The Whitbread Prize for Book of the Year won’t be announced until the end of the month, but the list of finalists (one winner in each of the Whitbread’s sub-categories) is out. DBC Pierre won Best Debut Novel for his biting satire of Texan/American culture, Vernon God Little, and Mark Haddon’s The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time was named Best Novel. A detailed portrait of George Orwell won the biography category, and the children’s book prize went to David Almond for his story, The Fire-Eaters, “a tale set in Newcastle at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis.”