FICTION FINALISTS

Kirstin Valdez Quade

(W. W. Norton & Company)

Amadeo Padilla filled the role of Jesus during the re-creation of the Crucifixion as part of Holy Week, and he also has heavy burdens to bear in his real life in Las Penas, New Mexico, with his pregnant teen daughter, Angel and an ailing matriarch. Quade delivers a nuanced and authentic tale of characters who understand the inevitability of fate but try to forge ahead anyway in the hope of breaking free.

Lauren Groff

(Riverhead Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC)

In the twelfth century, Marie, former child crusader and “bastardess heir to the crown” of France and England, at age 17, considered unmarriageable due to her great height and plainness, arrives at the dismal abbey that she will eventually transform as abbess over the course of Groff’s splendidly daring, descriptive and spine-tingling novel of faith, power and temptation.

Tom Lin

(Little, Brown and Company, a division of Hachette Book Group)

In Utah, in 1869, Ming Tsu reckons he has killed some 200 men and is now on his way to killing the five who had beaten him half to death, stolen his wife, and had him sentenced to 10 years of forced labor building the Central Pacific Railroad. Two years later, Ming has escaped and is ready for retribution. Infused with magic realism, Lin’s beautifully imagined first novel is a transcendent epic.

NONFICTION FINALISTS

Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain

(One World, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC)

African American history is a communal quilt, crisscrossed with the stitches of elders, youth, LGBTQ folk, mothers, fathers, revolutionaries, and poets. Editors Kendi and Blain honor this multilayered heritage in a monumental work of collaborative history. Ninety Black writers each take on a five-year period from 1619–2019, and each 40-year section concludes with a poem adding up to a seamless collection that crackles with rage, beauty, bitter humor, and the indomitable will to survive.

Hanif Abdurraqib

(Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC)

Blending pop-culture essays, memoir, and poetry, Abdurraqib delves into the many iterations of Black artistic expression through an often deeply personal lens. Divided into five “movements,” these pieces offer an expansive exploration of subjects ranging from the often-tragic lives of legendary Black artists to close examination of a singular performance. Startling, layered and timely, this is an essential, illuminating collection.

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Kristen Radtke

(Pantheon Books, a division of Penguin Random House LLC)

Radtke examines isolation as a social, biological, and personal phenomenon in a graphic-essay style, centering her inquiry around four human behaviors—listen, watch, click and touching—and considering television, American “loners,” social media, and the need for touch in prose and vector-drawn illustrations, rendering contextual and emotional detail in a provocative and engaging look at loneliness.

FICTION

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Cortez, Jaime.

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(Black Cat)

Doerr, Anthony.

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(Scribner)

Engel, Patricia.

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(Avid Reader)

Erdrich, Louise.

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(Harper)

Fernández, Nona.

Translated by Natasha Wimmer.

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(Graywolf)

Galgut, Damon.

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(Europa)

Gendry-Kim, Keum Suk.

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(Drawn & Quarterly)

Griner, Paul.

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(Sarabande Books)

Groff, Lauren.

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(Riverhead Books)

Harris, Nathan.

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(Little, Brown)

Ishiguro, Kazuo.

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(Knopf)

Lin, Tom.

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(Little, Brown)

McConaghy, Charlotte.

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(Flatiron)

Mott, Jason.

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(Dutton)

Murakami, Haruki.

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(Knopf)

Nguyen, Eric.

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(Knopf)

Powers, Richard.

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(Norton)

Quade, Kirstin Valdez.

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(Norton)

Sahota, Sunjeev.

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(Viking)

Shipstead, Maggie.

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(Knopf)

Slimani, Leila.

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(Penguin Books)

So, Anthony Veasna.

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(Ecco)

Ye, Chun.

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(Catapult)