Recreation

Guardian First Book Award

The award is for any first book, fiction or non fiction, prose or poetry.

Before 1999, this award existed in a different format as the Guardian Fiction Prize. The winner is chosen by a panel of judges. The short-list is decided by reading groups organized by the bookstore chain Borders.

Report on the 2007 award winner

The Guardian, 119 Farrington Road
London EC1R 3ER, England.

2007

Children of the Revolution Winner
Dinaw Mengestu (Jonathan Cape)
A Golden Age
Tahmima Anam (John Murray)
Imperial Life in the Emerald City
Rajiv Chandrasekaran (Bloomsbury)
God's Architect
Rosemary Hill (Allen Lane)
What Was Lost
Catherine O'Flynn (Tindal Street Press)

2006

A Thousand Years of Good Prayers Winner
Yiyun Li
Everyman's Rules for Scientific Living
Carrie Tiffany
In the Country of Men
Hisham Matar
Harbor
Lorraine Adams
Poppy Shakespeare
Clare Allan

2005

Guardian articles

Stuart: A Life Backwards Winner
Alexander Masters
No God but God
Reza Aslan
The Farm
Richard Benson
Bombay: Maximum City
Suketu Mehta
Sightseeing
Rattawut Lapcharoensap

2004

Mutants: On the Form, Varieties and Errors of the Human Body Winner
Armand Marie Leroi
Ground Water
Matthew Hollis
Natasha
David Bezmozgis
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell
Susanna Clarke
The Places in Between
Rory Stewart

2003

Mountains of the Mind Winner
Robert Macfarlane
Brick Lane
Monica Ali
Vernon God Little
DBC Pierre
Into the Silent Land
Paul Broks
Stasiland
Anna Funder

2002

Everything is Illuminated Winner
Jonathan Safran Foer
The Only good thing anyone has ever done
Sandra Newman
The Impressionist
Hari Kunzru
Don't let's go to the dogs tonight
Alexandra Fuller
Mapping Mars: Science, imagination and the birth of a world
Oliver Morton

2001

Jimmy Corrigan: The smartest kid on Earth Winner
Chris Ware
Carter beats the devil
Glen David Gold
Wittgenstein's poker
David Edmonds and John Eidinow
Anthony Blunt: His lives
Miranda Carter
The Dark room
Rachel Seiffert

2000 

White teeth Winner
Zadie Smith
House of leaves
Mark Z Danielewski
Catfish and Mandala, a Vietnamese odyssey
Andrew Pham
No logo
Naomi Klein
A heartbreaking work of staggering genius
Dave Eggers

1999

We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families Winner
Philip Gourevitch
Ghostwritten
David Mitchell
Boxy an star
Daren King
The Lighthouse Stevensons
Bella Bathurst
No place like home
Gary Young
The Blue bedspread
Raj Kamal Jha