Banyan Moon by Thao Thai (Mariner Books) has won the $5,000 Crook's Corner Book Prize for the best debut novel set in the American South. The prize was founded as a collaboration between the Southern restaurant Crook's Corner in Chapel Hill, N.C., which closed in 2021, and the Crook's Corner Book Prize Foundation.
This year's judge, Megan Mayhew Bergman, called Banyan Moon "a striking debut novel that will captivate readers with its stunning prose and lush descriptions of the surrounding world. Through the compelling narratives of three generations of Vietnamese American women--who are destabilized by the death of their matriarch--Thai reveals the family's inherited burdens and secrets in gorgeous sentences and smart dialogue. With deeply developed characters, this incredibly moving book invites us to explore the complex bonds of love and family, making it a deserving selection for the Crooks Corner Book Prize."