At the National Book Awards on Wednesday evening, the fiction prize went to Sigrid Nunez’s The Friend (Riverhead). Nunez spoke only briefly in accepting the award, quoting Alan Bennett: “For a writer, nothing is ever quite as bad as it is for other people, because, however dreadful, it may be of use.” Nunez also noted that “writing books made the miraculous possible: to be removed from the world and to […]