PARADISO 17 by Hannah Lillith Assadi is a finalist for the National Book Award for Fiction. The winner will be announced at the National Book Award Ceremony and Benefit Dinner on November 18. The judges' annotation reads: "In PARADISO 17 by Hannah Lillith Assadi, Sufien shares his life story from his deathbed: forced to flee Palestine as a child during the 1948 Nakba, he spends the rest of his life searching for home, across countries and decades, asking the unanswerable question of belonging after exile.” Knopf published the book on March 17, 2026.