The Andrew Carnegie Medals for Excellence in Fiction and Nonfiction, established in 2012, honor the best fiction and nonfiction books for adult readers published in the U.S. The Penguin Random House Speakers Bureau is proud to represent these speakers on the longlist. Read more about them below!
2021 Longlist for the Andrew Carnegie Medals for Fiction
Red Dress in Black and White - Elliot Ackerman
Red Dress in Black and White explores the fraught relationships between an American expat living in Turkey, her influential Turkish real estate developer husband, and their son. As the expat decides to leave her husband and return back to America with their child, Elliot Ackerman delves into the personal and political intrigue surrounding her decision and casts light into the shadowy corners of a nation on the brink.
Elliot Ackerman
International relations expert, bestselling novelist, journalist, and U.S. Marine Corps Veteran
The Vanishing Half - Brit Bennett
Brit Bennett’s The Vanishing Half returns the readers to California for another emotionally perceptive story. This engrossing page-turner explores the lasting influence of the past as it shapes a person’s decisions, desires, and expectations.
Brit Bennett
Novelist of National Book Award nominated, New York Times-bestselling The Vanishing Half, and National Book Foundation 2016 5 Under 35 Honoree
Transcendent Kingdom - Yaa Gyasi
Exquisitely written, emotionally searing, Yaa Gyasi’s Transcendent Kingdom is an exceptionally powerful follow-up to phenomenal debut. Transcendent Kingdom is a deeply moving portrait of a family of Ghanaian immigrants ravaged by depression and addiction and grief–a novel about faith, science, religion, love.
Yaa Gyasi
Author of Homegoing and Transcendent Kingdom, and recipient of the National Book Foundation's 'Under 35' award
A Burning - Megha Majumdar
The stunning debut from Megha Majumdar, A Burning, relentlessly traces the lives of three characters whose fates become irrevocably intertwined in the wake of a devastating act of domestic terrorism. Set in a contemporary India, Majumdar ignites a dazzling literary thriller about fate, justice, class, and political turmoil that—despite the specificity of its setting—feels unsettlingly universal.
The Glass Hotel - Emily St. John Mandel
Emily St. John Mandel’s The Glass Hotel is an exhilarating novel set at the glittering intersection of two seemingly disparate events-a massive Ponzi scheme collapse and the mysterious disappearance of a woman from a ship at sea.
Emily St. John Mandel
Author of 2014 National Book Award finalist Station Eleven and Sea of Tranquility
Interior Chinatown - Charles Yu
Interior Chinatown is a genre-bending masterpiece that explores the confining stereotypes of Asian Americans in Hollywood and in American culture more broadly. Both extensively researched and startlingly original, Interior Chinatown is a profound and topical exploration of the weight of stereotypes, racism, and assimilation in American culture.
Memorial - Bryan Washington
Bryan Washington’s Memorial is a a funny and profound story about family in all its strange forms, joyful and hard-won vulnerability, becoming who you’re supposed to be, and the limits of love.
2021 Longlist for the Andrew Carnegie Medals for Nonfiction
The Beauty in Breaking - Dr. Michele Harper
The Beauty in Breaking is the poignant true story of Michele Harper’s journey toward self-healing. Each of the patients Harper writes about taught her something important about recuperation and recovery. In this hopeful, moving, and beautiful book, she passes along the precious, necessary lessons that she has learned as a daughter, a woman, and a physician.
Dr. Michele Harper
Emergency room physician and author of the New York Times-bestselling The Beauty in Breaking
Caste - Isabel Wilkerson
Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste: The Origins of our Discontents examines the unspoken caste system that has shaped America and shows how a hierarchy of social divisions still defines our lives today. Wilkerson brings the past’s complexities to vivid life through her passionate research and her profound gift for connecting with audiences of all backgrounds.
Isabel Wilkerson
Pulitzer Prize winner and author of the critically-acclaimed bestsellers The Warmth of Other Suns and Caste