The Good Lord Bird: Difference between revisions

The Good Lord Bird
	Cover to The Good Lord Bird
Author	James McBride
Language	English
Genre	Historical fiction, comic
Published	Riverhead Books
Publication place	United States
Pages	432
Awards	2013 National Book Award for Fiction
ISBN	978-1-101-61618-5
OCLC	820123671

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The Good Lord Bird is a 2013 novel by James McBride about Henry Shackleford, a slave, who unites with John Brown in Brown's abolitionist mission. The novel won the National Book Award for Fiction in 2013 and received generally positive reviews from critics.

Plot

The memoirs of Henry Shackleford, a fictional enslaved boy in Kansas during the Bleeding Kansas era, are discovered in a Delaware church. Henry, nicknamed "Little Onion" for eating a particularly rancid onion, accidentally encounters abolitionist John Brown in a tavern. Brown mistakes Henry for a girl and gives him a dress to wear; Shackleford wears a dress for much of the novel. The two join together, and Henry narrates his encounters with Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, and the events at John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry. The book is narrated in the first person through Henry.

Reception

The novel received generally positive reviews from critics,^[1] with several reviewers comparing it to Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884). In a review for the Los Angeles Times, Héctor Tobar called the novel "laugh-out-loud funny and filled with many wonderfully bizarre images", but noted the lack of humanity in comparison to Huckleberry Finn or Middle Passage (1990). Tobar went on to say "those looking for verisimilitude or gravitas in their historical fiction might want to avoid The Good Lord Bird."^[2] Laura Miller of Salon drew comparisons between the novel and Huckleberry Finn, specifically comparing the moral awakening of Finn to the journey of Henry; writer Christine Brunkhorst notes how Onion and Finn both encounter "drunken rebels, brutal slave owners, spineless men, clairvoyant women, crooked judges and some brave and principled people."^[3]^[4] In a review for the San Francisco Chronicle, novelist Amity Gaige praised McBride's "reimagining" of Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry and added that he "[managed] to novelize real historical events without dreary prostrations to the act".^[5]

The novel won the National Book Award for Fiction in 2013.^[6] National Book Award judges called McBride "a voice as comic and original as any we have heard since Mark Twain."^[7] McBride did not prepare an acceptance speech, as he thought he would not win, and was described as "clearly stunned" upon receiving the award.^[8]

Adaptation

Ethan Hawke and Jason Blum adapted the book for a television show, which premiered on October 4, 2020 on Showtime.^[9]^[10]^[11]^[12]

