Adam Johnson Wins Pulitzer Prize In Fiction For ‘Orphan Master’s Son,’ Committee Says Award-Winning Novel Is “Exquisitely Crafted”
The Pulitzer Prize in fiction was awarded to Adam Johnson for his novel The Orphan Master's Son, a work set in North Korea.
The Pulitzer committee described Johnson's book as an "Exquisitely crafted novel that carries the reader on an adventuresome journey into the depths of totalitarian North Korea and into the most intimate spaces of the human heart," according to USA Today.
Michiko Kakutani of the New York Times, a notoriously critical book reviewer, called Johnson's book "a daring and remarkable novel, a novel that not only opens a frightening window on the mysterious kingdom of North Korea, but one that also excavates the very meaning of love and sacrifice."
Adam Johnson is a teacher at Stanford University in California. The Orphan Master's Son is his third book. The fiction award has made many fans of contemporary literature rest easy, as the Pulitzer committee decided against awarding a prize in fiction in 2012. Last year was the 11th time in the history of the Pulitzer Prize in which the committee declined to award a prize in fiction.
The Pulitzer Prize brings a great deal of attention to the work of fiction it chooses as the winner - such that winning authors often enjoy a rise in book sales and online interest, and can land spots on television and NPR.
Recent winners of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction were Jennifer Egan for A Visit From The Goon Squad, Paul Harding for Tinkers, Elizabeth Strout for Olive Kitteridge, and Junot Diaz for The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao.
Johnson's work joins a long list of unforgettable fiction novels that have won the prize, including Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, Margaret Mitchell's Gone With The Wind, John Steinbeck's The Grapes Of Wrath, Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea and Toni Morrison's Beloved.
The Orphan Master's Son was published by Random House on August 7, 2012.