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
Peace Prize of the German Book Trade literature, science and art. Prize winners are chosen without any reference to their national, racial or religious background." Traditionally, the President of Germany and leading political, cultural and diplomatic persons attend the ceremony and ZDF TV covers the event. Source: Peace Prize of the German Book Trade The Peace Prize of the German Book Trade () is an international peace prize given yearly at the Frankfurt Book Fair in the Paulskirche in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It has been awarded by the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels since 1950 and the winner is remunerated with . According to its statute, “(t)he