References

^ "Book Marks reviews of The Good Lord Bird by James McBride". Book Marks. Retrieved July 31, 2023.
^ Tobar, Héctor (August 30, 2013). "'The Good Lord Bird' is a twisted take on an abolitionist's story". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on November 22, 2013. Retrieved November 22, 2013.
^ Miller, Laura (November 14, 2013). ""The Good Lord Bird": A new take on Huck Finn". Salon.com. Archived from the original on November 22, 2013. Retrieved November 22, 2013.
^ Brunkhorst, Christine (August 17, 2013). "Review: "The Good Lord Bird", by James McBride". Star Tribune. The Star Tribune Company. Archived from the original on December 2, 2013. Retrieved November 22, 2013.
^ Gaige, Amity (August 23, 2013). "'The Good Lord Bird,' by James McBride". San Francisco Chronicle. Hearst Corporation. Archived from the original on December 2, 2013. Retrieved November 22, 2013.
^ Bosman, Julie (November 20, 2013). "'Good Lord Bird' Is Surprise Winner for National Book Award in Fiction". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 5, 2013. Retrieved February 28, 2017.
^ Minzesheimer, Bob (November 20, 2013). "James McBride wins National Book Award for fiction". USA Today. Gannett Company. Archived from the original on October 19, 2017. Retrieved September 16, 2017.
^ Dugdale, John (November 21, 2013). "National Book Awards leave winner lost for words". The Guardian.
^ Lang, Brent (June 11, 2018). "Ethan Hawke, Jason Blum Adapting 'The Good Lord Bird' for TV". Variety. Archived from the original on June 13, 2018. Retrieved June 13, 2018.
^ "Academy Award(R) Nominee Ethan Hawke to Executive Produce and Star in Showtime(R) Limited Series "Good Lord Bird"". The Futon Critic. March 11, 2019.
^ "Showtime Taps Tony Winner Daveed Diggs and Wyatt Russell in "The Good Lord Bird"". The Futon Critic. August 2, 2019.
^ Rico, Klaritza (2020-05-13). "TV News Roundup: Showtime Sets 'The Good Lord Bird' Premiere Date (Watch)". Variety. Archived from the original on 2020-05-13. Retrieved 2020-05-13.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
+{{for|the Showtime limited series|The Good Lord Bird (miniseries){{!}}''The Good Lord Bird'' (miniseries)}}
 {{short description|2013 novel by James McBride}}
 {{Infobox book
@@ Line 31: / Line 32: @@
 ==Plot==
-The memoirs of Henry Shackleford, a slave in Kansas during the [[Bleeding Kansas]] era, are discovered in a Delaware church. Henry, nicknamed "Little Onion" for eating a particularly rancid onion, accidentally encounters abolitionist [[John Brown (abolitionist)|John Brown]] in a tavern. Brown mistakes Henry for a girl and gives him a dress to wear; Shackleford wears a dress for much of the novel. The two join together, and Henry narrates his encounters with [[Frederick Douglass]], [[Harriet Tubman]], and the events at [[John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry]]. The book is narrated in the [[First-person narrative|first person]] through Henry.
+The memoirs of Henry Shackleford, a fictional enslaved boy in Kansas during the [[Bleeding Kansas]] era, are discovered in a [[Delaware]] church. Henry, nicknamed "Little Onion" for eating a particularly rancid onion, accidentally encounters abolitionist [[John Brown (abolitionist)|John Brown]] in a tavern. Brown mistakes Henry for a girl and gives him a dress to wear; Shackleford wears a dress for much of the novel. The two join together, and Henry narrates his encounters with [[Frederick Douglass]], [[Harriet Tubman]], and the events at [[John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry]]. The book is narrated in the [[First-person narrative|first person]] through Henry.
 ==Reception==
-The novel received generally positive reviews from critics, with several reviewers comparing it to ''[[Adventures of Huckleberry Finn]]'' (1884). In a review for the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'', [[Héctor Tobar]] called the novel "laugh-out-loud funny and filled with many wonderfully bizarre images", but noted the lack of humanity in comparison to ''Huckleberry Finn'' or ''[[Middle Passage (novel)|Middle Passage]]'' (1990). Tobar went on to say "those looking for verisimilitude or ''[[gravitas]]'' in their historical fiction might want to avoid ''The Good Lord Bird''."<ref>{{cite news|title='The Good Lord Bird' is a twisted take on an abolitionist's story| url=http://articles.latimes.com/2013/aug/30/entertainment/la-ca-jc-james-mcbride-20130901| last=Tobar| first=Héctor| newspaper=Los Angeles Times| publisher=Tribune Company| date=August 30, 2013}}</ref> Laura Miller of ''[[Salon (website)|Salon]]'' drew comparisons between the novel and ''Huckleberry Finn'', specifically comparing the moral awakening of Finn to the journey of Henry; writer Christine Brunkhorst notes how Onion and Finn both encounter "drunken rebels, brutal slave owners, spineless men, clairvoyant women, crooked judges and some brave and principled people."<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.salon.com/2013/11/14/the_good_lord_bird_a_new_take_on_huck_finn/| title="The Good Lord Bird": A new take on Huck Finn|date=November 14, 2013| last=Miller| first=Laura| work=Salon.com}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Review: "The Good Lord Bird", by James McBride|url=http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/books/219828441.html|date=August 17, 2013|newspaper=Star Tribune|publisher=The Star Tribune Company| last=Brunkhorst| first=Christine}}</ref> In a review for the ''[[San Francisco Chronicle]]'', novelist [[Amity Gaige]] praised McBride's "reimagining" of Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry and added that he "[managed] to novelize real historical events without dreary prostrations to the act".<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.sfgate.com/books/article/The-Good-Lord-Bird-by-James-McBride-4757245.php#photo-5085672|title='The Good Lord Bird,' by James McBride|newspaper=San Francisco Chronicle|publisher=Hearst Corporation|last=Gaige|first=Amity|date=August 23, 2013}}</ref>
