American · b. 1957
James McBride won the 2013 National Book Award for Fiction with "The Good Lord Bird," a picaresque novel about John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry narrated by a child mistaken for a girl. The American author's memoir "The Color of Water" chronicled his white Jewish mother's life. McBride writes about race and American history with comedy and moral seriousness, insisting on complexity where others find simple narratives.