Ten Favorite National Book Award for Fiction Winners
(Over the years, the National Book Award has undergone multiple category reorganizations. Here, in chronological order, are my ten favorite books of fiction to have received an award—any award—from them.)
The Circus of Dr. Lao by Charles G. Finney (1935, Most Original Book)
The Magic Barrel by Bernard Malamud (1959, Fiction)
Goodbye, Columbus by Philip Roth (1960, Fiction)
Cosmicomics by Italo Calvino (1969, Award for Translated Literature)
Augustus by John Williams (1973, Fiction)
A Swiftly Tilting Planet by Madeleine L’Engle (1980, Children’s Literature, Paperback)
So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell (1982, General Fiction, Paperback)
White Noise by Don Delillo (1985, Fiction)
Holes by Louis Sachar (1998, Young People’s Literature)
The Friend by Sigrid Nunez (2018, Fiction)
— January 7, 2021