Percival Everett’s “James,” Salman Rushdie’s “Knife” and Diane Seuss’ “Modern Poetry” are among the honorees. Winners will be announced next month.
This year’s finalists for the National Book Award include the novel “James,” by Percival Everett, a retelling of the “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” from the perspective of an enslaved man, “Knife,” by Salman Rushdie, a memoir about the stabbing attempt on his life and his recovery, as well as books translated from Arabic, Mandarin Chinese and French.
The National Book Foundation announced its 25 finalists on Tuesday for awards across five categories: fiction, nonfiction, poetry, translated literature and young people’s literature. The winners of the National Book Award, among the most prestigious literary prizes in the United States, will be announced in November.
The fiction finalists also included Miranda July’s “All Fours,” about a 45-year-old artist whose road trip is cut short for a torrid affair. ’Pemi Aguda’s “Ghostroots,” a debut short story collection set in Lagos, Nigeria, was also on the list, as was “Martyr!” by Kaveh Akbar, a book about addiction, grief and art, and “My Friends,” by Hisham Matar, which follows three Libyan exiles living in Britain.
In the nonfiction category, Kate Manne’s “Unshrinking: How to Face Fatphobia” explores weight stigma in different facets of society, including health care and employment. “Circle of Hope: A Reckoning with Love, Power, and Justice in an American Church,” by Eliza Griswold, who won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction, documents the rise and fall of a progressive Christian church. In “Soldiers and Kings: Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling,” Jason De León embeds with human smugglers. Deborah Jackson Taffa examines her Native identity and her family’s history of displacement in “Whiskey Tender.”
The poetry finalists include Diane Seuss, who won the Pulitzer Prize for the same category in 2022, and m.s. RedCherries, who was nominated for her debut poetry collection, “mother,” which is about an Indigenous child who is adopted by a non-Indigenous family. Anne Carson’s “Wrong Norma” is made up of prose poems and drawings about everyday life. Fady Joudah’s collection “[…]” is about Palestinians and the horrors of war, and Lena Khalaf Tuffaha’s “Something About Living” is about the erasure of Palestinian history.
In translated literature, Bothayna Al-Essa’s “The Book Censor’s Library” is set in a dystopian future. It was translated from Arabic by Ranya Abdelrahman and Sawad Hussain. “Taiwan Travelogue,” by Yáng Shuāng-zǐ and translated from Mandarin Chinese by Lin King, is about a Japanese writer and her relationship with her Taiwanese interpreter. “Where the Wind Calls Home,” by Samar Yazbek, translated from Arabic by Leri Price, is told through a 19-year-old soldier who is trying to survive the Syrian Civil War. “The Villain’s Dance,” by Fiston Mwanza Mujila, was translated from French by Roland Glasser and “Ædnan” by Linnea Axelsson was translated from Swedish by Saskia Vogel.
