Earlier
this month, the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction winner was announced. The prize is
awarded annually to the authors of the year's best works of fiction by living
American citizens. The winner receives US $15,000 and each of four runners-up
receives US $5000.
The winner
is Delicious Foods by James Hannaham
In Delicious Foods, James Hannaham tells
the story of three characters: a mother, her son, and the drug that threatens
to destroy them. Darlene, once an exemplary wife and a loving mother to her
young son Eddie, finds herself devastated by the unforeseen death of her
husband. Unable to cope with her grief, she turns to drugs, and quickly forms
an addiction. One day she disappears without a trace. Unbeknownst to
eleven-year-old Eddie, now left behind in a panic-stricken search for her,
Darlene has been lured away with false promises of a good job and a rosy life.
A shady company named Delicious Foods shuttles her to a remote farm, where she
is held captive, performing hard labour in the fields to pay off the supposed
debt for her food, lodging, and the constant stream of drugs the farm provides
to her and the other unfortunates imprisoned there (https://www.amazon.ca/Delicious-Foods-Novel-James-Hannaham/dp/0316284947/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1461601867&sr=1-1&keywords=delicious+foods).
The other
finalists were
Mr. and Mrs. Doctor by Julie Iromuanya
The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen
Mendocino Fire by Elizabeth Tallent
The Water Museum by Luis Alberto Urrea
For further
information, see http://www.penfaulkner.org/2016/04/05/announcing-the-2016-penfaulkner-award-winner/.
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