Pulitzer Prize in Fiction
A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley
modern retelling of King Lear Set on a 400 hectare farm in Iowa owned by a father and three daughters. Told from oldest, Ginny's perspective. Other two daughters are Rose and Caroline. Father is Larry Cook.
House Made of Dawn by M. Scott Momaday
widely credited as leading the way for the breakthrough of Native American Literature. Largely based on author's first-hand knowledge of the life of Jemez Pueblo. Protagonist, Abel, is a mirror of the author. Follows Abel's life after he returns from fighting in WWII.
The Edge of Sadness by Edwin O'Connor
Revolves around father Hugh Kennedy, a recovering alcoholic. He returns to his birthplace, an unspecified New England Sea Port city to attempt to mend his reputation and becomes involved with the Carmody's, a family he has known since childhood.
The Travels of Jamie McPheeters by Robert Louis Taylor
Titular character accompanies a wagon train headed from St. Louis, Missouri, to California after the 1849 Gold Rush. His father is "Doc" Sardius (title last name) Buck Coulter and Linc Murdock are wagon masters.
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
1961 Pulitzer Prize winner
A Good Scent from A Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler
A collection of short stories, each narrated by a different Vietnamese immighrant living in Louisiana. Focuses on cultural differences. 1.1 Open Arms 1.2 Mr. Green 1.3 The Trip Back 1.4 Fairy Tale 1.5 Crickets 1.6 Letters from my Father 1.7 Love 1.8 Preparation 1.9 Mid-Autumn and In the Clearing 1.10 A Ghost Story 1.11 Snow 1.12 The American Couple 1.13 (Titular story) 1.14 Salem 1.15 Missing
The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer
About Gary Gilmore, the first person to be executed after the reinstatement of capital punishment in 1976. Notable for depicting the anguish he experienced for committing murder.
Collected Stories by Jean Stafford
Consists of The Innocents Abroad he Bostonians, and Other Manifestations of the American Scene Cowboys and Indians, and Magic Mountains Manhattan Island
A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
13 interrelated stories concerning individuals connected to Bennie Salazar, a record company executive, and his assistant, Sasha, in some way. Stories take place from the late 1960's to early 2020's. Many of the stories take place in and around New York City, although other settings include San Francisco, Italy, and Kenya. other characters: Lou, Scotty, Stephanie, Dolly, Lulu, Kitty, Jules, Rob, Bosco, Alex, Jocelyn, Drew, Ted, Allison, and Rhea.
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
13 related stories in the town of Crosby, Maine Main Characters: Title Character, Henry, Christoper, Jack Kennison. Pharmacy Incoming Tide The Piano Player A Little Burst Starving A Different Road Winter Concert Tulips Basket of Trips Ship in a Bottle Security Criminal River
A Death in the Family by James Agee
Autobiographical novel set in Knoxville Tennessee. Published Posthumously In 1915, author's father went out of town to see his father who had suffered a heart attack and died in a car accident. Portrays how the loss affects the young widow, her two children, her atheist father and the dead man's alcoholic brother.
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
Bildungsroman told in first person by Theodore Decker, who survived a terrorist attack at the metropolitan museum of art at age 13 which killed his mother. As he staggered out of the debris, he finds a man who gives him a ring and an enigmatic message before dying. He believes the old man told him to take a certain painting, so he took a small Carel Fabritius painting with him, which became a symbol of hope as he descended into a life of crime. He falls in love with Pippa.
Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
Bildungsroman, loosely based on author's life and greek heritage. The protagonist, Cal Stephanides, is an intersex man of Greek heritage. He has 5-alpha-reductase deficiency, so he has certain feminine traits. The first half of the novel centers on his grandparents 1922 migration from Bursa in Asia Minor to America. In the second half, Cal moves from Detroit to San Francisco, where he comes to terms with his gender identity.
The Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx
Centers on Quoyle, a newspaper pressroom worker from upstate New York whose father immigrated from Newfoundland. After his parents joint suicide, his abusive wife Petal tries to sell their daughters, Bunny and Sunshine, to sex traffickers, but she is killed in a car crash and his aunt, Agnis Hamm, convinces him to return to his ancestral home in Newfoundland. he finds a job as a newspaper editor, documenting traffic accidents and the title thing. He is able to rebuild his life and discovers dark secrets about his ancestors.
