Awesommmmme! I've already told you how much I love Gene Luen Yang's latest graphic novel Boxers & Saints. It seems that the good people at the National Book Foundation like it too. The epic, two-volume book has made the prestigious 2013 National Book Award Longlist for Young People's Literature.Boxers & Saints is the only graphic novel to make the list. Gene previously nominated back in 2006 for American Born Chinese, the first graphic novel ever to be a finalist for the National Book Awards. And now Gene is the first graphic novelist to be nominated twice. Double awesome.
Boxers & Saints is a powerful, brilliant work of historical fiction set during China's bloody Boxer Rebellion, told in two parallel stories from opposite sides of the conflict. It balances action, humor and spirituality in a masterful way that has really become Gene Luen Yang's trademark. The longlist recognition is well deserved.
The National Book Foundation will reveal the award finalists on October 16. If you haven't read Boxers & Saints yet, you gotta get on it now. Congratulations, Gene! For further information, check out his website.
More here: 2013 NATIONAL BOOK AWARDS: 'Boxers & Saints' graphic novelist Gene Yang calls long-list honor 'mind-blowing'