+The novel received generally positive reviews from critics,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Book Marks reviews of The Good Lord Bird by James McBride |url=https://bookmarks.reviews/reviews/the-good-lord-bird// |access-date=July 31, 2023 |website=Book Marks |language=en-US}}</ref> with several reviewers comparing it to ''[[Adventures of Huckleberry Finn]]'' (1884). In a review for the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'', [[Héctor Tobar]] called the novel "laugh-out-loud funny and filled with many wonderfully bizarre images", but noted the lack of humanity in comparison to ''Huckleberry Finn'' or ''[[Middle Passage (novel)|Middle Passage]]'' (1990). Tobar went on to say "those looking for verisimilitude or ''[[gravitas]]'' in their historical fiction might want to avoid ''The Good Lord Bird''."<ref>{{cite news| title='The Good Lord Bird' is a twisted take on an abolitionist's story| url=http://articles.latimes.com/2013/aug/30/entertainment/la-ca-jc-james-mcbride-20130901| last=Tobar| first=Héctor| newspaper=Los Angeles Times| date=August 30, 2013| access-date=November 22, 2013| archive-date=November 22, 2013| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131122004747/http://articles.latimes.com/2013/aug/30/entertainment/la-ca-jc-james-mcbride-20130901| url-status=dead}}</ref> Laura Miller of ''[[Salon (website)|Salon]]'' drew comparisons between the novel and ''Huckleberry Finn'', specifically comparing the moral awakening of Finn to the journey of Henry; writer Christine Brunkhorst notes how Onion and Finn both encounter "drunken rebels, brutal slave owners, spineless men, clairvoyant women, crooked judges and some brave and principled people."<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.salon.com/2013/11/14/the_good_lord_bird_a_new_take_on_huck_finn/| title="The Good Lord Bird": A new take on Huck Finn| date=November 14, 2013| last=Miller| first=Laura| work=Salon.com| access-date=November 22, 2013| archive-date=November 22, 2013| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131122184052/http://www.salon.com/2013/11/14/the_good_lord_bird_a_new_take_on_huck_finn/| url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Review: "The Good Lord Bird", by James McBride|url=http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/books/219828441.html|date=August 17, 2013|newspaper=Star Tribune|publisher=The Star Tribune Company|last=Brunkhorst|first=Christine|access-date=November 22, 2013|archive-date=December 2, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131202231043/http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/books/219828441.html|url-status=live}}</ref> In a review for the ''[[San Francisco Chronicle]]'', novelist [[Amity Gaige]] praised McBride's "reimagining" of Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry and added that he "[managed] to [[novelize]] real historical events without dreary prostrations to the act".<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.sfgate.com/books/article/The-Good-Lord-Bird-by-James-McBride-4757245.php#photo-5085672|title='The Good Lord Bird,' by James McBride|newspaper=San Francisco Chronicle|publisher=Hearst Corporation|last=Gaige|first=Amity|date=August 23, 2013|access-date=November 22, 2013|archive-date=December 2, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131202231539/http://www.sfgate.com/books/article/The-Good-Lord-Bird-by-James-McBride-4757245.php#photo-5085672|url-status=live}}</ref>
-The novel won the [[National Book Award for Fiction]] in 2013.<ref>{{cite news|title='Good Lord Bird' Is Surprise Winner for National Book Award in Fiction|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/21/books/james-mcbride-and-george-packer-receive-national-book-awards.html?ref=books|last=Bosman|first=Julie|date=November 20, 2013|newspaper=The New York Times|publisher=The New York Times Company}}</ref> National Book Award judges called McBride "a voice as comic and original as any we have heard since [[Mark Twain]]."<ref name="USA_Today">{{cite news|title=James McBride wins National Book Award for fiction|url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/books/2013/11/20/national-book-awards/3652957/|newspaper=USA Today|publisher=Gannett Company|last=Minzesheimer|first=Bob|date=November 20, 2013}}</ref> McBride did not prepare an acceptance speech, as he thought he would not win, and was described as "clearly stunned" upon receiving the award.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/nov/21/national-book-awards-james-mcbride-good-lord-bird|title=National Book Awards leave winner lost for words|newspaper=The Guardian|publisher=Guardian Media Group|last=Dugdale|first=John|date=November 21, 2013}}</ref>
