Night of a Thousand Hells is a Finalist for the National Book Award

We are extremely pleased to announce that Night of a Thousand Hells by Intan Paramaditha, translated from the Indonesian by Stephen Epstein and Tiffany Tsao, is a Finalist for the 2026 National Book Award for Translated Literature! 

The judges of this year’s award wrote: “In the opening scene of Intan Paramaditha’s Night of a Thousand Hells, the youngest of three sisters becomes a suicide bomber, compelling her surviving siblings to reckon with their turbulent family history and uncover their grandmother’s destiny-altering prophecy. Translated from the Indonesian by Stephen Epstein and Tiffany Tsao, the novel blends Indonesian folklore and Islamic mysticism in an examination of social mobility, migration, and sisterhood set across Indonesia, the United States, and Australia.”

The selection of Night of a Thousand Hells marks the first time a book translated from the Indonesian has appeared in this category. The five Finalists in each category were selected by a distinguished panel of judges and were advanced from the Longlists announced in September. Publishers submitted a total of 159 books for the Translated Literature award.

The 2026 Finalists will read from their work at the National Book Awards Finalist Reading on the evening of Tuesday, November 17 at NYU Skirball. Winners will be announced live at the 77th National Book Awards Ceremony & Benefit Dinner on Wednesday, November 18, 2026. The ceremony will be livestreamed for readers everywhere on the Foundation’s website and YouTube.

Winners of the National Book Awards receive $10,000, a bronze medal, and statue; Finalists receive $1,000 and a bronze medal; Winners and Finalists in the Translated Literature category will split the prize evenly between author and translator. 

“An unforgiving tale of political horror and womanhood by a writer that is fearless.”—Mariana Enriquez