This combination of photos shows eight of the ten nominees on the National Book Awards’ fiction longlist, top row from left, Anthony Doerr's “Cloud Cuckoo Land," Lauren Groff's “Matrix," Laird Hunt's “Zorrie,” Robert Jones, Jr.'s “The Prophets,” bottom row from left, Katie Kitamura's “Intimacies,” Elizabeth McCracken's “The Souvenir Museum," Jason Mott's “Hell of a Book," and Richard Powers' “Bewilderment." (Scribner/Riverhead/Bloomsbury/G.P. Putnam's Sons/Riverhead/Ecco/Dutton/W.W. Norton via AP)