American · b. 1938
Lily Tuck writes lean historical novels about women in extreme circumstances. Born in Paris, educated at the Sorbonne, and based in New York, she brings a European eye to American material and vice versa. "The News from Paraguay" (2004) won the National Book Award for its account of Eliza Lynch, an Irish courtesan who became the uncrowned queen of Paraguay during its catastrophic war against three neighbors. Tuck's sentences are short; her books are shorter; her research is deep.