finalist?

[Eway]

"...The Monk in the Garden: The Lost and Found Genius of Gregor Mendel, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award."

What does it mean by "finalist"? Did the book win the award or not anyway?

[Tdol]

I doubt it- it means that it was on the shortlist that the judges used to select the winner. As it was only a finalist, I imagine that the winner was a different book.