Interpreter of Maladies by by Jhumpa Lahiri
Collection of nine short stories centering on Indians and Indian-Americans struggling with their roots and "the new world" "A Temporary Matter" "When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine" (Titular Story) "A Real Durwan" "Sexy" "Mrs. Sen's" "This Blessed House" "The Treatment of Bibi Haldar" "The Third and Final Continent"
Tales of the South Pacific by James A. Michener
Collection of sequentially related short stories about the Pacific Campaign of WWII. Based on author's observations while stationed as a lieutenant commander on the island of Espiritu Santo in the New Hebrides Islands. Stories take place in Coral Sea and Solomon Islands. Author gives first person narration to some stories through an unnamed "commander". One plot line in particular is the preparation for and execution of a fictitious amphibious invasion, code-named "Alligator". The focus of the stories is, however, the interactions between Americans and a variety of colonial, immigrant, and indigenous characters.
Collected Stories by Katherine Anne Porter
Comprises nineteen "short stories and long stories" including all stories collected in Flowering Judas; Pale Horse, Pale Rider; and The Leaning Tower.
Foreign Affairs by Allison Lurie
Concerns American academics in England unmarried 54-year-old Virginia "Vinnie" Miner is a professor at Corinth and she is off to London for a research trip. She hopes to produce an important new book, but finds that a critic, L.D. Zimmern has trashed her work. Other characters: Chuck Mumpson, Fred Turner, and Roo.
American Pastoral by Phillip Roth
Concerns Seymour "Swede" Levov, a Jewish American businessman and former high school star athlete from Newark New Jersey. His life is ruined by the domestic social and political turmoil of the 1960's under president Johnson, described as a manifestation of "the indigenous American berserk" Framed as a 45th high school reunion attended by Nathan Zuckerman at which Jerry Levov describes the demise of his recently deceased older brother, who died of metastatic prostate cancer at 68.
The Hours by Michael Cunningham
Concerns three generations of women affected by the classic novel, Mrs.Dalloway. In 1923, Virginia Woolf is writing the novel and struggling with her own mental illness in Richmond. In 1949 Los Angeles, Mrs. Brown, the wife of a WWII Veteran is reading the novel while planning her husband's birthday party. In 1999 New York, Clarissa Vaughan, a bisexual woman, is planning a party to celebrate her friend and former lover, Richard, receiving a major literary award. Richard is dying of an AIDS-related illness. The three character's situations mirror those of Mrs. Dalloway.
Andersonville by McKinlay Kantor
Concerns titular Confederate prisoner of war camp during the Civil War Told from multiple points of view including Henry Wirz, the commandant and William Collins, one of the leaders of the Raiders, a gang who stole from other prisoners to live good lives.
The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara
Depiction of the Battle of Gettysburg which took place July 1st, 2nd, and 3rd of 1863. J.L. Chamberlain remembers reciting a monologue from Hamlet to his father, which is where the title came from.
Breathing Lessons by Anne Tyler
Describes the joys and pains of the ordinary marriage of Ira and Maggie Moran as they travel from Baltimore to a funeral and back home in one day. They have given up on their youthful dreams and Maggie attempts to reconcile her son and daughter-in-law.
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Epistolary novel set primarily in rural Georgia. Focuses on the challenges faced by black women in the 1930's and their low position in society. Centers on Celie, a poor, uneducated 14-year-old girl who writes letters to God because her father, Alphonso, beats and rapes her. She learns that a man identified only as Mister wants to marry her sister Nettie, but her father makes her marry him instead. Characters: Harpo, Sofia, Samuel, Corrine, Miss Millie, Shug
The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields
Fictional autobiography of Daisy Goodwill Flett, whose mother dies during childbirth. through marriage and motherhood, she struggles to find contentment and the meaning of her life. Part of the setting for the book is the historic Vinegar Hill neighborhood of Bloomington, Indiana.
The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos
First novel by United States-born hispanic to win Pulitzer prize. Lives of two Cuban brothers and musicians, Cesar and Nestor Castillo, who immigrate to New York City in the early 1950's. The brothers had a small amount of fame when they appeared on an episode of I Love Lucy in the 1950's. The book chronicles Cesar's last hours as he sits in his hotel room, drinking and listening to his band's recordings.
Advise and Consent by Allen Drury
Followed by A Shade of Difference Concerns the United States Senate confirmation of controversial Secretary of State nominee Robert Leffingwell, who was a member of the Communist Party.