+The novel won the [[National Book Award for Fiction]] in 2013.<ref>{{cite news|title='Good Lord Bird' Is Surprise Winner for National Book Award in Fiction|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/21/books/james-mcbride-and-george-packer-receive-national-book-awards.html?ref=books|last=Bosman|first=Julie|date=November 20, 2013|newspaper=The New York Times|access-date=February 28, 2017|archive-date=December 5, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131205214535/http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/21/books/james-mcbride-and-george-packer-receive-national-book-awards.html?ref=books|url-status=live}}</ref> National Book Award judges called McBride "a voice as comic and original as any we have heard since [[Mark Twain]]."<ref name="USA_Today">{{cite news|title=James McBride wins National Book Award for fiction|url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/books/2013/11/20/national-book-awards/3652957/|newspaper=USA Today|publisher=Gannett Company|last=Minzesheimer|first=Bob|date=November 20, 2013|access-date=September 16, 2017|archive-date=October 19, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171019164959/https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/books/2013/11/20/national-book-awards/3652957/|url-status=live}}</ref> McBride did not prepare an acceptance speech, as he thought he would not win, and was described as "clearly stunned" upon receiving the award.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/nov/21/national-book-awards-james-mcbride-good-lord-bird|title=National Book Awards leave winner lost for words|newspaper=The Guardian|last=Dugdale|first=John|date=November 21, 2013}}</ref>
 ==Adaptation==
 {{Main|The Good Lord Bird (miniseries)}}
-[[Ethan Hawke]] and [[Jason Blum]] adapted the book for a [[The_Good_Lord_Bird_(miniseries)|television show]], which premiered on October 4, 2020 on [[Showtime (TV network)|Showtime]].<ref>{{cite news|title=Ethan Hawke, Jason Blum Adapting 'The Good Lord Bird' for TV|url=https://variety.com/2018/tv/news/ethan-hawke-jason-blum-adapting-the-good-lord-bird-for-tv-exclusive-1202841171/|website=Variety|last=Lang|first=Brent|date=June 11, 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Academy Award(R) Nominee Ethan Hawke to Executive Produce and Star in Showtime(R) Limited Series "Good Lord Bird"|url=http://www.thefutoncritic.com/news/2019/03/11/academy-award-nominee-ethan-hawke-to-executive-produce-and-star-in-showtime-limited-series-good-lord-bird-7514/20190311showtime01/|work=[[The Futon Critic]]|date=March 11, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Showtime Taps Tony Winner Daveed Diggs and Wyatt Russell in "The Good Lord Bird"|url=http://www.thefutoncritic.com/news/2019/08/02/showtime-taps-tony-winner-daveed-diggs-and-wyatt-russell-in-the-good-lord-bird-559415/20190802showtime01/|work=[[The Futon Critic]]|date=August 2, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=TV News Roundup: Showtime Sets 'The Good Lord Bird' Premiere Date (Watch)|url=https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/tv-news-roundup-showtime-good-lord-bird-premiere-trailer-1234604974/|last1=Rico|first1=Klaritza|last2=Rico|first2=Klaritza|date=2020-05-13|website=Variety|language=en|access-date=2020-05-13}}</ref>
+[[Ethan Hawke]] and [[Jason Blum]] adapted the book for a [[The Good Lord Bird (miniseries)|television show]], which premiered on October 4, 2020 on [[Showtime (TV network)|Showtime]].<ref>{{cite news|title=Ethan Hawke, Jason Blum Adapting 'The Good Lord Bird' for TV|url=https://variety.com/2018/tv/news/ethan-hawke-jason-blum-adapting-the-good-lord-bird-for-tv-exclusive-1202841171/|website=Variety|last=Lang|first=Brent|date=June 11, 2018|access-date=June 13, 2018|archive-date=June 13, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180613041104/https://variety.com/2018/tv/news/ethan-hawke-jason-blum-adapting-the-good-lord-bird-for-tv-exclusive-1202841171/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Academy Award(R) Nominee Ethan Hawke to Executive Produce and Star in Showtime(R) Limited Series "Good Lord Bird"|url=http://www.thefutoncritic.com/news/2019/03/11/academy-award-nominee-ethan-hawke-to-executive-produce-and-star-in-showtime-limited-series-good-lord-bird-7514/20190311showtime01/|work=[[The Futon Critic]]|date=March 11, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Showtime Taps Tony Winner Daveed Diggs and Wyatt Russell in "The Good Lord Bird"|url=http://www.thefutoncritic.com/news/2019/08/02/showtime-taps-tony-winner-daveed-diggs-and-wyatt-russell-in-the-good-lord-bird-559415/20190802showtime01/|work=[[The Futon Critic]]|date=August 2, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=TV News Roundup: Showtime Sets 'The Good Lord Bird' Premiere Date (Watch)|url=https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/tv-news-roundup-showtime-good-lord-bird-premiere-trailer-1234604974/|last1=Rico|first1=Klaritza|date=2020-05-13|website=Variety|language=en|access-date=2020-05-13|archive-date=2020-05-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200513015840/https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/tv-news-roundup-showtime-good-lord-bird-premiere-trailer-1234604974/|url-status=live}}</ref>
 ==References==
 {{Reflist}}
+==Further reading==
+* {{cite journal
+|title=Historical Fiction about John Brown and Male Identity in Radical Movements
+|last=McTaggart
+|first=Ursula
+|journal=[[African American Review]]
+|year=2018
+|volume=51
+|number=2
+|pages=129–142
+|doi=10.1353/afa.2018.0019
+|s2cid=166181361
+|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/699343
+|via=[[Project MUSE]]}}
 {{s-start}}
@@ Line 59: / Line 75: @@
 [[Category:Cultural depictions of Harriet Tubman]]
 [[Category:Books about Frederick Douglass]]
-[[Category:National Book Award for Fiction winning works]]
+[[Category:National Book Award for Fiction–winning works]]
 [[Category:Riverhead Books books]]
 [[Category:American novels adapted into television shows]]

