Finalists for National Book Award chosen

The who’s who of American literature are lining up to see who will be honored this year with a National Book Award. In the fiction category; “A Hologram for the King,” about an American businessman in Saudi Arabia, by Dave Eggers, “The Round House,” the story of an Ojibwe boy and his mother’s assault, by Louise Erdrich; and “This is How You Lose Her,” short stories by Junot Diaz about romance.

In the nonfiction category; “Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1945-1956,” by Pulitzer Prize winner Anne Applebaum, “Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity,” by Pulitzer Prize winner and former Washington Post writer Katherine Boo, “The Passage of Power,” the fourth volume of Robert A. Caro’s series on Lyndon B. Johnson; “The Boy Kings of Texas,” a memoir by Domingo Martinez; and “House of Stone: A Memoir of Home, Family, and a Lost Middle East,” by Anthony Shadid.

In the poetry category; “Bewilderment,” by David Ferry, “Heavenly Bodies,” by Cynthia Huntington, a former poet laureate of New Hampshire, “Fast Animal,” by Tim Seibles, a former fellow of the National Endowment for the Arts, “Night of the Republic,” by Alan Shapiro, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle’s poetry award; and “Meme,” by Pushcart Prize winner Susan Wheeler.