Holocaust story The Cut Out Girl wins Costa Book of the Year after failing to make Wingate longlist

She added: "Nobody spoke about it during the war or after the war... The time before that, I had no words. I never thought I had a story but Bart wrote it down and it was a story."

Professor van Es told the JC that the book had been "healing and helpful" for his family and for Lien and her family, some of whom live in Israel.

"I feel I have gained them as cousins," he said. "It's a great thing that everyone has found the book an enrichment. Now, thanks to the Costa Prize, it will be shared with more readers, which is wonderful." 

The win comes after the JC’s chief fiction reviewer David Herman noted that the JQ Wingate Prize shortlist contained “no history books or biographies in a good year for both”, specifically citing The Cut Out Girl's absence. 

The book had also failed to make the prize's longlist of 13 books, announced in December. 

Now in its 42nd year, the JQ Wingate Prize, worth £4,000 and run in association with the JW3 Jewish community centre, is awarded to "the best book, fiction or non-fiction, to translate the idea of Jewishness to the general reader.”

Shoshana Boyd Gelfand, the Wingate Prize's chair of judges, told the JC: “We are looking forward to announcing the winner of the JQ Wingate prize on February 25 at a panel event [at JW3] where the judges will shed light on the process and their choices.

“The recent announcement of The Cut-Out Girl as the winner of the Costa prize just demonstrates how many superb books there were to choose from this year and how differently each judging panel fulfils their mandate.”