Award-Winning Books of 2017

A drive through the heart of Mississippi becomes a journey into the legacy of racial violence in Ward's powerful third novel, winner of this year's National Book Award for fiction. Mother and son Leonie and Jojo alternately narrate the novel. Leonie has a drug habit and devastating memories of her brother, who was killed in a racially motivated crime. Jojo, only 13, has to act as the grown-up of the family, not just for his neglectful mother but also for his toddler sister. Into these complex relationships, the author weaves in a third narrator, the ghost of a black prisoner killed decades before. Ward's style recalls Morrison and Faulkner, but her ability to confront modern issues like addiction, policing and the prison system creates a heartbreaking story that tells "tales we need to hear with rare clarity and power," as Edwidge Danticat writes.