We're thrilled to present our five nonfiction finalists in the Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year!

The Bernstein Award honors working journalists whose books bring clarity and public attention to important issues, events, or policies. This year's finalists' works cover Syria, plutocrats, refugee crises, the spread of contagious disease, and gun violence in America.

The books, all published in 2016, were selected by a seven-member Library Review Committee, which received and read 99 nominations from publishers. 

This year's finalists and their works are:

The Morning They Came for Us by Janine di Giovanni (WW Norton/Liveright)

Drawing from years of experience covering Syria for Vanity Fair, Newsweek, and the front pages of the New York Times, di Giovanni delivers war reportage as told through the perspective of ordinary people. What emerges is an extraordinary picture of the devastating human consequences of armed conflict, one that charts an apocalyptic but  tender story of Syrians' lives in a war zone.

Dark Money by Jane Mayer (Doubleday)

Mayer illuminates the history of an elite cadre of plutocrats who have bankrolled a systematic plan to fundamentally alter the American political system. Drawing from hundreds of exclusive interviews and extensive scrutiny of public records, private papers, and court proceedings, Mayer provides portraits of the secretive figures behind the new American oligarchy and a look at the carefully concealed agendas steering the nation.

Cast Away by Charlotte McDonald-Gibson (New Press)

In 2015, more than one million migrants and refugees, most fleeing war-torn countries in Africa and the Middle East, attempted to make the perilous journey into Europe. Around 3,000 people lost their lives as they crossed the Mediterranean and Aegean in rickety boats provided by unscrupulous traffickers, including over 700 men, women, and children in a single day in April 2015. Cast Away describes the agonizing stories and the impossible decisions that migrants have to make as they head toward what they hope will be a better life.

Pandemic by Sonia Shah (Sarah Crichton Books/Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

A deep dive into the convoluted science, strange politics, and checkered history of cholera, Shah's book tracks each stage of the disease's dramatic journey from harmless microbe to world-changing pandemic. She also broadens her scope to report on other pathogens, from the MRSA bacterium that besieges her own family to the never-before-seen killers emerging from China's wet markets, the surgical wards of New Delhi, the slums of Port-au-Prince, and the suburban backyards of the East Coast.

Another Day in the Death of America, by Gary Younge (Nation Books)

Younge's work tells the stories of the gun-related deaths of 10 children during a single day in the United States in 2013. Black, white, and Latino, aged nine to 19, they died at sleepovers, on street corners, in stairwells, and on their own doorsteps. The narrative crisscrosses the country over a period of 24 hours to reveal the full human stories behind the statistics and the brief mentions in local papers.

Stay tuned for in-depth posts on each book from the Library Review Committee.

A seven-member Bernstein Selection Committee, chaired by veteran journalist and editor Jim Hoge, will choose a winner; their decision will be announced at an awards ceremony and reception on May 22 at the Library's iconic Stephen A. Schwarzman Building.

The Helen Bernstein Book Award for Excellence in Journalism was established in 1987 through a gift from Joseph Frank Bernstein, in honor of journalist Helen Bernstein (now Helen Bernstein Fealy). The gift also endows the position of the Helen Bernstein Librarian for Periodicals & Journals, who curates The New York Public Library’s internationally renowned Periodicals Division. The division houses one of the largest collections of past and present newspapers, magazines, and journals from around the world. Librarian Karen Gisonny currently holds the position.