The winners of the 2008 National Book Awards have been announced. The New York Timessays the night gave a nod to history. Annette Gordon-Reed's was the nonfiction winner. Her book, The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family was based on extensive research of three generations of a slave family owned by Thomas Jefferson. Peter Matthiessen won in fiction but his novel, Shadow Country, contained research of a "a 19th century ruthless cane farmer in Florida who was said to be a serial killer."
Here's the list of the winners.
Fiction: Peter Matthiessen, Shadow Country (Modern Library)
