Nathan Filer won the 2013 Costa Book of the Year Award for his debut novel, The Shock of the Fall, beating out prize favorite Kate Atkinson's novel, Life After Life. Filer is the first debut novelist to win the award in eight years (Stef Penney tookit home for The Tenderness of the Wolves in 2006). St. Martin's published Filer's book under the title Where the Moon Isn't on November 5.

Filer was the winner of the First Novel category, announced January 6. The Costa Book Awards are divided into five categories, with one of the five winning books selected as the overall Book of the Year. The other category winners included Atkinson for the novel category; The Pike by Lucy Hughes-Hallett for Biography; Drysalter by Michael Symmons Roberts for Poetry; and Goth Girl and the Ghost of a Mouse by Chris Riddell for Children's.

The category win comes with a £30,000 prize, with the overall winner receiving another £30,000.

In addition, the Costa Short Story Award for 2013, voted on by the public, went to Angela Readman for her story, The Keeper of the Jackalopes. Costa launched the short story award in 2012.

Established in 1971, the Costa Awards honor books written by authors based on the U.K. and Ireland.