Kate Atkinson won 2015 Costa Novel Prize for A God in Ruins

British writer Kate Atkinson on 4 January 2016 won the novel-of-the-year prize at Britain's Costa Book Awards 2015 for the second time in three years. She fetched the award for A God in Ruins, a story of war and its aftermath.

With this, Atkinson became the first author to receive the Costa novel prize three times: for A God in Ruins in 2016, Life After Life in 2013 and Behind the Scenes at the Museum in 1995.

Other winners are:

Who is Kate Atkinson?

• Kate Atkinson was born in 1951 in York, England.

• She studied English literature at the University of Dundee and obtained her master's degree in 1974.

• She subsequently studied for a doctorate in American literature, entitled The post-modern American short story in its historical context.

• Her first novel, Behind the Scenes at the Museum, won the 1995 Whitbread Book of the Year ahead of Salman Rushdie's The Moor's Last Sigh.

• Since then, she has published another eight novels, one play, and one collection of short stories.

• She was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2011 Birthday Honours for services to literature.

About Costa Book Awards

• The Costa Book Awards is one of the United Kingdom’s most prestigious and popular literary prizes.

• It recognises some of the most enjoyable books of the year, written by authors based in the UK and Ireland.

• The award was launched in 1971.

• The prize has five categories: First Novel, Novel, Biography, Poetry and Children's Book.

• One of the five winning books is selected as the overall Costa Book of the Year. It is the only prize which places children’s books alongside adult books in this way.

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