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National Book Awards Finalists Include Miranda July’s ‘All Fours’

Salman Rushdie’s memoir about surviving an attempt on his life is nominated for the nonfiction category.

The National Book Awards on Tuesday announced the finalists for this year’s prizes. Making the shortlist for the 2024 prize for fiction is Miranda July’s All Fours—a book described by The Washington Post as “a wildly sexual book about a woman approaching menopause”—along with Pemi Aguda’s Ghostroots, Hisham Matar’s My Friends, Kaveh Akbar’s Martyr!, and James by Percival Everett. The nonfiction finalists include Salman Rushdie’s Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder, the author’s memoir about the horrific 2022 attempt on his life at an event in Chautauqua, New York. All of the finalists will receive $1,000 and a bronze medal, while outright winners—who will be revealed at a ceremony in New York City next month—will be given $10,000, a bronze medal, and a statue. The 2024 ceremony is the 75th in the prestigious annual awards’ history.