Political fiction high on Costa book awards shortlist

LONDON - Two politically charged novels are among four that have made the shortlist for best novel in this year's Costa Book Awards, the organizers announced on Tuesday, adding that a record 182 novels had been considered for the award.

Monique Roffey's "House of Ashes" in part presents a fictionalized version of an uprising by black power activists in the early 1970s in the author's native Trinidad.

And Calcutta-born Neel Mukherjee's "The Lives of Others" looks at the perils of extreme political activism in the author's native India.

Rounding out the list are Irish author Colm Toibin's "Nora Webster", about a woman's life in small-town Ireland, and Scottish-born Ali Smith's "How to be Both", a tale that moves its characters between the 15th and the 20th centuries.

The prize, formerly known as the Whitbread award, is open only to authors resident in Britain and Ireland, and will be announced on Jan. 5.

The awards are given in five categories - novel, first novel, biography, poetry and children's book - for works published within the past year. — Reuters