v t e John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry
John Brown's raiders	Osborne Perry Anderson John Brown body Oliver Brown Owen Brown (son) Watson Brown John Anthony Copeland Jr. Barclay Coppock Edwin Coppock Shields Green Albert Hazlett John Henry Kagi Lewis Sheridan Leary Francis Jackson Meriam Dangerfield Newby Aaron Dwight Stevens
Secret Six	Thomas Wentworth Higginson Samuel Gridley Howe Theodore Parker Franklin Benjamin Sanborn Gerrit Smith George Luther Stearns
Other individuals	John Wilkes Booth Mary Ann Day Brown (wife) Owen Brown (father) John Brown, Jr. James Buchanan Samuel Chilton John E.P. Daingerfield Israel Greene George Henry Hoyt Andrew Hunter Stonewall Jackson Robert E. Lee James M. Mason Richard Parker Wendell Phillips Richard Realf James Redpath George Sennott Heyward Shepherd Lysander Spooner George H. Steuart J. E. B. Stuart Lewis Washington Walt Whitman Henry A. Wise
Locations	Allstadt House and Ordinary B & O Railroad Potomac River Crossing Beall-Air Charles Town, West Virginia Gibson-Todd House Harpers Ferry Armory Harpers Ferry, West Virginia Historic District John Brown's Fort Kennedy Farm Sandy Hook, Maryland Winchester, Virginia
Afterwards	Battle Hymn of the Republic Burning of Winchester Medical College Harpers Ferry National Historical Park Heyward Shepherd monument John Brown (biography) John Brown Farm State Historic Site John Brown Farm, Tannery & Museum John Brown House (Akron, Ohio) John Brown Museum (Osawatomie, Kansas) John Brown's body John Brown's Body (poem) John Brown's Body (song) John Brown's last speech John Brown's Provisional Constitution The Last Days of John Brown The Last Moments of John Brown A Plea for Captain John Brown Remarks After the Hanging of John Brown Tragic Prelude Virginia v. John Brown
Related	Abolitionism in the United States La Amistad Battle of Black Jack Battle of the Spurs James Madison Bell Bleeding Kansas Cloudsplitter John Stuart Curry George DeBaptiste Frederick Douglass Ralph Waldo Emerson Fire on the Mountain Wm. Lloyd Garrison The Good Lord Bird (book, miniseries) Haitian Revolution Victor Hugo Elijah P. Lovejoy Marching Song (play) James Montgomery Origins of the American Civil War Battle of Osawatomie Quindaro Townsite Allan Pinkerton Pottawatomie massacre Santa Fe Trail (film) Seven Angry Men Storer College Henry David Thoreau Harriet Tubman Nat Turner Denmark Vesey Wakarusa War Walt Whitman Winchester and Potomac Railroad

