2017 National Book Critics Circle Award Finalists

Last Monday, the 2017 National Book Critics Circle Award finalists were announced in every category. The selection this year reflects the dynamism and intensity of 2017, a remarkable year in literature.

We're lucky to have Lori Feathers, a member of the National Book Critics Circle, as our adult book buyer! Click here to listen to Lori talk on Interabang Podcast about the experience of selecting this year's finalists.

You can find all of this year's NBCC Award finalists in the store or online by clicking on their titles below!

 

FICTION:

EXIT WEST by Mohsin Hamid

THE NINTH HOUR by Alice McDermott

THE MINISTRY OF UTMOST HAPPINESS by Arundhati Roy

IMPROVEMENT by Joan Silber

SING, UNBURIED, SING by Jesmyn Ward

 

NONFICTION:

THE GULF: The Making of An American Sea by Jack E. Davis

THE EVANGELICALS: The Struggle to Shape America by Frances Fitzgerald

THE FUTURE IS HISTORY: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia by Masha Gessen

BORDER: A Journey to the Edge of Europe by Kapka Kassabova

A BRIEF HISTORY OF EVERYONE WHO EVER LIVED: The Human Story Retold Through OUR GENES by Adam Rutherford

 

BIOGRAPHY:

PRAIRIE FIRES: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder by Caroline Fraser

THE INVENTION OF ANGELA CARTER: A Biography by Edmund Gordon

THE KELLOGGS: The Battling Brothers of Battle Creek by Howard Markel

GORBACHEV: His Life and Times by William Taubman

HOOVER: An Extraordinary Life in Extraordinary Times by Kenneth Whyte

 

AUTOBIOGRAPHY:

THE BEST WE COULD DO: An Illustrated Memoir by Thi Bui

HUNGER: A Memoir of (My) Body by Roxane Gay

ADMISSIONS: Life as a Brain Surgeon by Henry Marsh

THE GIRL FROM THE METROPOL HOTEL: Growing Up in Communist Russia by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya, translated by Anna Summers

NINE CONTINENTS: A Memoir In and Out of China by Xiaolu Guo

 

POETRY:

FOURTH PERSON SINGULAR by Nuar Alsadir

EARTHLING by James Longenbach

WHEREAS by Layli Long Soldier

THE DARKNESS OF SNOW by Frank Ormsby

DIRECTIONS FOR USE, by Ana Ristović, translated by Steven Teref and Maja Teref

 

CRITICISM:

YOU PLAY THE GIRL: On Playboy Bunnies, Stepford Wives, Train Wrecks, & Other Mixed Messages by Carina Chocano

THE ART OF DEATH: Writing the Final Story by Edwidge Danticat

GUIDEBOOK TO RELATIVE STRANGERS: Journeys into Race, Motherhood and History by Camille T. Dungy

TELL ME HOW IT ENDS: An Essay in Forty Questions by Valeria Luiselli

BUNK: The Rise of Hoaxes, Humbug, Plagiarists, Phonies, Post-Facts and Fake News by Kevin Young

 

JOHN LEONARD PRIZE

HER BODY AND OTHER PARTIES by Carmen Maria Machado

 

IVAN SANDROF LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

John McPhee