Percival Everett and Jason De León win National Book Awards

NEW YORK (AP) — Percival Everett's “James,” a daring reworking of “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” has won the National Book Award for fiction. Jason De León’s “Soldiers and Kings: Survival and Hope in the World of Human Smuggling” won for nonfiction, where finalists included...

Booker Prize winner Richard Flanagan adds Baillie Gifford nonfiction prize to his trophy shelf

LONDON (AP) — Australian writer Richard Flanagan completed an unprecedented literary double on Tuesday, winning Britain’s leading nonfiction book prize a decade after being awarded the Booker Prize for fiction. Flanagan was awarded the 50,000 pound ($63,000) Baillie Gifford Prize...

Toronto author Anne Michaels wins Giller Prize for novel 'Held'

TORONTO (AP) — Poet-novelist Anne Michaels has won the Giller Prize for her novel “Held,” a multi-generational examination of war and trauma. The 100,000 Canadian dollar ($71,000) Giller prize honors the best in Canadian fiction. Past winners have included Margaret Atwood,...

Book Review: A young Walt Longmire battles animal and human predators on Alaska’s North Slope

In December, 1970, Walt Longmire, back in the States after fighting in Vietnam, was working security for an oil company on Alaska’s North Slope. There, he found himself battling predators, both animal and human, in brutal weather conditions. Now, after his career as sheriff of...

Mason Bates' Met-bound opera 'Kavalier & Clay' based on Michael Chabon novel premieres in Indiana

BLOOMINGTON, Indiana (AP) — When composer Mason Bates approached Michael Chabon about turning his novel “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay” into an opera, he said the writer told him frankly that “opera was not his thing.” “He was very supportive of the...

Book Review: Richard Price returns with another portrait of urban America, ‘Lazarus Man'

Is there a better writer of urban American stories than Richard Price? His resume is hard to beat: To episodes of HBO’s “The Wire,” and “The Night Of,” and novels like “Clockers,” “Lush Life,” and “Freedomland,” fans can now add “Lazarus Man.” The story...

British writer Samantha Harvey’s space-station novel 'Orbital' wins the Booker Prize for fiction

LONDON (AP) — British writer Samantha Harvey won the Booker Prize for fiction on Tuesday with “Orbital,” a short, wonder-filled novel set aboard the International Space Station that ponders the beauty and fragility of Earth. Harvey was awarded the 50,000-pound ($64,000) prize...

British writer Samantha Harvey’s space-station novel 'Orbital' wins the Booker Prize for fiction

Percival Everett's 'James' is a finalist for Carnegie Medal for fiction

NEW YORK (AP) — Percival Everett's “James” has received yet another literary nomination. Everett's reworking of Mark Twain's “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” is among the finalists for an Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence, $5,000 honors for fiction and nonfiction presented by the...

Book Review: 'Those Opulent Days' is a mystery drenched in cruelties of colonial French Indochina

It’s not often that a historical novel is set in the Vietnam of the 1920s, a period when the land in Indochina was occupied and exploited by French colonizers. It’s also unusual that such a novel would be a whodunit murder mystery. “Those Opulent Days,” the debut novel of...