National Book Award for Fiction Winners: Every Winning Book, Newest First
The National Book Award for Fiction is one of the major literary awards in the United States. It goes to one work of fiction published in the U.S. during the award year. The National Book Foundation announces five finalists in October and the winner in November.
It sits beside the Pulitzer as a guide to the best American fiction of each year, but the winners often differ, so it is a good way to find books you may have missed. The list covers decades of novels and story collections; each one has a hook and a plain note on what you get.
Best for: Readers who want the best of recent and past American fiction.
- Awarded by
- The National Book Foundation, in New York. From 1950 to 1974 the awards were run by the National Book Committee.
- Since
- Re-established in 1950, with Fiction as one of the first four categories.
- Shared prizes
- In 1973, 1974 and 1975 the Fiction prize was split between two books.
- Hardcover and paperback
- From 1980 to 1983 there were separate hardcover and paperback winners. The list shows both.
- This list
- Winners from 1950 to 2025, newest first.
- Source
- Wikipedia, National Book Award for Fiction
74 books
2025The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother)Rabih Alameddine
Literary Fiction · ThoughtfulA philosophy teacher in his sixties tells family stories while his mother loses her memory
What you get: A lively, funny and tender story told by a voice you quickly grow fond of.
2023BlackoutsJustin TorresLiterary Fiction · MelancholicTwo men in a place called the Palace try to finish a lost study of queer lives
What you get: A bold, poetic story about uncovering lives that were nearly forgotten.
2022The Rabbit HutchTess GuntyLiterary Fiction · ThoughtfulResidents of one run-down apartment building in an Indiana town, as developers plan to remake it
What you get: A fresh, energetic novel full of color, humor and sharp observation of lives that touch.
2021Hell of a BookJason MottLiterary Fiction · ThoughtfulA touring novelist sees visions of The Kid, while a child named Soot is bullied on the bus
What you get: A clever, heartfelt story that blends humor with big questions about being seen.
2020Interior ChinatownCharles YuLiterary Fiction · LightWillis Wu plays Generic Asian Man in a TV cop show and wants to become Kung Fu Guy
What you get: An inventive story written like a script, full of wit, heart and sharp observation.
2019Trust ExerciseSusan ChoiLiterary Fiction · ThoughtfulTwo students at a performing-arts school fall in love, and then the book changes who is telling the story
What you get: A sharp, absorbing story set at a theater school that keeps surprising you.
2018The FriendSigrid NunezLiterary Fiction · MelancholicA writer in Manhattan takes in her late friend's Great Dane, though her building bans dogs
What you get: A gentle, thoughtful story that offers comfort and a lot to think about.
2017Sing, Unburied, SingJesmyn WardLiterary Fiction · DarkA road trip to Parchman prison to pick up a father, with ghosts along for the ride
What you get: Beautiful, vivid prose and voices you will not forget, written with great tenderness.
2015Fortune SmilesAdam JohnsonLiterary Fiction · ThoughtfulSix stories: an AI president, a hurricane, a Stasi prison warden and two North Korean defectors
What you get: Six bold, imaginative stories that make you see the world in a new way.
2014RedeploymentPhil KlayLiterary Fiction · DarkTwelve stories by a Marine veteran about fighting in Iraq and coming home
What you get: Vivid, human stories that give a close-up view of life after service.
2013The Good Lord BirdJames McBride
Historical Fiction · WarmAn enslaved boy in 1856 Kansas is mistaken for a girl by abolitionist John Brown and rides with him
What you get: A lively, fresh and surprising story that mixes humor with real feeling.
2012The Round HouseLouise ErdrichLiterary Fiction · TenseIn 1988, a thirteen-year-old on a North Dakota reservation investigates the attack on his mother
What you get: A powerful, tender mystery told through a thirteen-year-old's eyes.
2011Salvage the BonesJesmyn WardLiterary Fiction · TenseA Mississippi family prepares for Hurricane Katrina while a pit bull has puppies and a girl learns she is pregnant
What you get: A vivid, powerful novel with rich, poetic language and a strong sense of love.
2010Lord of MisruleJaimy GordonLiterary Fiction · ThoughtfulFour horse races, and the people at a struggling racetrack who bet on them
What you get: A lively, inventive novel full of memorable characters and the thrill of the races.
2009Let the Great World SpinColum McCannLiterary Fiction · ThoughtfulNew York on the August day in 1974 when a man walked a tightrope between the Twin Towers
What you get: A moving, many-voiced portrait of a city that links strangers in surprising ways.
