Today the winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award was announced. The award honors the best work of fiction published by an American in a single calendar year. The largest peer-reviewed literary prize in the country, the PEN/Faulkner Award continues to recognize the finest American fiction being produced today.

2016’s winner, Delicious Foods by James Hannaham, tells the gripping story of three unforgettable characters: a mother, her son, and the drug that threatens to destroy them. Darlene, a young widow and mother devastated by the death of her husband, turns to drugs to erase the trauma. In this fog of grief, she is lured with the promise of a great job to a mysterious farm run by a shady company, with disastrous consequences for both her and her eleven-year-old son, Eddie.

The list of nominees included Mr. and Mrs. Doctor by Julie Iromuanya, The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen, Mendocino Fire by Elizabeth Tallent, and The Water Museum by Luis Alberto Urrea.