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay bu Michael Chabon
Follows two Jewish cousins, Czech artist, Joe, and Brooklyn-born writer, Sammy before, during, and after WWII. They become major figures in the comic book industry. They come together when Joe escapes Prague as a refugee to New York City in 1939.
Rabbit at Rest by John Updike
Fourth in a series Follows Harry Angstrom in 1988-9, 40 years after his glory days as a high school basketball star in Pennsylvania. He and his wife of 33 years, Janice, have retired to Florida for the Winter months, where Harry is depressed, overweight, and desparately trying to find reasons to keep living. He is unfaithful to his wife and his son Nelson has a drug habit, but they all reconcile shortly before he dies of a heart attack.
Tinkers by Paul Harding
George Washington Crosby and his father Howard. New England George, on his deathbed, remembers his father, a tinkerer who had a donkey-drawn carriage and struggled with epilepsy.
The Known World by Edward P. James
Historical novel set in Virginia during the antebellum era. Explores the morality of owning slaves by both black and white people. The narrator is an omniscient figure who doesn't voice judgement. The novel opens with the death of Henry Townsend, a former slave himself, who owned 33 slaves. His first slave. Moses, took two weeks to process that a black man two shades darker than himself owned him.
March by Geraldine Brooks
In 1862, title man, an abolitionist and union chaplain, is driven to leave his Concord, Massachusetts home and fight. He writes letters home, withholding the true extent of the war for his family's sake. He suffers from an illness and finds Grace in the hospital, whom he first met when she was a slave. Retells Little Women from the girls' absent father's point of view. He represents the values held by Louisa May Alcott's father, Bronson Alcott.
Humboldt's Gift by Saul bellow
Initially intended to be a short story. roman a clef which depicts author's friendship with poet Delmore Schwartz through Von Humboldt Fleisher and Charlie Citrine. Rinaldo Cantabile is another character who gives Charlie advice based solely on commercial interest.
The Optimists Daughter by Eudora Welty
Laurel travels to New Orleans to care for her father, Judge Mckelva, who has has surgery for a detached retina. He fails to recover and dies slowly as Laurel reads to him from Dickens. She and her father's wife, Fay, return his body to Mount Salus Mississippi. Laurel comes to a sense of understanding she knows Fay, an outsider from Texas, will never share.
Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner
Lyman Ward, a wheel chair-bound historian, has lost connection with his son and family and decides to write about his frontier-era grandparents. Directly based on letters of Mary Hallock Foote. Her letters are used as the correspondence of the fictional character Susan Burling Ward. locations—Grass Valley, Leadville, New Almaden, Idaho, and Mexico.
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
Narrator is Yunior Main character is titular character, an overweight Dominican boy who is a "loser" He loves comic books, sci-fi, and fantasy. He is a romantic, but his nerdiness gets in the way. He even jumps off the New Brunswick Bridge at one point. Other Main characters: Beli Cabral is his mother, Lolo de leon is his sister who runs away, La Inca is Beli's mother, and Abelard is his grandfather. He falls in love with Ybon who has a boyfriend and is eventually killed as a result. Antagonist is Trujillo, a dictator who has supernatural powers from the Fuku. Fuku plague title character's family.
The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson
Part one details Pak Jun Do, a North Korean orphan's upbringing and service to the state. it ends as he is taken to prison for an unsuccessful mission to America. Part two introduces the third narrator, "the Interrogator". he is interrogating commander Ga, a national hero. Pak Jun Do has taken on the identity of this commander, becoming Sun moon's replacement husband. He eventually help her defect and is proud to have made a life for himself, which is why he is being interrogated.
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
Picaresque novel published eleven years after author's suicide. Title refers to an epigram from Swift's essay, Thoughts on Various Subjects, Moral and Diverting Ignatius J. Reilly is a 30 year old man living in his mother's basement in the Uptown neighborhood of 1960's New Orleans. he is searching for employment Characters: Myrna Minkoff, referred to by Ignatius as "that minx", Mrs. Irene Reilly is the mother of Ignatius. .
The Confessions on Nat Turner by William Styron
Presented as first person narrative by titular historical figure. Concerns the slave revolt in Virginia in 1831. Based on real words of titular character to Thomas Gray in which he claimed to be divinely inspired, saying he received a vision from God telling him to lead a revolt and kill the white race. Margaret Whitehead, Travis, and Eppes
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
Santiago is an aging Cuban fisherman who struggles with a giant marlin off the coast of Florida in the Gulf Stream. at the beginning, he has gone 84 days without a fish and been labelled salao. He is so unlucky, his apprentice Manolin has been forbidden to fish with him. He brings the fish in after three days, but it is eaten by sharks on the way back to shore.
