Chapter 446 445 This Is an Epic Novel that Reminds Me of the History of the Development of the American West.

After the host's brief opening speech, today's award ceremony began. All the guests took the stage to announce the major awards of this year's National Book Critics Circle Awards.

There are six major awards: Fiction Award, Non-Fiction Award (Documentary), Poetry Award, Memoir/Autobiography Award, Biography Award, and Criticism Award. The best five works in each category will be selected for the final selection.

In 1988, the jury received a total of 1,538 books of various types, including 354 novels, and the competition was very fierce.

The major awards were awarded one after another, and the winners smiled and went on stage to receive the awards and give their acceptance speeches.

The last one is usually the finale, the winner of this year's novel award.

There are a total of five shortlisted works this time: "Beloved", a novel by American black female writer Morrison, "The Bridge" written by the famous British writer Iain Banks; "Afternoon, a Story" by American writer Michael Joyce; "Oscar and Lucinda" by Australian writer Peter Carey and "Crossing the Guandong" written by Fang Minghua.

Among them, "Crossing Guandong" is the only translated novel not written in English.

"Morrison's "Beloved" has the highest popularity and just won the Pulitzer Prize." Emily whispered.

There was some worry in her tone.

Fang Minghua's face was calm.

In fact, he knew the strength of this Morris. It seems that he won the Nobel Prize in Literature later?

Although the Nobel Prize in Literature is awarded to the author rather than a certain book, it shows that Morrison is very capable.

But "Crossing Guandong" also has its own advantages. It is the only epic novel among the five novels.

And this period of history is somewhat similar to the exploration and development of the American West at that time. Both are large-scale immigration and development with great influence in the modern history of the world.

In the United States, most serious novels either write about racial conflicts or class conflicts, and indulge in the trivialities of life. This kind of national migration history full of wild flavor, desolate and sad rarely appears.

It seems that the phenomenal novel about the exploration and development of the American West should be Michael Bly's "Dances with Wolves"?

It seems that it has not been published yet.

Fang Minghua gently patted the girl's hand, indicating calmness.

What he didn't know was that Michael Bly, dressed in a suit, was also in the concert hall.

Soon, the host began to give a brief overview of the five shortlisted novels, and indeed commented on "Crossing Guandong":

"This is an epic novel, describing the vast ethnic, regional, and life background of China, with the wind and cloud colors under the pen, full of the vast and powerful atmosphere of Guandong, and the masculine beauty that steamed from the vast and sad land is so strong that it can penetrate the paper."

"This reminds me of our American Western cowboy novels, a combination of heroic myths and historical truths."

After the host finished the introduction, two prize-giving guests, a man and a woman, walked onto the stage and picked up the sealed envelope.

The envelope was gently opened, and the two looked at each other with surprise in their eyes when they looked at the contents on it.

But soon, the female guest read in her slightly Texas accent: "The winner of this year's National Book Critics Association Award for Best Novel is" At this point, the female guest paused and glanced into the concert hall, as if looking for something.

"Mr. Minghua, a Chinese writer, wrote "Crossing the Guandong""

"Please invite Mr. Minghua to the stage to receive the award!"

The concert hall was filled with warm applause!

"Congratulations, Minghua!" Emily was extremely excited, as if she had won the award.

"Thank you, thank you."

Fang Minghua congratulated and thanked the guests around him again. This time he stood up, adjusted his suit, and strode to the stage.

He took the certificate from the female guest and gave her a cheek kiss in a gentlemanly manner.

Then came the acceptance speech.

This was already a familiar thing for Fang Minghua, although this time he spoke in English.

"Here I would like to thank the members of the National Book Critics Circle Award Organizing Committee for their hard work. At the same time, I would like to thank my family in China for their help. I would like to thank the beautiful Miss Li Li, a doctor of literature from Oxford University. Without her wonderful translation, this book would not be able to meet the vast number of American readers."

"Finally, I would like to thank my great motherland, which has gone through vicissitudes of life but is still full of vitality."

"Lili, Lili, Minghua won the award, come here!" In this villa in San Francisco, Demi excitedly ran to the next room and shouted to Li Li.

Li Li heard the words, put down the pen in her hand and followed him into the room. Just heard the sentence: "I would like to thank the beautiful Miss Li Li in particular." A smile appeared on her face.

With this sentence, the hard work of several months is worth it.

"Hey, Lili, do you want to see your brother-in-law?" Demi asked suddenly.

"What's there to see? We often see each other in China." Li Li muttered.

"But, we can't see each other often in the future." Demi said with a smile.

"What if we meet?" Li Li sighed slightly, then suddenly smiled freely and said a sentence in Chinese, "It is better to forget each other than to help each other in times of adversity."

"What do you mean?"

"Nothing, I'm going to read a book." After saying that, Li Li turned and left the room.

This year's National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction was won by a non-English-speaking person, becoming the biggest dark horse of this year's Book Critics Circle Award.

Fang Minghua is also the first Chinese to win this award.

The next day at noon, Fang Minghua was invited to participate in a cultural interview program "Round Table" hosted by McDonald, a famous New York host. In the program, Fang Minghua talked freely about his creative experience.

In the evening, John, the president of Simon Book Publishing Company, hosted a banquet at the hotel to entertain Fang Minghua, and Emily accompanied him.

They ate French food, orange French foie gras sauce, French stewed potatoes, and French seafood puff pastry cream sauce.

They drank Bordeaux red wine.

Johnson is a middle-aged man in his early fifties. He is very talkative and chatted with Fang Minghua about everything.

"Mr. Minghua, what are you going to write in your next novel?" John raised his goblet and asked.

Fang Minghua also raised his glass. The two of them clinked their glasses lightly, took a sip, wiped their mouths and said, "I haven't thought about it yet."

"Mr. Minghua, I hope you can write another bestseller like "The Bridges of Madison County."

John did not mention the award-winning "Crossing Guandong".

In fact, everyone understands that, apart from the literary quality, this "Crossing Guandong" cannot be compared with the former in terms of market economic benefits.

Obviously, as the leader of a book publishing company, economic benefits are more important.

Fang Minghua also understands this point.

Every year, there are Nobel Prize winners in literature, but only a few of their books are truly bestsellers.

Fang Minghua must be modest and say that he will try his best to write novels that everyone likes to read and have a certain depth.

After the dinner, everyone dispersed.

Of course, Fang Minghua still has activities: Emily and I will go to Broadway to watch the musical "The Phantom of the Opera".