2008Shadow CountryPeter MatthiessenHistorical Fiction · EpicPeter Matthiessen's three-part novel about Edgar Watson, a planter and alleged outlaw of the Florida Everglades
What you get: A grand, immersive saga about a legendary planter, told from several angles.
2007Tree of SmokeDenis JohnsonHistorical Fiction · DarkA young CIA officer joins his uncle's secret operation in Vietnam, and the war and the truth drift apart
What you get: An immersive, powerful story with rich characters and a strong sense of place.
2006The Echo MakerRichard PowersLiterary Fiction · ThoughtfulAfter a truck accident, a Nebraska man believes his sister has been replaced by an impostor
What you get: A gripping, original story about a man, his sister and what it means to know someone.
2005Europe CentralWilliam T. VollmannHistorical Fiction · DarkParables about generals, composers and ordinary people facing moral choices in wartime Europe
What you get: A rich, original book of linked tales that gives a many-sided view of a turbulent era.
2004The News from ParaguayLily TuckHistorical Fiction · MelancholicAn Irish courtesan and the man who will rule Paraguay, told in short scenes and letters
What you get: A vivid, lyrical story of love and power told in short, bright scenes.
2003The Great FireShirley HazzardHistorical Fiction · MelancholicA British war hero tours postwar Japan in 1947 and falls into a love story with an Australian teenager
What you get: A beautifully written story of two people finding each other in a changed world.
2002Three JunesJulia GlassLiterary Fiction · WarmThree narrators and three Junes: a widower in Greece, a bookseller in New York, and a pregnant woman
What you get: A gentle, richly human story told in three parts that stays with you.
2001The CorrectionsJonathan FranzenLiterary Fiction · ThoughtfulAn aging Midwestern couple tries to get their three grown children home for one last Christmas
What you get: A witty, absorbing family story that is tender and comic in equal measure.
2000In AmericaSusan SontagHistorical Fiction · ThoughtfulA Polish stage star plans a utopian colony in America in 1876, based on the real actress Helena Modjeska
What you get: A thoughtful, richly imagined story of a famous actress and her dream of a new life.
1999WaitingHa JinLiterary Fiction · MelancholicFor eighteen years, a Chinese army doctor tries to divorce his village wife so he can marry a nurse
What you get: A simple, moving story that captures the slow rhythm of waiting and hope.
1998Charming BillyAlice McDermottLiterary Fiction · WarmAfter Billy Lynch's funeral, relatives piece together his life and a lost love from conflicting stories
What you get: A tender, funny and moving story told by those who loved Billy.
1997Cold MountainCharles FrazierHistorical Fiction · EpicA wounded Confederate soldier walks home through the last months of the Civil War to the woman he loves
What you get: A moving, beautifully written odyssey with a strong sense of landscape and devotion.
1996Ship Fever and Other StoriesAndrea BarrettHistorical Fiction · ThoughtfulOne novella and seven stories about scientists and the people close to them, from 1764 to 1971
What you get: Elegant, curious stories that join the lives of scientists with feeling.
1995Sabbath's TheaterPhilip RothLiterary Fiction · DarkA sixty-four-year-old former puppeteer, out of work and in crisis after the death of his lover, thinks about suicide
What you get: A wild, energetic and daring novel with a voice that cannot be ignored.
1994A Frolic of His OwnWilliam GaddisLiterary Fiction · LightA writer sues a film producer for stealing his unpublished play, and the lawsuits multiply from there
What you get: A clever, funny story told almost entirely in dialogue.
1992All the Pretty HorsesCormac McCarthyHistorical Fiction · EpicIn 1949, a sixteen-year-old Texas cowboy rides south into Mexico with his best friend
What you get: Gorgeous landscape writing and a young hero riding toward adventure, love and loss.
1991MatingNorman RushLiterary Fiction · ThoughtfulAn American anthropology student in Botswana pursues a controversial scholar who has founded a village run by women
What you get: A lively, thoughtful story set in Botswana with a memorable voice.
1990Middle PassageCharles JohnsonHistorical Fiction · TenseIn 1830, a freed slave in debt stows away on a ship bound for Africa to buy captives
What you get: A rich, fast-moving sea story with humor, danger and reflection.
1989SpartinaJohn CaseyLiterary Fiction · TenseA Rhode Island fisherman stakes everything on finishing a fifty-foot boat in his backyard
What you get: A vivid, absorbing portrait of a man and his dream of a boat.
1988Paris TroutPete DexterLiterary Fiction · DarkA respected storekeeper and loan shark in a small Georgia town kills a young Black girl over a debt
What you get: A gripping, atmospheric novel that holds your attention.