v t e National Book Award for Fiction
1950–1975	The Man with the Golden Arm by Nelson Algren (1950) Collected Stories of William Faulkner by William Faulkner (1951) From Here to Eternity by James Jones (1952) Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (1953) The Adventures of Augie March by Saul Bellow (1954) A Fable by William Faulkner (1955) Ten North Frederick by John O'Hara (1956) The Field of Vision by Wright Morris (1957) The Wapshot Chronicle by John Cheever (1958) The Magic Barrel by Bernard Malamud (1959) Goodbye, Columbus by Philip Roth (1960) The Waters of Kronos by Conrad Richter (1961) The Moviegoer by Walker Percy (1962) Morte d'Urban by J. F. Powers (1963) The Centaur by John Updike (1964) Herzog by Saul Bellow (1965) The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter by Katherine Anne Porter (1966) The Fixer by Bernard Malamud (1967) The Eighth Day by Thornton Wilder (1968) Steps by Jerzy Kosiński (1969) them by Joyce Carol Oates (1970) Mr. Sammler's Planet by Saul Bellow (1971) The Complete Stories by Flannery O'Connor (1972) Chimera by John Barth (1973) Augustus by John Williams (1973) Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon (1974) A Crown of Feathers and Other Stories by Isaac Bashevis Singer (1974) Dog Soldiers by Robert Stone (1975) The Hair of Harold Roux by Thomas Williams (1975)
1976–2000	J R by William Gaddis (1976) The Spectator Bird by Wallace Stegner (1977) Blood Tie by Mary Lee Settle (1978) Going After Cacciato by Tim O'Brien (1979) Sophie's Choice by William Styron (1980) The World According to Garp by John Irving (1980) Plains Song: For Female Voices by Wright Morris (1981) The Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever (1981) Rabbit Is Rich by John Updike (1982) So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell (1982) The Color Purple by Alice Walker (1983) The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty by Eudora Welty (1983) Victory Over Japan by Ellen Gilchrist (1984) White Noise by Don DeLillo (1985) World's Fair by E. L. Doctorow (1986) Paco's Story by Larry Heinemann (1987) Paris Trout by Pete Dexter (1988) Spartina by John Casey (1989) Middle Passage by Charles Johnson (1990) Mating by Norman Rush (1991) All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy (1992) The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx (1993) A Frolic of His Own by William Gaddis (1994) Sabbath's Theater by Philip Roth (1995) Ship Fever and Other Stories by Andrea Barrett (1996) Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier (1997) Charming Billy by Alice McDermott (1998) Waiting by Ha Jin (1999) In America by Susan Sontag (2000)
2001–present	The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen (2001) Three Junes by Julia Glass (2002) The Great Fire by Shirley Hazzard (2003) The News from Paraguay by Lily Tuck (2004) Europe Central by William T. Vollmann (2005) The Echo Maker by Richard Powers (2006) Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson (2007) Shadow Country by Peter Matthiessen (2008) Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann (2009) Lord of Misrule by Jaimy Gordon (2010) Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward (2011) The Round House by Louise Erdrich (2012) The Good Lord Bird by James McBride (2013) Redeployment by Phil Klay (2014) Fortune Smiles by Adam Johnson (2015) The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead (2016) Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward (2017) The Friend by Sigrid Nunez (2018) Trust Exercise by Susan Choi (2019) Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu (2020) Hell of a Book by Jason Mott (2021) The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty (2022) Blackouts by Justin Torres (2023)