The National Book Award for Fiction winners of the 2010s
The top 3 according to 424 votes from people: Lord of Misrule — Jaimy Gordon · Salvage the Bones — Jesmyn Ward · The Good Lord Bird — James McBride. (Updated Aug 23, 2025.)
The ten books that won the US National Book Award for Fiction from 2010 to 2019.
Top 10
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1
Lord of Misrule — Jaimy Gordon
2010. Horse racing at a run-down West Virginia track.
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2
Salvage the Bones — Jesmyn Ward
2011. A Mississippi family in the days before Hurricane Katrina.
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3
The Good Lord Bird — James McBride
2013. The abolitionist John Brown seen through the eyes of a boy disguised as a girl.
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4
Redeployment — Phil Klay
2014. Stories of US soldiers in and after Iraq.
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5
The Round House — Louise Erdrich
2012. A boy on an Ojibwe reservation seeks justice for his mother.
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6
Sing, Unburied, Sing — Jesmyn Ward
2017. Ward's second win, a road trip haunted by ghosts.
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7
The Friend — Sigrid Nunez
2018. A writer inherits her late mentor's Great Dane.
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8
Trust Exercise — Susan Choi
2019. A performing-arts high school and the stories told about it.
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9
The Underground Railroad — Colson Whitehead
2016. Cora's escape on a literal underground railway.
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10
Fortune Smiles — Adam Johnson
2015. Six stories, from North Korean defectors to a Stasi prison warden.
How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.
Is something missing?
Comments (2)
Salvage the Bones, Jesmyn Ward is incredible.
Jesmyn Ward winning twice, Salvage the Bones and Sing, Unburied, Sing. Amazing writer.