Norwich author Emma Healey, (pictured), has been shortlisted for the 2014 Costa Book Awards for her debut work, Elizabeth is Missing.
The writer, a former web administrator and student at the UEA, is among three people to be named in the First Novel Award category. Ms Healey will also be eligible to win the overall prize.
The winner of each of the five categories will receive £5,000, when the results are announced on January 5. The overall winner, named at a ceremony later in the month, gets £30,000. Ms Healey's novel was launched in Norwich earlier this year. It tells the story of an elderly woman whose friend vanishes. Maud sets out to solve the mystery of her missing friend, while battling her own dementia, and discovers unsettling parallels with the disappearance of her sister, half a century earlier.
The awards are the only major prize to recognise solely UK and Ireland-based authors. The awards attracted 640 entries. In total, ten male and ten female authors have been shortlisted.
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