The National Book Critics Circle has announced the winners of its annual awards, recognising works by Nobel laureate Han Kang, Karen Hao's examination of artificial intelligence, and a memoir by Arundhati Roy.
Han Kang's novel 'We Do Not Part', translated by e.yaewon and Paige Aniyah Morris, addresses the 1948-1949 uprising on Jeju Island, South Korea, where thousands were killed. Heather Scott Partington, chair of the fiction committee, described it as 'a work of blinding melancholy, bleak weather, and murmuring syntax' that 'lingers like an atmospheric and arresting dream'.
Karen Hao's 'Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI' won the nonfiction award. The biography prize went to Alex Green's 'A Perfect Turmoil: Walter E. Fernald and the Struggle to Care for America’s Disabled', while the translation award was given to 'Sad Tiger' by Neige Sinno, translated by Natasha Lehrer.
The lifetime achievement award was presented to author and journalist Frances FitzGerald, known for her 1972 book 'Fire in the Lake' on the Vietnam War. NPR and PBS received the achievement award for their contributions to book culture. Jacob M. Appel, who chaired the selection process, said: 'At a time when some question the value of public, service-minded media, we salute PBS and NPR for all you have done for both book culture and American democracy.'
The National Book Critics Circle, founded in 1974, comprises over 850 critics and editors, and its awards honour the best books published in the US in the past year.
