This year’s National Book Award finalists have been announced. In the fiction category, the big name is Denis Johnson, who immediately becomes the presumptive favorite for his novel Tree of Smoke. Joshua Ferris, meanwhile, makes a splash with his debut effort Then We Came to the End. And in the nonfiction category, let’s not ignore “The Hitch.” Not making the cut are notable novelists like Philip Roth, Norman Mailer, Jane Smiley, Jonathan Lethem, Michael Chabon, Don Delillo, Junot Diaz, and Richard Russo. Here’s a list of the finalists in all four categories with bonus links and excerpts where available:
Fiction:
- Fieldwork by Mischa Berlinski (excerpts)
- Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris (excerpt, a favorite of TEV’s, a “most anticipated” book)
- Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson (excerpt, a “most anticipated” book)
- Like You’d Understand, Anyway by Jim Shepard (excerpt, Apparently, Shepard’s publisher forgot to submit his books for NBA consideration in 2004)
Varieties of Disturbance by Lydia Davis (briefly noted)
Nonfiction:
- Brother, I’m Dying by Edwidge Danticat (excerpt)
- God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens (excerpt, Atheism Hits the Bestseller List
- Unruly Americans and the Origins of the Constitution by Woody Holton (excerpt)
- Ralph Ellison: A Biography by Arnold Rampersad (excerpt)
- Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA by Tim Weiner (excerpt)
Poetry:
- Magnetic North by Linda Gregerson (excerpt)
- Time and Materials by Robert Hass (poem)
- The House on Boulevard St. by David Kirby (excerpt, Kirby’s colorful website)
- Old Heart by Stanley Plumly (excerpt)
- Messenger: New and Selected Poems 1976-2006 by Ellen Bryant Voigt (poem)
Young People’s Literature:
- The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie (excerpt)
- Skin Hunger: A Resurrection of Magic, Book One by Kathleen Duey (excerpt)
- Touching Snow by M. Sindy Felin (excerpt)
- The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick (excerpt)
- Story of a Girl by Sara Zarr (author blog)
