Which Best Books Of 2020 Have Won Major Literary Awards?

2026-06-20 10:35:39
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3 Answers

Yasmine
Yasmine
Novel Fan Driver
Major literary awards for 2020 books: Colson Whitehead’s 'The Nickel Boys' (Pulitzer), Douglas Stuart’s 'Shuggie Bain' (Booker Prize), Maggie O’Farrell’s 'Hamnet' (Women’s Prize for Fiction). Also, 'Deacon King Kong' by James McBride won the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award. I found 'Shuggie Bain' incredibly moving but difficult to get through in one sitting; the Booker win felt earned, if heavy.
2026-06-21 23:33:04
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Hazel
Hazel
Active Reader Lawyer
I spent way too much time tracking award lists last year, partly out of boredom and partly a weird fascination with what the committees pick. The obvious big ones: 'The Nickel Boys' by Colson Whitehead won the Pulitzer. Stunning book, but honestly it felt like a foregone conclusion even before it was announced. 'Hamnet' by Maggie O'Farrell snagged the Women's Prize for Fiction, which was a relief because I was worried they'd go for something more overtly political. That novel’s texture is its strength—the sensory details about grief and art.

Shout-out to Douglas Stuart’s 'Shuggie Bain' taking the Booker. That one gutted me for days; it’s relentless in its portrayal of poverty and addiction in 80s Glasgow. I noticed a theme across awards: a lot of historical fiction that digs into societal wounds. Even 'Deacon King Kong' by James McBride, which won the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, mixes crime and comedy with a deep look at a 1969 Brooklyn housing project. The awards that year seemed to favor novels with a strong sense of place and time, even if the prose styles varied wildly.

A quieter one I loved was 'Real Life' by Brandon Taylor, shortlisted for the Booker. Didn’t win the big prize, but it nabbed The Story Prize later. Felt like a different breed of award-winner—campus novel, interior, tense.
2026-06-22 23:09:14
4
Josie
Josie
Ending Guesser Journalist
2020 award season had some predictable picks but a couple of surprises. Whitehead’s Pulitzer for 'The Nickel Boys' was almost expected given his track record, but it’s a tight, devastating read that deserved it. 'Shuggie Bain' winning the Booker surprised me—it’s so bleak, and Booker juries sometimes go for something more lyrical. Maybe the lockdown mood made us all receptive to raw hardship narratives.

Maggie O’Farrell’s 'Hamnet' getting the Women’s Prize felt right. It’s the kind of book that lingers. I was rooting for 'The Vanishing Half' by Brit Bennett for more awards, but it seemed to be a critical darling more than an award-sweeper. Award lists are useful for finding stuff I might skip otherwise, like poetry—'The Tradition' by Jericho Brown won the Pulitzer for Poetry, and I never would’ve picked it up without that stamp.
2026-06-23 03:09:45
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