The National Book Award nominees were announced today. I had only heard of one of them before (and it’s one I really want to read).
Here they are:
Then We Came To The End, by Joshua Ferris, about layoffs and office life at an ad agency at the end of the ’90s boom.
Fieldwork, by Mischa Berlinski, a psychological thriller set in Thailand.
Varieties of Disturbance, by Lydia Davis, which appears to be a collection of "absurdist" short fiction.
Tree of Smoke, by Denis Johnson, a very long novel about Vietnam.
Like You’d Understand, Anyway, by Jim Shepard, a collection of stories spanning a wide geographic and chronologic range.
I have to be honest – the only one of these I have any desire to read is Ferris’.
Any thoughts?