Book of the Month:The Friend by Sigrid Nunez (2018) Critical Evaluation "And yet despite her acid critique of writers and their discontents, or perhaps because of her dead-on depiction, Nunez has won over the literary world with 'The Friend.' The novel, an acerbic but often poignant exploration of love, friendship, death, grief, art and literature, received this year’s National Book Award for fiction and drew euphoric reviews from critics, who hailed it as a subtle, unassuming masterpiece. (Writing in The Times, Dwight Garner called Nunez 'a crisply philosophical and undervalued novelist.') "The rapturous reception has stunned Nunez, 67, who has been quietly writing [...]