Little Town. When he meets Pavel Duda, a refugee from Old Country, the rules start to get broken. Then the bombs come, and the soldiers from Old Country, and Little Town changes for ever. Sometimes, to keep the people you love safe, you have to do bad things. As Little Town's rules crumble, Charlie is sucked into a dangerous game. There's a gun, and a bad man, and his closest friend, and his dearest enemy. Charlie Law wants to keep everyone happy, even if it kills him. And maybe it will!

All the category winners are available for loan or reservation from Torfaen Libraries. Torfaen Libraries Catalogue

The overall winner of the Costa Book of the Year will be announced 31 January 2017

Gwobrau Llyfrau Costa 2016

Enillwyr y gwobrau categori yw

Nofel 1^af 

Francis Spufford, Golden Hill

Un noson lawiog nyn Nhachwedd, daw dyn dieithr golygus sydd newydd gyrraedd ar gwch, i ddrws ystafell gyfrifon yn Golden Hill Street: dyma Mr Smith, hoffus, swynol, ond eto’n benderfynol o gadw pobl i amau.  Yn ei boced, mae ganddo rywbeth sy’n ymddangos fel archeb am fil o bunnoedd, swm anferth, a dyw e ddim un fodlon esbonio pam, na dweud o ble y daw, na beth y mae’n bwriadu gwneud yn y trefedigaethau sy’n galw am gymaint o arian. A ddylai masnachwyr Efrog Newydd ymddiried ynddo?  A ddylen nhw beryglu eu credyd a gwrthod talu?  A ddylen nhw ddod yn gyfeillion ag ef, eu hudo, ei arestio - efallai ei ladd hyd yn oed?

Nofel

Sebastian Barry, Days Without End

Ar ôl ymuno â byddin yr Unol Daleithiau yn yr 1850au, yn brin 17 oed, aiff Thomas McNulty a’i frawd yn y ffydd, John Cole, ymlaen i ymladd yn rhyfeloedd yr Indiaid ac, yn y pen draw, y Rhyfel Cartref.  A hwythau’n amddifad ac wedi profi cyni eu hunain, mae’r dyddiau yma yn fyw ac yn llachar iddyn nhw, er gwaethaf yr erchyllterau y maen nhw’n gweld ac yn rhan ohonynt.

Bywgraffiad

Keggie Carew, Dadland: a journey into uncharted territory

Tyfodd Keggie Carew i fyny o gwmpas tad anarferol a oedd yn byw ar ei grebwyll a’i gyfaredd.  Wrth i’w gof ballu, mae hi’n dechrau ar daith i olrhain stori ei thad ac i ddeall pwy oedd ei thad mewn gwirionedd. Roedd Tom Carew yn llaw chwith, ag atal dweud arno, ac yn rebel. Fel aelod o’r Jedburghs, uned elît yn yr Adran Weithredol Arbennig, fe’i gollyngwyd ar barasiwt y tu ôl i linellau’r gelyn er mwyn hybu’r gwrthsafiad y Ffrainc ac yna Burma, yn ystod yr ail Ryfel Byd.  Ond dim ond megis y dechrau yw ei waith yn y rhyfel ac mae Keggie cyn hir yn cael ei hun mewn lle tipyn mwy syfrdanol ac ysol nag yr oedd wedi disgwyl. Helfa yw 'Dadland'. Mae  Keggie yn mynd â ni ar daith ledrithiol, mewn heddwch a rhyfel, i gorneli annisgwyl a thywyll hanes, ei phlentyndod yn Lloegr, chwalfa’i theulu, i goridorau dementia a thu hwnt.

Barddoniaeth

Alice Oswald, Falling Awake

Mae cerddi Alice Oswald bob amser yn fyw ac yn wahanol, yn effro ac yn ddwfn yn y byd naturiol. Mae cyfnewidioldeb – y synnwyr bod pob dim yn ansefydlog yng ngwyneb meidroldeb – wrth gallon y casgliad hwn ac mae pob cerdd yn rhan o’r ddrama: y tensiwn sy’n ymgorffori bywyd, a cholli brwydr bywyd â natur.

Llyfr Plant

Brian Conaghan, The Bombs That Brought Us Together

Yn bedair ar ddeg mae Charlie Law wedi byw yn Little Town, ar y ffin gydag Old Country, gydol ei oes.  Mae’n gwybod y rheolau: dim mynd allan ar ôl iddi dywyllu; dim yfed; dim sbwriel; dim ymladd.  Dwyt ti ddim am bechu’r bobl sy’n rhedeg Little Town. Pan fo’n cwrdd â Pavel Duda, ffoadur o Old Country, mae’r rheolau’n dechrau cael eu torri.  Yn daw’r bomiau, a milwyr o Old Country, ac mae Little Town yn newid am byth.  Ambell waith, er mwyn cadw’r bobl yr ydych chi’n eu caru’n ddiogel, rhaid i chi wneud pethau drwg.  Wrth i reolau Little Town ddadfeilio, caiff Charlie ei dynnu i gêm beryglus.  Mae gwn, dyn drwg, ei ffrind gorau a’i hoff elyn.  Mae Charlie Law am gadw pawb yn hapus, hyd yn oedd od bydd hynny’n ei ladd.  And efallai mai hynny a ddigwydd

Mae’r enillwyr categori i gyd ar gael i’w benthyg neu i’ rhoi i gadw gan Lyfrgelloedd Torfaen. Catalog Llyfrgelloedd Torfaen

Cyhoeddir enillydd Llyfr Costa’r Flwyddyn ar 31 Ionawr 2017