The 777 Greatest Novels of All Time
This selection of works is based on the continuing research carried out for The Greatest Literature of All Time list with additional research into sources concerning novels.
For this list a novel is held to be a fictional prose work of at least forty thousand words.
The Greatest Novels of All Time list comprises only single novels. Novel series of three or more books may be found on a separate list.
Latest update: September 8, 2024
c.50 CE
Callirhoe
by Chariton, Greece
Novel
c.60–70
Satyricon
by Arbiter Petronius, Rome
Novel
c.150
Daphne and Chloe
by Longus, Greece
Novel
The Golden Ass
by Lucius Apuleius, Humidia
Novel
c.1200
The Prose Edda
by Snorri Sturlson, Iceland
Novel
c.1360–1400
Romance of the Three Kingdoms
by Luo Guanzhong, China
Novel
c.1360–1589
Water Margin
by Shi Nai'an, Luo Guanzhong, China
Novel
1485
Le Morte d'Arthur
by Thomas Malory, England
Novel
1499
La Celestina
by Fernando de Rojas, Spain
Novel
1532
Pantagruel
by Francois Rabelais, France
Novel
1534
Gargantua
by Francois Rabelais, France
Novel
1580–1581
Arcadia
by Philip Sidney, England
Novel
1580–1593
The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia
by Philip Sidney, England
Novel
c.1590
The Golden Lotus
by Lanling Xiaoxiao Sheng, China
Novel
1592
Journey to the West
by Wu Cheng'en, China
Novel
1594
The Unfortunate Traveller
by Thomas Nashe, England
Novel
1605
Investiture of the Gods
by Xu Zhonglin, China
Novel
1688
Simplicius Simplicissimus
by Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen, Germany
Novel
1678
The Pilgrim's Progress
by John Bunyan, England
Novel
1719–1720
Love in Excess
by Eliza Haywood, England
Novel
1722
Moll Flanders
by Daniel Defoe, England
Novel
1726
Gulliver's Travels
by Jonathan Swift, Ireland
Novel
1731
Manon Lescant
by Antoine François Prévost, France
Novel
1740
Pamela
by Samuel Richardson, England
Novel
1742
Joseph Andrews
by Henry Fielding, England
Novel
1748
Clarissa
by Samuel Richardson, England
Novel
1749
Tom Jones
by Henry Fielding, England
Novel
1750
The Scholars
by Wu Jingzi, China
Novel
1751
The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle
by Tobias Smollett, England
Novel
1752
The Female Quixote
by Charlotte Lennox, Scotland
Novel
1759–1767
Tristram Shandy
by Laurence Sterne, England
Novel
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
1761
Julie; or, The New Heloise
by Jean Jacques Rousseau, England
Novel
1771
Humphrey Clinker
by Tobias Smollett, England
Novel
1774
The Sorrows of Young Werther
by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Germany
Novel
1778
Evelina
by Fanny Burney, England
Novel
1782
Dangerous Liaisons
by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, France
Novel
1785
120 Days of Sodom
by Marquis de Sade, France
Novel
1791
Justine
by Marquis de Sade, France
Novel
1791–1792
The Dream of the Red Chamber
by Cao Zhan, China
Novel
1792
The Nun
by Denis Diderot, France
Novel
1794
The Mysteries of Udolpho
by Ann Radcliffe, England
Novel
1795–1796
William Meister's Apprenticeship
by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Germany
Novel
1796
Camilla
by Fanny Burney, England
Novel
The Monk
by Matthew Lewis, England
Novel
Jacques the Fatalist and His Master
by Denis Diderot, France
Novel
1797–1799
Hyperion
by Friedrich Holderlin, Germany
Novel
1807
Corinne
by Germaine de Staël, France
Novel
1809
Elective Affinities
by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Germany
Novel
1812
Swiss Family Robinson
by Johann David Wyss, Switzer.
