The 2009 PEN/Faulkner Award for fiction went to Joseph O’Neill for his novel, “Netherland.”
The three judges looked at nearly 350 novels and short story collections by American authors from 2008. Four finalists were also noted by the judges: Susan Choi for “A Person of Interest,” Richard Price for “Lush Life,” Ron Rash for his novel “Serena,” and Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum for “Ms. Hempel Chronicles.”
At the site, Judge Randall Kenan noted “how much [“Netherland”] is about the new and continuing immigrant story, about New Americans and the making of new American traditions, which has always been New York’s function in the world. O’Neill has created a powerfully entertaining novel, but also a new emblem for our time.” (Via Publishers Weekly)