Debut novelist lands £35k Costa book prize

Filer, 33, from Bristol, beat four other writers including bookmakers’ favourite York-based Kate Atkinson, who earlier this month won the Costa novel award for her book Life after Life.

His novel, the story of two brothers torn apart by a tragic accident and the slow descent of one into schizophrenia - started as a short story and sparked a publishing bidding war when it first appeared.

All five shortlisted authors received £5,000 with Filer getting a further £30,000 at tonight’s ceremony in central London.

The lecturer in creative writing at Bath Spa University, is also an award-winning filmmaker, a stand-up poet who is a familiar face on the festival circuit and a political campaigner who was once deported from Israel for what he describes as “reasons of national security”. He previously worked for many years for the mental health service in Bristol.

Admitting to feeling “a bit emotional” as he accepted the prize, Filer said it was “a real honour” to have been nominated with the other shortlisted books.

It is the first time a debut novel has won the prestigious prize since Stef Penney’s The Tenderness of Wolves in 2006.

Novelist Rose Tremain, who chaired the judging panel, described it as “astonishingly sure-fitted” for a first novel.

She added: “This is a subject which we all have experience of and it is grief analysed but treated absolutely without sentimentality.”

Ms Tremain compared the book with Mark Haddon’s best-seller The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, saying there had been “much discussion” about the other books in contention but Filer’s book “stood out in an exceptional way”.

She said: “As we know the Costa Prize is important and this is going to change this person’s life”.

A spokesman for booksellers Waterstones said: “This is a real giant killer of a winner, and shows the Costa is as exciting as the other major literary prizes. While The Pike was a strong second favourite, the Costa does not favour biography so the smart money was on Life After Life.

“But Atkinson’s was not the only book people were reading and, essentially, talking about in 2013. This will make The Shock of the Fall a major best seller, and put its multi-talented author firmly on the literary map.”

Atkinson’s first novel, Behind The Scenes At The Museum, was an overall Costa prize winner and she had been tipped by Bookmakers William Hill the 11-8 favourite to win. Had she won, it would have made her the first female author to do so, with Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes the only two authors to have won the overall prize twice.