Louise Erdrich among 2017 PEN/Faulkner Award nominees
The judges of the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction have announced the five finalists for the prestigious literary prize. Among the honorees is Minneapolis author Louise Erdrich, for her novel, "LaRose," about the echoes of family tragedy in North Dakota.
The judges said in a statement that "taken together, the five finalists represent something worth reiterating today: that American fiction cannot be defined or contained by any particular border, wall, or edict." Two of the five authors immigrated to the United States.
Previous winners of the prize include James Hannaham, Julie Otsuka, Sherman Alexie, Philip Roth, Ann Patchett, Ha Jin, Don DeLillo and more.
The 2017 winner will be announced on April 4.
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2017 PEN/Faulkner Award nominees
"LaRose" by Louise Erdrich
Louise Erdrich's 15th novel opens with a brutal tragedy: A man shoots and kills his best friend's 5-year-old son in a hunting accident. The law holds no one at fault, but the man and his wife can't escape the weight of the death. They do the only thing that seems right to them: They give their own son, LaRose, to the bereaved couple: "Our son will be your son now."
Erdrich traces the ripples of this act across the years and the intertwined families.
"What Belongs to You" by Garth Greenwell
"What Belongs to You" broaches a subject often kept in the shadows: the world of hustling — gay men paying for sex. Greenwell tells the story of an American teacher working in Bulgaria, and Mitko, the young hustler he becomes enamored with. As the teacher confronts his own feelings about their arrangement, he tries to unravel Mitko's tangled life story while revealing more of his own. The novel explores desire and shame, and when the two collide.
"Behold the Dreamers" by Imbolo Mbue
Imbolo Mbue's debut novel follows a Cameroonian couple who immigrates to the U.S. before the financial crisis rocks the country.
From NPR:
"Behold the Dreamers" is a remarkable debut. Mbue is a wonderful writer with an uncanny ear for dialogue — there are no false notes here, no narrative shortcuts, and certainly no manufactured happy endings. It's a novel that depicts a country both blessed and doomed, on top of the world, but always at risk of losing its balance. It is, in other words, quintessentially American.
"Your Heart is a Muscle the Size of a Fist" by Sunil Yapa
Sunil Yapa's novel takes its inspiration from a real-life clash between demonstrators and police in Seattle in 1999. As thousands filled the streets outside a meeting of the World Trade Organization, the tensions between crowds and the police turned violent.
"Your Heart is a Muscle the Size of a Fist" drops readers into the lives of characters on that day, caught up in the momentum on both sides.
"After Disasters" by Viet Dinh
In his novel, Viet Dinh follows four characters in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake in India. Through the experience of two aid workers, a doctor and a firefighter, Dinh explores the lives of those who rush in to help when the worst happens.
From The New Yorker:
Dinh is skilled at rendering the messiness of human motivation, and he adeptly harmonizes various preoccupations — masculinity, ecological abrasion, and the complexities of international aid work.