2025 National Book Awards Finalists Announced

Book News and Events
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Here’s the list! Which ones have you read? Which are on your radar?

Fiction:
Rabih Alameddine, The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother)
Megha Majumdar, A Guardian and a Thief
Karen Russell, The Antidote
Ethan Rutherford, North Sun: Or, the Voyage of the Whaleship Esther
Bryan Washington, Palaver

Nonfiction:
Omar El Akkad, One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This
Julia Ioffe, Motherland: A Feminist History of Modern Russia, from Revolution to Autocracy
Yiyun Lii, Things in Nature Merely Grow
Claudia Rowe, Wards of the State: The Long Shadow of American Foster Care
Jordan Thomas, When It All Burns: Fighting Fire in a Transformed World

Poetry:
Gabrielle Calvocoressi, The New Economy
Cathy Linh Che, Becoming Ghost
Tiana Clark, Scorched Earth
Richard Siken, I Do Know Some Things
Patricia Smith, The Intentions of Thunder: New and Selected Poems

Translated Literature:
Solvej Balle, On the Calculation of Volume (Book III). Translated by Sophia Hersi Smith and Jennifer Russell
Gabriela Cabezón Cámara, We Are Green and Trembling. Translated by Robin Myers
Anjet Daanje, The Remembered Soldier. Translated by David McKay
Hamid Ismailov, We Computers: A Ghazal Novel. Translated by Shelley Fairweather-Vega
Neige Sinno, Sad Tiger. Translated by Natasha Lehrer

Young People’s Literature:
Kyle Lukoff, A World Worth Saving
Amber McBride, The Leaving Room
Daniel Nayeri, The Teacher of Nomad Land: A World War II Story
Hannah V. Sawyerr, Truth Is

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I’m always surprised when these lists come out. I consider myself fairly well-read, and I see reviews for many many books besides the ones I put on my personal list. But often I’m completely unfamiliar with those that end up being nominated for awards.

I’ve only read The Antidote by Karen Russell, which I thought was excellent, and I’ve got A Guardian and a Thief coming up soon for review. The only other book I’ve heard of is Omar El Akkad’s One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This.

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I was thinking the same thing when I read the list! Thank you for voicing it. I don’t feel quite so “off” now. Ha!

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My initial response, also. Where have I been that these titles are so unfamiliar? I look forward to BB members opinions.

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I hope this isn’t too self-serving, but one of my favorite BookBrowse features is the annual member favorites awards. I almost always love the books you folks nominate.

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Like you, Kim, the only one I’ve read is Russell’s The Antidote. I recognized only one other title and as a result, feel as though I’ve been living beneath a very large boulder this last year. I have no recollection of hearing anything about any of the other books. :thinking:

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I don’t think it’s too self serving to say you like the annual BB member favorites awards because there’s a level of comfort and appreciation in knowing that members’ nominations were very thoughtful. I have to be honest and say that I’ve not heard of any of the 2025 National Book Awards Finalists for fiction or non-fiction. I was curious about the selection process and if I understood the process correctly, it looks like a panel of 5 judges per category picks the top 10 books in their category after reading upwards of 600 books (nonfiction alone) between mid May and mid September. If my math is correct, that could average out to reading 5 or more books a week per judge in nonfiction which means not every judge in nonfiction would read every book. I was also surprised to read that “Panels develop their own criteria for the National Book Award.” Although the publisher pays a modest $135 for each nomination, I can’t help but wonder whether the book would have been read by panel were the publisher not paying to have the book read. So, while I understand that it is an honor to win, the “pay to read” plus the variability in the selection process year to year leaves me feeling a bit ambivalent about reading books on the short list. Unless, it is one that is also reviewed in Book Browse.

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Only have one, The True True Story of Raja the Gullible, on my TBR and the others don’t call to me at all.

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I would imagine that the judges can tell pretty quickly whether a book has any chance to make the cut. I think it was a Booker award judge who claimed the overall quality of the books submitted was pretty poor this year. You don’t need to read much of a work to decided it’s poorly written, in my opinion. So, my guess is that they don’t actually read every page.

Most of the awards seem to work that way - a publisher nominates one (or more) of their books, and a panel is supposed to read them, leading to a lot of reading by those individuals.

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I have not read any of the fiction but I have a The Antidote sitting in my desk. It will be my next read.

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That was one of my favorites of the year, @Paula_Walters. It’s a bit different, but I think our tastes are similar so I think you’ll enjoy it.

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I’ve read:

The True True Story of Raja the Gullible;The Antidote; When It All Burns; On the Calculation of Volume I and II so I am looking forward to III publishing in Nov.

Planning to read:

North Sun (the publisher will be at Texas Book Fest); Palaver; Motherland (the author will be at Texas Book Fest); The Remembered Soldier; and Sad Tiger.

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I LOVED Antidote! Just beginning The True, True Story and finding it slyly humorous :blush:

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@Anne_Glasgow - Thoughts on those you’ve read? Which was the best so far?

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I loved The Antidote and also On the Calculation of Volume I and II. Calculation seems to be a love it or hate it series of short books. Some people find the story too repetitive and boring. I love seeing what the author can do within the constraints of the book’s conceit and I liked II better than I. Book II ended with sort of a cliffhanger so I’m anxious to see that play out.

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Loathe as I am to add more books to an overburdened (will I live long enough to read these) list I’ve just added Palaver and The Antidote. I’d not heard of Palaver, but I was already considering The Antidote. I read Swamplandia (2011) long ago, and enjoyed the weird characters who inhabited the novel. I’ve also been eyeing One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This because I read American War (2018) a few years ago. Painful as it was to read about a second civil war, even in a novel, the faultline in our nation was obvious at that time. One Day is a must for me now.

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I’ve only read The Antidote but am on the waiting list for The Guardian and the Thief

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I agree with the other comments. I have only heard of The Antidote but I not read it yet. I should put it on my TBR list.

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I’ve read none but there have been some wonderful reading of excerpts on FaceBook recntly!

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I have only heard of A Guardian and a Thief. If anyone has read it, I would love some feedback.