National Book Festival 2024 to feature two books representing Colorado

Zoom in: The Colorado Center for the Book, an affiliate of the Library, chose "The Immortal King Rao" as the adult pick. It's written by Vauhini Vara, a Colorado resident and former Wall Street Journal technology reporter.

• The genre-spanning novel, named a finalist for the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, focuses on a future world run by a globalized corporate government and on the brink of climate collapse — weaving together themes of capitalism, power, family and love.
• "Our committee found it to be creative and ambitious and are looking forward to more work from Vara," Valerie Eddy, the Center for the Book's project coordinator, told us.

"Cold The Night, Fast The Wolves" by Colorado author Meg Long is the children's selection.

• The book is set on a frozen wasteland, where a lone girl forms an unlikely alliance with a feral wolf as they navigate icy dangers and evade capture by a ruthless leader in an effort to escape their planet.
• This "fast-paced story … will keep you turning the pages," Eddy told us.

Flashback: The two books representing Colorado in 2023 were "Black Smoke: African Americans and the United States of Barbecue" as the adult pick and "Rise of the Red Hand" as the youth pick.