Whether it’s via their tone, topic, or tenor, certain works just say “America.” Here are three such titles, suggested by David Bruce Smith, founder of the Grateful American™ Foundation:

• A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway. The seminal tale of an American ambulance driver and English nurse finding love in Italy amid the carnage of World War I.
• The Chosen by Chaim Potok. Two Jewish boys — one Hasidic, the other Orthodox — form an unlikely and enduring friendship in post-WWII Brooklyn.
• Native Son by Richard Wright. Poverty and race collide in 1930s Chicago in this searing story of Bigger Thomas, a young black man who commits an unthinkable act.

Each year, the Grateful American™ Foundation, through its Book Prize, honors excellence in children’s historical nonfiction and fiction focused on the people and events that have shaped the U.S. since its birth. To learn more about the prize, or to nominate a title, click here.

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