The Way West by A. B. Guthrie
Second in a six part series dealing with the Oregon trail and development of Montana from "the cattle empire of the 1880s to the near present." Former senator, William Tadlock, leads a wagon train from Missouri along the Oregon Trail. he is helped by the guide, Dick Summers. After a series of accidents leave multiple settlers dead, he is overtaken by Lije Evans and factions develop.
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Set after Civil War and inspired by the story of Margaret garner, who escaped slavery in Kentucky by going to Ohio. Sethe escapes from slavery and is pursued by slave catchers. She kills her two-year-old daughter, instead of seeing her recaptured. A woman presumed to be her daughter, the title character, returns years later to haunt her house in Cincinnati. Opens with an introduction to the ghost "124 was spiteful, full of a baby's venom" Denver- Sethe's daughter who refuses to leave the house Howard and Buglar- sons who have run away Halle - Sethe's husband Baby Suggs - Halle's mother Paul D
ironweed by William Kennedy
Set during Great Depression Tells of Francis Phelan, an alcoholic from Albany, NY who has fled his family after accidentally killing his infant son when drunk. Francis is haunted by images of the three people, other than his son, who he killed in the past.
Gaurd of Honor by James Gould Cozzens
Set during September 3rd, 4th, and 5th, 1943 on fictional Ocanara Army Air Force base in central Florida. Concerns Army Air Forces Operations and Requirements Analysis Division, or AFORAD. General Beal almost crashes and he reprimands his co-pilot, Benny Carricker, and has him arrested. His co-pilot punches one of the pilots of Project 0-336-3, a group of African-American pilots. The next after noon Two generals are due to arrive from the Pentagon, one bearing a high decoration to be presented to the black pilot for prior heroism, the other investigating the suicide of the suicide of the alcoholic base commander of Sellars Field.
The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen
Set in a flashback in a coerced confession of a political prisoner. depicts the anonymous narrator, a North Vietnamese spy in the South Vietnamese army, who stays embedded in a South Vietnamese community in exile in the United States. the narrator describes being an expat and a cultural advisor on the filming of an American film.
Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer by Steven Millhauser
Set in late 19th century NYC, the novel centers on the title man, a young, optimistic entrepreneur. Follows his journey from assistant in his immigrant father's cigar shop to a bell boy at Vanderlyn hotel to a hotel owner and his feeling that their is always something bigger around the corner. His business partner is his sister-in-law, Emmeline Vernon.
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Set in occupied France during WWII Centers on Marie-Laure Le Blanc, a blind french girl, and Werner Pfennig, an intelligent young German orphan, whose paths cross during WWII when he tracks down her radio signal.
The Keepers of the House by Shirley Ann Grau
Set in rural Alabama Covers seven generations of the Howland family, who have lived in the same house and built a small community. The first William Howland settled in Mississippi and After five Williams, one William's wife and son died, so Abigail was the heir. Her father then hired Margaret, a black woman, as a housekeeper. She was known throughout the community as the illegitimate mother of his other children, but he had, in fact, married her secretly. The town is outraged when Robert Howland reveals this to cripple John Tolliver's campaign. Abigail drives them away from her house with shotguns.
Empire Falls by Richard Russo
Set in the decaying, nearly bankrupt, titular small town in Maine. Miles Roby, the manager of a grill diner, has spent his life in the town, which is run by the rich Whitings who own most of the property and factories. Janine is his ex-wife. Walt Comeau moved into Miles old house. Tick is Miles' daughter who is dealing with her ex boyfriend Zack and is friends with Walt. Miles is plagued by flashbacks to his childhood, including his mother's affair with a mysterious suitor.
The Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever
Short story collection Includes "The Enormous Radio," "Goodbye, My Brother," "The Country Husband," "The Five-Forty-Eight" and "The Swimmer."
