W.W. Norton’s Stitches HC (ISBN: 9780393068573), David Small’s captivating memoir is a finalist for this year’s prestigious National Book Award in the category of Young People’s Literature.

The National Book Awards are presented each year by the National Book Foundation, to honor the best American books of the year in the categories of Fiction, Nonfiction, Poetry and Young People’s Literature. Stitches is the second graphic novel ever to have placed as a finalist, following First Second’s American Born Chinese (ISBN: 9781596431522) in 2006.

Stitches tells how Small awoke from a supposedly harmless operation to discover that he had been transformed into a virtual mute. With a vocal cord removed, his throat slashed and stitched together like a bloody boot, the young boy had not been told that he had throat cancer and was expected to die. The prize-winning children's author, recreates a life story that might have been imagined by Kafka. Readers will be riveted by his journey from speechless victim to his decision to flee his home at 16 with nothing more than dreams of becoming an artist. Stitches will transform adolescent and adult readers alike with its deeply liberating vision.

This year’s winners will be announced at the National Book Awards Ceremony in November. The complete list of finalists is available here.