The New York Times-20080124-Day Wins Book Prize- -Brief-

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Day Wins Book Prize; [Brief]

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A. L. Kennedy, right, a Scottish stand-up comedian and author, won the Costa Book of the Year Award on Tuesday for her fifth novel, Day, about a former Royal Air Force tail-gunner and prisoner of war who returns to Germany to confront his demons. The Costa Book Awards, formerly the Whitbread Book Awards, honor books by writers based in Britain and Ireland. The judges said that Ms. Kennedy, who lives in Glasgow, was chosen from a shortlist of five books because, through an extraordinary act of ventriloquism, she describes the waste and eventual resurrection of a young life shattered by war. In a ceremony in London, Ms. Kennedy, whose book is published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, received a check for $:25,000 ($48,766).

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