
The Friend
American novelist, born 1951. Won the National Book Award for Fiction in 2018.
The Friend is a 2018 novel by Sigrid Nunez. It won the National Book Award for Fiction in 2018.
On 2 of the 15 lists it was eligible for.
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At a glance
- Author
- Sigrid Nunez
- First published
- 2018
- Length
- 224 pages (UK paperback)
- Awards
- National Book Award for Fiction winner, 2018
- Genre
- Literary fiction, Psychological
Is The Friend worth reading?
2 of the 15 best-of lists it could have made include it: the National Book Award for Fiction and The 100 best books of the 21st century (The New York Times).
| List | Place | Original |
|---|---|---|
| National Book Award for Fiction (winners and finalists) (National Book Foundation, 2018) | Winner | See the list |
| The 100 best books of the 21st century (The New York Times, 2024) | No. 68 | See the list |
Best edition of The Friend
The edition we link to is the Virago paperback (2019), 224 pages.
- Publisher
- Virago (paperback, 2019)
- Pages
- 224
- ISBN
- 9780349012810
How critics, prizes and readers rate The Friend
Prize juries and critics rate it about equally: it earned 20% on prize lists and 18% on critics' lists, against 0% on readers' and booksellers' lists.
Share of the available points it earned on each kind of list it was eligible for. How the scores work
Books like The Friend
If you liked The Friend, try Disgrace, The Sellout or Intermezzo.



