The winner of the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction is
- The Orphan Master’s Son, by Adam Johnson
The two finalists are:
- What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank, by Nathan Englander
- The Snow Child, by Eowyn Ivey
I’ve heard great things about The Orphan Master’s Son, but it hadn’t really tempted me. I know a lot of people are going to be thrilled it has won. As for the finalists, I’m not a fan of Englander’s book, but The Snow Child sounds very interesting. I’ve been thinking about reading it for a while now.
What do you think?
As you can imagine, I am stunned to see Englander on the short list — the collection features more bad stories than decent ones. A couple were simply terrible for this reader.
The Orphan Master’s Son won the ToB and certainly was Kerry’s favorite, so I may give it a try later. I’ll admit the reviews I have made (which are overwhelmingly positive) have left me thinking it just isn’t my kind of novel.
I’m one of those happy with the win – interesting that it has won at this time, as North Korea has been dominating the news.
I think this will be the first year in a while that I don’t rush out to read the winner. It just doesn’t sound like what I’m looking to read right now, though I hope to get to it someday.
Incidentally, one of the first places I heard of The Snow Child was on the podcast The Readers. You can check out their interview with Eowyn Ivey here.
I’ve read lots of reviews of The Orphan Master’s Son but none has tempted me to put it on my TBR wish list. Perhaps it’s more than just a coincidence that it wins now as North Korea is in the news. Prize judges are human after all, and want the prize to be “timely”, I’m sure.
I think Justin Bieber should read Englander’s book.
I’m glad Nathan Englander got some recognition for this book including a Frank O’ Connor prize win. Most of the people who are quick to blast this collection are not even familiar with his work. It was not better than his first but I really enjoyed the stories. Congrats to Adam Johnson for winning; I heard it was well-deserved.