October 15, 2008—Graywolf Press is thrilled to announce that The End by Salvatore Scibona has been selected as a finalist for the 2008 National Book Award in the fiction category. The announcement was made this morning at the famed Steppenwolf Theater in Chicago by bestselling author Scott Turow.

The winner in each of the four categories—fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and young people's literature—will be announced at the 59th National Book Awards Benefit Dinner and Ceremony at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City on Wednesday, November 19. Each winner receives $10,000 plus a bronze statue; each Finalist receives a bronze medal and a $1,000 cash award.

The End, which details a single day in 1953 as lived by six people at an Ohio carnival, has earned Scibona favorable comparisons to William Faulkner, Virginia Woolf, and James Joyce, among others. It is Scibona's first novel.

The finalists were selected by four distinguished panels of judges who were given the charge of selecting what they deem to be the best books of the year.  Their decisions are made independent of the National Book Foundation and their deliberations are strictly confidential.  To be eligible for a 2008 National Book Award, a book must have been published in the United States between December 1, 2007 and November 30, 2008 and must have been written by a United States citizen.

Fellow finalists in the fiction category include Aleksandar Hermon (The Lazarus Project), Rachel Kushner (Telex from Cuba), Peter Matthiessen (Shadow Country), and Marilynne Robinson (Home).

Visit www.nationalbook.org to watch a video of the live announcement of the finalists and to learn more about the award.