Elbow Room by James Alan McPherson
Short story collection consisting of "Why I like Country Music" "The Story of a Dead Man" "The Silver Bullet" "The Faithful" "Problems of Art" "The Story of a Scar" "I am an American" "Widows and Orphans" "A Loaf of Bread" "Just Enough for the City" "A Sense of Story" (title story)
A Fable by William Faulkner
Takes place in WWI France over one week in 1918. Corporal Stefan (represents reincarnation of Jesus) orders his troops to disobey orders to attack, so the Germans also stop fighting. the generalissimo invites Stefan to talk about restarting the war, but arrests and executes Stefan to make him believe war will never stop because it is human nature. he is buried in vienne-la-pucelle, but his grave is destroyed and his spirit is transferred to a messenger who confronts the generalissimo.
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
Tells of Cora and Caesar as they try to escape fro m their Georgia plantations. The title thing is depicted as a real subway instead of a network of safe houses. Told in third person. focuses on Cora, who became an outcast after her other, Mabel, escaped without her. She is pursued by the slave catcher, Ridgeway.
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
Third in a series (first published), focuses on several retired Texas rangers and their adventures driving cattle from Texas to Montana. Originally a screenplay that got rejected. Late 1870's Captain Woodrow F. Call and Augustus "Gus" McCrae run Hat Creek Cattle Company and livery Emporium in titular texas town. Helped by joshua Deets, Pea Eye Parker, Bolivar, and Newt Dobbs.
Rabbit is Rich by John Updike
Third in a series. Harry Angstrom, a former high school star athlete, has become middle aged without moving from Brewer, Pennsylvania, the poor city of his birth. He has inherited his wife's late father's Toyota dealership. The novel repeatedly refers to a Ford Maverick (fake) that his wife Janice drives and his son Nelson later damaged.
the Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk
Willis Seward "Willie" Keith, an affluent, callow young man who signs up for midshipman school with the United States Navy to avoid being drafted into the Army during World War II. describes the tribulations he endures because of inner conflicts over his relationship with his domineering mother and with May Wynn, a beautiful red-haired nightclub singer, the daughter of Italian immigrants He has to ensign on the titular ship. the title event takes place during Typhoon Cobra Based on author's experiences aboard a destroyer-minesweeper in the Pacific in World War II
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
epistolary, fictional biography of Reverend John Ames. He is a pastor in the small titular town in Iowa. Set in 1956, he explains that he is dying of a heart condition and that he is writing an account of his life for his seven-year-old son who will have few memories of him. He remembers his own life and those of his father and grandfather for his son.
The Reivers by William Faulkner
picaresque novel, last by author Set in early 20th century Lucius Priest accompanies a family friend named Boon Hagganbeck to Memphis. Boon steals Lucius' grandfather's car, the first in Yoknapatawpha County. They discover that Ned McCaslin has come along with them. Boon wishes to woo a prostitute called Miss Corrie
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
post-apocalyptic America an unnamed father and son travel across the ash-covered Earth. The boy's mother killed herself just after giving birth to him. They travel South and the book chronicles their encounters with cannibals and other desparate people and the father's eventual death.
The Fixer by Bernard Malamud
provides a fictionalized version of the Beilis case. Menahem Mendel Beilis was a Jew unjustly imprisoned in Tsarist Russia. The "Beilis trial" of 1913 caused an international uproar and Russia backed down in the face of world indignation Yakov Bok is living in Kiev without papers and is imprisoned for suspicion of murder when a young Christian boy is murdered during Passover. In prison he is treated unjustly and interrogated in hopes that he will confess that he murdered the boy as part of a religious ritual.
A Summons to Memphis by Peter Taylor
recollection of Phillip Carver, a middle aged new York City editor, whose conniving, unmarried sisters bring him to Memphis to prevent his father from marrying a younger woman.
Independence Day by Richard Ford
sequel to The Sportswriter, precedes The Lay of the Land and Let Me Be Frank With You Follows Frank Bascombe, a New Jersey real-estate agent and former sportswriter over the titular holiday weekend as he visits is ex-wife, his troubled son, his current lover, the tenants of one of his properties, and some clients of his who have been having trouble finding the perfect house. Focuses on a car trip with his son to the basketball and baseball halls of fame.
The Town by Conrad Richter
third installment in The Awakening Land trilogy. preceded by the Trees and The Fields. continues the story of frontier woman Sayward (née Luckett) Wheeler and her family. The focus of this final book is on the dramatic changes to the town and region with rapid development and industrialization. Sayward lives through her Ohio Valley settlement becoming a town. town changes its name from Moonshine Church to Americus Portius Wheeler, Worth Luckett, Chancey, Rosa Tench
