Four of the five finalists for the 2025 National Book Award in fiction, announced on Tuesday, have been previously celebrated by the organization giving the award. They include Rabih Alameddine, a fiction finalist in 2014 who is in contention this year for his novel “The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother).”
Two other finalists — Karen Russell, for “The Antidote,” and Bryan Washington, for the forthcoming “Palaver” — were earlier included on the National Book Foundation’s annual lists of the five most promising novelists under 35. And Megha Majumdar, a finalist for her forthcoming novel, “A Guardian and a Thief,” saw her debut novel, “A Burning,” longlisted in 2020.
The one fiction writer new to National Book Award recognition is also the finalist published by the smallest press in the group: Ethan Rutherford, a debut novelist whose book “North Sun: Or, the Voyage of the Whaleship Esther” was put out by Deep Vellum.
The book foundation announced its 25 finalists for awards across five categories: fiction, nonfiction, poetry, translated literature and young people’s literature. The winners will be named at a November ceremony.
Two of the shortlisted novels, by Washington and Alameddine, explore distance and connection between gay men and their mothers. Rutherford’s and Russell’s books are historical fiction, while Majumdar’s novel spends one tense week with an Indian woman trying to emigrate in the face of a climate crisis.
Several of the nonfiction finalists tackle contentious contemporary issues head-on. Omar El Akkad’s “One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This” is about the response of America and Europe to the destruction in Gaza. In “When It All Burns: Fighting Fire in a Transformed World,” Jordan Thomas digs into a destructive six-month fire season sparked by climate change. And in “Wards of the State: The Long Shadow of American Foster Care,” Claudia Rowe calls for reform of the foster care system.
The other finalists are Yiyun Li’s memoir “Things in Nature Merely Grow,” about surviving the death of her two sons by suicide; and Julia Ioffe’s “Motherland: A Feminist History of Modern Russia, From Revolution to Autocracy.” That book, due out this month, is a mix of history, memoir and reporting about the author’s return to Russia nearly 20 years after her family fled the Soviet Union.
The poetry finalists are Richard Siken’s “I Do Know Some Things,” which deals with his recovery from a stroke; “Scorched Earth,” Tiana Clark’s exploration of historical pain alongside queer and Black joy; Patricia Smith’s “The Intentions of Thunder: New and Selected Poems”; Gabrielle Calvocoressi’s “The New Economy”; and Cathy Linh Che’s “Becoming Ghost,” which considers her estranged parents’ journey as Vietnam War refugees to the United States.
The buzziest book among the translated literature nominees is “On the Calculation of Volume (Book III),” written by Solvej Balle and translated from the Danish by Sophia Hersi Smith and Jennifer Russel. It is the latest in a series of seven books that find an antiquarian book dealer reliving the same day again and again.
Also widely reviewed is “Sad Tiger,” by Neige Sinno, translated from the French by Natasha Lehrer. Part memoir and part criticism, the book looks at Sinno’s own history of sexual abuse in relation to literary works that depict incest and pedophilia by such writers as Vladimir Nabokov and Toni Morrison.
The other nominees are “We Are Green and Trembling,” by Gabriela Cabezón Cámara, translated from the Spanish by Robin Myers; Anjet Daanje’s “The Remembered Soldier,” translated from the Dutch by David McKay; and “We Computers: A Ghazal Novel,” by Hamid Ismailov, translated from the Uzbek by Shelley Fairweather-Vega. That book is set in the 1980s, when a French poet and psychologist wonders if a computer will be capable of creating and translating literature.
Three novels-in-verse are finalists in young people’s literature: Ibi Zoboi’s “(S)Kin,” about a shape-shifting witch; Amber McBride’s “The Leaving Room,” which takes place over four minutes in a room between life and death; and Hannah V. Sawyerr’s “Truth Is,” which follows a 17-year-old poet after an abortion.
The other finalists are Kyle Lukoff’s “A World Worth Saving,” which mixes Jewish mythology and adventure in a story about a trans teenager’s efforts to dismantle a conversion therapy program; and Daniel Nayeri’s “The Teacher of Nomad Land: A World War II Story.”
Two lifetime achievement awards will be presented at the prize ceremony. The author and professor George Saunders will receive the Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters, and Roxane Gay, an author and cultural critic, will be presented with the Literarian Award for Outstanding Service to the American Literary Community.
Here is a complete list of the National Book Award finalists:
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 Li, “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 from the Danish by Sophia Hersi Smith and Jennifer Russell
Gabriela Cabezón Cámara, “We Are Green and Trembling”
Translated from the Spanish by Robin Myers
Anjet Daanje, “The Remembered Soldier”
Translated from the Dutch by David McKay
Hamid Ismailov, “We Computers: A Ghazal Novel”
Translated from the Uzbek by Shelley Fairweather-Vega
Neige Sinno, “Sad Tiger”
Translated from the French 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”
Ibi Zoboi, “(S)Kin”
Elizabeth A. Harris covers books and the publishing industry, reporting on industry news and examining the broader cultural impact of books. She is also an author.
The post Here Are the Finalists for the 2025 National Book Awards appeared first on New York Times.