1987Paco's StoryLarry HeinemannLiterary Fiction · DarkA badly wounded Vietnam veteran arrives in a Midwestern river town, and a ghost from his company tells his story
What you get: A haunting, memorable narrative that stays with you.
1986World's FairE. L. DoctorowLiterary Fiction · WarmA boy grows up in the Bronx in the late 1930s as the 1939 World's Fair draws near
What you get: A warm, funny and lively memory of a Bronx childhood in the thirties.
1985White NoiseDon DeLilloLiterary Fiction · DarkA professor of Hitler studies faces his fear of death after a chemical cloud drifts over his college town
What you get: A sharp, witty look at family, fear and shopping malls that feels uncannily current.
1984Victory Over JapanEllen GilchristLiterary Fiction · LightStories about Rhoda Manning, a willful girl in the last months of World War II, and the women who follow
What you get: A bright, spirited collection with an unforgettable girl at its center.
1983The Collected Stories of Eudora WeltyEudora WeltyLiterary Fiction · WarmAll of Eudora Welty's published short fiction in one volume, plus two stories that had never been collected
What you get: A rich collection that celebrates ordinary lives with humor and grace.
1982So Long, See You TomorrowWilliam MaxwellLiterary Fiction · MelancholicA man looks back fifty years to a killing in his Illinois hometown and to a friend he failed
What you get: A beautiful, concentrated story that lingers long after you finish.
1981Plains SongWright MorrisLiterary Fiction · ThoughtfulFour generations of women on a Nebraska farm and in the wider world, from the 1900s to the 1970s
What you get: A calm, evocative family portrait across four generations.
1980Sophie's ChoiceWilliam StyronLiterary Fiction · DarkA young writer in a Brooklyn boarding house befriends a Polish survivor of Auschwitz and her volatile lover
What you get: An intense, beautifully written story that stays with you and deepens your sense of what people carry.
1980The World According to GarpJohn IrvingLiterary Fiction · WarmThe life of T. S. Garp, a novelist, and his mother Jenny Fields, a nurse who became a feminist figure
What you get: A warm, wild, richly inventive story with unforgettable characters and plenty of humor and heart.
1979Going After CacciatoTim O'BrienLiterary Fiction · ThoughtfulA soldier on watch imagines his squad chasing a deserter who is walking from Vietnam to Paris
What you get: A moving, original story that shows what dreams can do for a soldier.
1978Blood TieMary Lee SettleLiterary Fiction · ThoughtfulExpatriates in a hotel on the Turkish coast, and how their failings drive the story
What you get: A thoughtful, atmospheric story of people far from home.
1977The Spectator BirdWallace StegnerLiterary Fiction · MelancholicA retired literary agent, after an old friend's postcard arrives, goes back to the diary of a trip to Denmark
What you get: A warm, wise story of memory and what we carry.
1976J RWilliam GaddisLiterary Fiction · LightAn eleven-year-old schoolboy builds a vast paper fortune out of penny stocks, using only payphones and money orders
What you get: A bold, wildly original satire that rewards your patience.
1975Dog SoldiersRobert Stone
Mystery & Thriller · TenseA journalist has a friend smuggle heroin out of Vietnam, and then the buyers and the law come after them
What you get: A fast, intense story with strong atmosphere and a sharp edge.
1975The Hair of Harold RouxThomas WilliamsLiterary Fiction · ThoughtfulA depressed professor spends a spring weekend in 1970 while the novel he is writing unfolds inside the book
What you get: A clever, thoughtful book that nests stories within a stories.
1974Gravity's RainbowThomas PynchonLiterary Fiction · DarkAt the end of World War II, a story built around the V-2 rocket with over 400 named characters
What you get: A dazzling, challenging book that rewards you with imagination, humor and big ideas.
1974A Crown of Feathers and Other StoriesIsaac Bashevis SingerLiterary Fiction · WarmTwenty-four stories translated from Yiddish, from "A Crown of Feathers" to "Grandfather and Grandson"
What you get: Twenty-four stories full of humor, folklore and human feeling.
1973ChimeraJohn BarthLiterary Fiction · LightThree linked novellas that retell Scheherazade's story and the myths of Perseus and Bellerophon
What you get: A playful, witty book that makes ancient stories feel new.
1973AugustusJohn WilliamsHistorical Fiction · ThoughtfulTold in letters and fragments, the life of Augustus from the day Julius Caesar summons him at seventeen
What you get: A rich, absorbing portrait of an emperor seen from many sides.
