Donna Tartt, Jonathan Franzen among finalists for national book critics prizes

NEW YORK, N.Y. – Donna Tartt’s “The Goldfinch,” the long-awaited novel by the author of “The Secret History,” is a fiction finalist for the National Book Critics Circle award.

Jonathan Franzen also was among the nominees announced Sunday, although not for fiction. “The Kraus Project,” his translation of essays by the Austrian man of letters Karl Kraus, was selected for criticism.

Other finalists in six competitive categories include Lawrence Wright’s investigation into Scientology, “Going Clear,” and George Packer’s “The Unwinding,” winner last fall of the National Book Award for nonfiction. Jesmyn Ward, whose “Salvage the Bones” won the National Book Award for fiction in 2011, is an autobiography finalist for “Men We Reaped.”

Winners of the critics prize will be announced March 13.