As reported last night by our New York correspondent, John Green, Richard Powers has won the National Book Award for fiction. Well deserved, in this humble blogger’s opinion. The full list:
- Fiction: Richard Powers for The Echo Maker (Farrar)
- Nonfiction: Timothy Egan for The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl (Houghton)
- Young People’s Literature: M.T. Anderson for The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume One: The Pox Party (Candlewick)
- Poetry: Nathaniel Mackey for Splay Anthem (New Directions)
A little more detail in the Washington Post. Quoth Powers:
“I’ve got to say, that does a number on your brain chemistry.”
Really, could he have said anything else? (Read the book!)
