What Was Lost Was Lost" was the winner in the first novel category of the Costa Book Awards. O'Flynn received a £5,000 prize. It was short-listed for the overall Costa Book of the Year Award. The Costa Book Awards' judging panel, chaired by Joanna Trollope, praised the novel for "blending humour and pathos in a cleverly constructed and absorbing mystery." They described the novel as inventive, compelling, and poignant. "What Was Lost" was long-listed for the 2007 Man Booker Prize and the Orange Prize for Fiction. It was short-listed for the Guardian First Book Award. It won the Jelf Group First Novel Award
Aga Khan Prize for Fiction winners of the prize are often highly esteemed writers, most of whom previously won other major literary awards or go on to do so, or both. Aga Khan Prize for Fiction The Aga Khan Prize for Fiction was awarded by the editors of "The Paris Review" for what they deem to be the best short story published in the magazine in a given year. The last prize was given in 2004. No applications were accepted. The winner got $1,000. The prize was established by Sir Sultan Mahommed Shah Aga Khan III, and was first awarded in 1956. Although the money