National Book Award for Fiction

Winners

2025The True True Story of Raja the Gullible ★Rabih Alameddine ★☆
2024James ★★☆☆Percival Everett ★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆
2023Blackouts ★Justin Torres ★
2022The Rabbit Hutch ★Tess Gunty ★
2021Hell of a Book ★Jason Mott ★
2020Interior Chinatown ★Charles Yu ★
2019Trust Exercise ★Susan Choi ★☆☆☆
2018The Friend ★☆Sigrid Nunez ★☆
2017Sing, Unburied, Sing ★☆Jesmyn Ward ★★☆☆☆
2016The Underground Railroad ★★☆☆Colson Whitehead ★★★☆☆☆☆
2015Fortune Smiles ★Adam Johnson ★★
2014Redeployment ★Phil Klay ★
2013The Good Lord Bird ★James McBride ★
2012The Round House ★Louise Erdrich ★★☆☆☆
2011Salvage the Bones ★Jesmyn Ward ★★☆☆☆
2010Lord of Misrule ★Jaimy Gordon ★
2009Let the Great World Spin ★★Colum McCann ★★☆☆☆☆☆
2008Shadow Country ★Peter Matthiessen ★★★☆☆☆☆
2007Tree of Smoke ★☆Denis Johnson ★☆☆
2006The Echo Maker ★☆Richard Powers ★★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
2005Europe Central ★William T. Vollmann ★
2004The News from Paraguay ★Lily Tuck ★
2003The Great Fire ★☆☆☆Shirley Hazzard ★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
2002Three Junes ★Julia Glass ★
2001The Corrections ★☆☆Jonathan Franzen ★☆☆
2000In America ★Susan Sontag ★☆
1999Waiting ★☆Ha Jin ★☆☆☆☆
1998Charming Billy ★☆Alice McDermott ★☆☆☆☆☆☆
1997Cold Mountain ★Charles Frazier ★
1996Ship Fever and Other Stories ★Andrea Barrett ★☆
1995Sabbath's Theater ★☆Philip Roth ★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
1994A Frolic of His Own ★William Gaddis ★★
1993The Shipping News ★★E. Annie Proulx ★★
1992All the Pretty Horses ★Cormac McCarthy ★★☆
1991Mating ★Norman Rush ★☆☆
1990Middle Passage ★Charles Johnson ★
1989Spartina ★John Casey ★
1988Paris Trout ★Pete Dexter ★
1987Paco's Story ★Larry Heinemann ★
1986World's Fair ★E. L. Doctorow ★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
1985White Noise ★Don DeLillo ★☆☆☆☆☆
1984Victory Over Japan ★Ellen Gilchrist ★
1983The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty ★☆Eudora Welty ★★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
1983The Color Purple ★★Alice Walker ★★
1982Rabbit is Rich ★★John Updike ★★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆
1982So Long, See You Tomorrow ★☆☆William Maxwell ★☆☆☆
1981The Stories of John Cheever ★★☆John Cheever ★★★☆☆
1981Plains Song ★Wright Morris ★★☆☆☆
1980The World According to Garp ★☆John Irving ★★☆☆☆
1980Sophie's Choice ★William Styron ★★☆☆
1979Going After Cacciato ★Tim O'Brien ★☆
1978Blood Tie ★Mary Lee Settle ★
1977The Spectator Bird ★Wallace Stegner ★★☆
1976J R ★William Gaddis ★★
1975Dog Soldiers ★Robert Stone ★☆☆☆☆☆☆
1974Gravity's Rainbow ★Thomas Pynchon ★☆☆
1973Chimera ★John Barth ★☆
1972The Complete Stories ★Flannery O'Connor ★☆☆☆
1971Mr. Sammler's Planet ★Saul Bellow ★★★★★★☆☆☆
1970them ★Joyce Carol Oates ★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
1969Steps ★Jerzy Kosiński ★
1968The Eighth Day ★Thornton Wilder ★★
1967The Fixer ★★Bernard Malamud ★★★☆☆☆
1966The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter ★★Katherine Anne Porter ★★☆
1965Herzog ★Saul Bellow ★★★★★★☆☆☆
1964The Centaur ★John Updike ★★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆
1963Morte d'Urban ★J. F. Powers ★☆☆
1962The Moviegoer ★Walker Percy ★☆☆☆☆
1961The Waters of Kronos ★Conrad Richter ★★
1960Goodbye, Columbus ★Philip Roth ★★★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
1959The Magic Barrel ★Bernard Malamud ★★★☆☆☆
1958The Wapshot Chronicle ★John Cheever ★★★☆☆
1957The Field of Vision ★Wright Morris ★★☆☆☆
1956Ten North Frederick ★John O'Hara ★☆
1955A Fable ★★William Faulkner ★★★★★★☆☆
1954The Adventures of Augie March ★Saul Bellow ★★★★★★☆☆☆
1953Invisible Man ★Ralph Ellison ★☆
1952From Here to Eternity ★James Jones ★☆
1951Collected Stories of William Faulkner ★William Faulkner ★★★★★★☆☆
1950The Man with the Golden Arm ★Nelson Algren ★☆