Books by Mark Haddon, David Mitchell contend for Costa Award

Mark Haddon's A Spot of Bother and David Mitchell's Black Swan Green are among the contenders for Britain's Costa Book Award.

While the Man Booker Prize seeks out literary excellence, the Costa, formerly known as the Whitbread Award, goes to the mostenjoyable book of the year.

Coffee shop chain Costa, the new sponsor of the award,announced a shortlist on Tuesday in London.

Haddon, who had a hit with his first novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, has turned his mild humour to family breakdown in A Spot of Bother.

Mitchell, a successful author of bestsellers such as Cloud Atlas, creates a memoir of a year in the life of a sensitive adolescent in Black Swan Green.

Also contending for the most readable novel honours are thriller Saving Caravaggio by Neil Griffiths and wartime spy novel Restless by William Boyd.

The prize has five categories —novel, first novel, children's book, biography and poetry.

Prizes in each category will be announced Jan. 10, with a singleoverall winner named Feb. 7.

The other shortlists are:

First novel award:

• The Amnesia Clinic by James Scudamore.
• Cloth Girl by Marilyn Heward Mills.
• The Meaning of Night by Michael Cox.
• The Tenderness of Wolves by Stef Penney.

Children's book award:

• Clay by David Almond.
• The Diamond of Drury Lane by Julia Golding.
• Set in Stone by Linda Newbery.
• Just in Case by Meg Rosoff.

Poetry award:

• Dear Room by Hugo Williams.
• Letter to Patience by John Haynes.
• District and Circle by Seamus Heaney.
• The Book of Blood by Vicki Feaver.

Biography award:

• Keeping Mum by Brian Thompson.
• Nabeel's Song by Jo Tatchell.
• Donne: A Reformed Soul by John Stubbs.
• George Mackay Brown: The Life by Maggie Fergusson.