National Book Awards: the 2011 fiction nominees

Five novels vie tonight for the 2011 National Book Award title,

4. 'The Sojourn,' by Andrew Krivak

A boy comes of age on the battlefields of Europe in this novel by Andrew Krivak. Set in three parts, the novel tells the story of a Colorado-born boy raised as a hunter in the Hungarian Empire. Jozef Vinich's abilities are put to deadly use in his job as a World War I sniper. After wrenching ordeals, Jozef could have been forgiven for falling into pessimism and despair, but Krivak steers the novel in the opposite direction. “Krivak’s style is simple, direct, and sedate, but when violence appears, it comes in unforgettable detail,” critic David Abrams wrote in his May review. "In terms of the power of its prose, ["The Sojourn"] deserves to be placed on the same shelf as Remarque, Hemingway, and Heller."

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