1972The Complete StoriesFlannery O'ConnorLiterary Fiction · DarkThirty-one stories, including every story from A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Everything That Rises Must Converge
What you get: A brilliant collection that surprises you at every turn.
1971Mr. Sammler's PlanetSaul BellowLiterary Fiction · ThoughtfulArtur Sammler, a Holocaust survivor in 1960s New York, watches a society excited by the Moon landings
What you get: A thoughtful, richly voiced novel with sharp observations of the city.
1970themJoyce Carol OatesLiterary Fiction · DarkA family's story from a violent teenage romance in the 1930s to the Detroit riots of 1967
What you get: A vivid, absorbing story that makes you feel the energy of a changing city.
1969StepsJerzy KosińskiLiterary Fiction · DarkLoosely connected vignettes told in the first person, with no named characters or places
What you get: A series of sharp, vivid scenes you can read in any mood.
1968The Eighth DayThornton WilderLiterary Fiction · TenseAfter a shooting at a weekend gathering of two families in an Illinois mining town, John Ashley is accused
What you get: A rich, wide-ranging novel that rewards your attention.
1965HerzogSaul BellowLiterary Fiction · ThoughtfulMoses Herzog, a professor in a midlife crisis after a divorce, writes letters in his head that he never sends
What you get: A funny, moving, intelligent portrait of a restless mind.
1964The CentaurJohn UpdikeLiterary Fiction · ThoughtfulA schoolteacher and his art-minded son in a Pennsylvania town, both wanting to get away, seen through Greek myth
What you get: A tender, imaginative novel that blends myth and daily life.
1963Morte d'UrbanJ. F. PowersLiterary Fiction · LightA charismatic priest in a stagnant order is sent from Chicago to a run-down Minnesota retreat house
What you get: A witty, humane story with a hero you cannot help liking.
1962The MoviegoerWalker PercyLiterary Fiction · ThoughtfulA New Orleans stockbroker who finds more meaning in movies than in daily life begins a search at Mardi Gras
What you get: A charming, reflective story set in New Orleans.
1961The Waters of KronosConrad RichterLiterary Fiction · MelancholicAn aging writer drives back to the Pennsylvania town where he grew up and finds it under water
What you get: A calm, poetic novel about memory and time.
1960Goodbye, ColumbusPhilip RothLiterary Fiction · LightA low-paid Newark library worker spends a summer with Brenda Patimkin, a college student from a wealthy family
What you get: A quick, lively read full of wit and honest feeling.
1959The Magic BarrelBernard MalamudLiterary Fiction · MelancholicThirteen stories set in New York and Italy, including the title tale of a student rabbi and a marriage broker
What you get: Thirteen short stories full of humor, humanity and surprise.
1958The Wapshot ChronicleJohn CheeverLiterary Fiction · WarmThe Wapshots of a Massachusetts fishing village: Leander, his sons Moses and Coverly, and Cousin Honora
What you get: A lively, charming story full of humor and heart.
1957The Field of VisionWright MorrisLiterary Fiction · ThoughtfulVacationing in Mexico, Walter McKee runs into Gordon Boyd, an old friend he has not seen in about fifteen years
What you get: A clever, unusual novel set at a Mexican bullfight.
1956Ten North FrederickJohn O'HaraLiterary Fiction · MelancholicJoseph Chapin wants to be president, and his wife, two rebellious children and a mistress complicate his path
What you get: A sharp, absorbing portrait of an American family.
1954The Adventures of Augie MarchSaul BellowLiterary Fiction · WarmA boy from a poor Chicago family drifts through jobs, loves, homes and schooling toward a settled life
What you get: A free-spirited, funny and wise story that makes you love its hero.
1953Invisible ManRalph EllisonLiterary Fiction · ThoughtfulAn unnamed Black man in a room lit with stolen electricity tells how he became invisible
What you get: A bold, powerful, inventive story that makes you think about who we are and how others see us.
1952From Here to EternityJames JonesHistorical Fiction · TenseAt Schofield Barracks in Hawaii, a career soldier who refuses to box is harassed daily by his superiors
What you get: A powerful, absorbing portrait of men and loyalty in a peacetime army.
1951Collected Stories of William FaulknerWilliam FaulknerLiterary Fiction · ThoughtfulForty-two Faulkner stories, selected under his supervision and arranged in six sections
What you get: Rich, atmospheric stories that open a whole world one piece at a time.
1950The Man with the Golden ArmNelson AlgrenLiterary Fiction · DarkA Chicago card dealer and amateur drummer struggles to steady his home life and a morphine habit
What you get: A vivid, energetic portrait of life in Chicago's streets.
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