The 2013 Tournament of Books was presented by NOOK® by Barnes & Noble, and that year’s Rooster went to The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson, who had this to say about the award:

I’ll admit I’m a ToB addict, so it’s a special honor to be included in the bracket and to survive some fascinating matchups. And to get bumped, only to Zombie back? My highest achievement. Really, I read it all—the reviews, the color commentary, the reader comments, the NOOK ads—and it always got my day going by thinking about books: why we write them, how we read them, how we speak to them, what they mean to us.

I will now demand that my publisher place silver Rooster stickers on all the paperbacks. But first: Deliver unto me one live rooster! It will live in our backyard in San Francisco, until my sleep-deprived neighbors murder it. And if readers will make suggestions for what we should call it, I promise to select a name from one of the comments.

Finally, a special thanks to all the readers, reviewers, and authors who contributed to a pretty dang awesome celebration of books.