The North Carolina writer Jason Mott has won the National Book Foundation’s 2021 prize for fiction, for his novel Hell of a Book.
The US foundation’s 72nd annual awards, presented online only due to Covid-19, were announced on Wednesday night.
The foundation described Mott’s book as a “masterful novel” that broke new ground: “A structurally and conceptually daring examination of art … [which] somehow manages the impossible trick of being playful, insightful, and deeply moving all at the same time.”
The novel interweaves the narratives of an author on a book tour (drawing on Mott’s own experiences), and a young black boy nicknamed Soot, who is relentlessly bullied by other children because of the darkness of his skin.