At the Community Bookstore in Park Slope in Brooklyn last Wednesday, booksellers were happily engaged in an annual parlor game of the publishing industry: guessing which title might win the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for fiction on Monday.

Because the Pulitzer board couldn’t possibly be so cruel two years in a row, right?

In 2012, no Pulitzer for fiction was awarded for the first time in 35 years, leaving authors, publishers and retailers fuming at the missed opportunity for buzz, sales and exposure, and chafing at the perceived blow to literature’s prestige. This year, that slight has resulted in the Pulitzer race being watched a little more closely in advance of the official announcement on Monday afternoon.