Novel
Waverley
by Walter Scott, Scotland
Novel
1816
Adolphe
by Benjamin Constant, Switzerland
Novel
Rob Roy
by Walter Scott, Scotland
Novel
1818
Frankenstein
by Mary Shelley, England
Novel also known as Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus
1819
Ivanhoe
by Walter Scott, Scotland
Novel
1819–1821
The Life and Opinions of Tomcat Murr
by E.T.A. Hoffmann, Germany
Novel
1820
Melmoth the Wanderer
by Charles Maturin, Ireland
Novel
1826
The Last of the Mohicans
by James Fenimore Cooper, United States
Novel
1827
Flowers in a Mirror
by Li Ruzhen, China
Novel
1827–1842
The Betrothed
by Alessandro Manzoni, Italy
Novel
1831
The Red and the Black
by Stendhal, France
Novel
The Hunchback of Notre-Dame
by Victor-Marie Hugo, France
Novel also known as Notre-Dame de Paris
1833
Eugénie Grandet
by Honoré de Balzac, France
Novel
1834
Old Goriot
by Honore de Balzac, France
Novel
1836
The Captain's Daughter
by Alexander Pushkin, Russia
Novel
1837–1843
Lost Illusions
by Honoré de Balzac, France
Novel
The Charterhouse of Parma
by Stendhal, France
Novel
1840
A Hero of Our Time
by Mikhail Lermontov, Russia
Novel
1841
The Deerslayer
by James Fenimore Cooper, United States
Novel
1842
Dead Souls
by Nikolai Gogol, Ukraine
Novel
1843–1847
A Harlot High and Low
by Honoré de Balzac, France
Novel
1844
The Luck of Barry Lyndon
by William Makepeace Thackeray, England
Novel
The Three Musketeers
by Alexandre Dumas, France
Novel
1844–1846
The Count of Monte-Cristo
by Alexandre Dumas, France
Novel
1846
Cousin Bette
by Honoré de Balzac, France
Novel
The Devil's Pool
by George Sand, France
Novel
1848
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
by Anne Brontë, England
Novel
Vanity Fair
by William Makepeace Thackeray, England
Novel
1851
Moby Dick
by Herman Melville, United States
Novel
The House of Seven Gables
by Nathaniel Hawthorne, United States
Novel
1852
Uncle Tom's Cabin
by Harriet Beecher Stowe, United States
Novel
Cranford
by Elizabeth Gaskell, England
Novel
1855
North and South
by Elizabeth Gaskell, England
Novel
The Warden
by Anthony Trollope, England
Novel
Barchester Towers
by Anthony Trollope, England
Novel
The Virginians
by William Makepeace Thackeray, England
Novel
Oblomov
by Ivan Alexandrovich Goncharov, Russia
Novel
Home of the Gentry
by Ivan Turgenev, Russia
Novel
by George Eliot, England
Novel
Max Havelaar
by Multatuli, Holland
Novel
Fathers and Sons
by Ivan Turgenev, Russia
Novel
1864
A Journey to the Centre of the Earth
by Jules Verne, France
Novel
1866
Crime and Punishment
by Fyodor Dostoevsky, Russia
Novel
1869
Lorna Doone
by Richard Blackmore, England
Novel
Phineas Finn
by Anthony Trollope, England
Novel
A Sentimental Education
by Gustave Flaubert, France
Novel
1870
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
by Jules Verne, France
Novel
The Possessed
by Fyodor Dostoevsky, Russia
Novel
1873
Around the World in Eighty Days
by Jules Verne, France
Novel
The Idiot
by Fyodor Dostoevsky, Russia
Novel
Anna Karenina
by Leo Tolstoy, Russia
Novel
1875
The Way We Live Now
by Anthony Trollope, England
Novel
1876
Daniel Deronda
by George Eliot, England
Novel
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
by Mark Twain, United States
Novel
1877
Black Beauty
by Anna Sewell, England
Novel
The Drunkard
by Émile Zola, France
Novel
1879
The Red Room
by August Strindberg, Sweden
Novel
1880
Nana
by Émile Zola, France
Novel
The Brothers Karamazov
by Fyodor Dostoevsky, Russia
Novel
Ben-Hur
by Lew Wallace, United States
Novel
1881
The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cuba
by Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, Brazil
Novel
Bouvard and Pécuchet
by Gustave Flaubert, France
Novel
The House by the Medlar Tree
by Giovanni Verga, Italy
Novel
The Portrait of a Lady
by Henry James, United States
Novel
1883
A Woman's Life
by Guy de Maupassant, France
Novel
1884
Against Nature
by Joris-Karl Huysmans, France
Novel
1884
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
by Mark Twain, United States
Novel
1885
King Solomon's Mines
by H. Rider Haggard, England
Novel
Marius the Epicurean
by Walter Pater, England
Novel
Bel Ami
by Guy de Maupassant, France
Novel
Germinal
by Émile Zola, France
Novel
Compassion
by Benito Pérez Galdós, Spain
Novel
1887
She
by H. Rider Haggard, England
Novel
The Maias
by José Maria Eça de Queirós, Japan
Novel
1889
Three Men in a Boat
by Jerome K. Jerome, England
Novel
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
by Mark Twain, United States
Novel
1890
The Beast Within
by Émile Zola, France
Novel
News from Nowhere
by William Morris, England
Novel
The Picture of Dorian Gray
by Oscar Wilde, Ireland
Novel
1892
The Diary of a Nobody
by George and Weedon Grossmith, England
Novel
1893
The Adventures of Pinocchio
by Carlo Collodi, Italy
Novel
1895
Effi Briest
by Theodor Fontane, Germany
Novel
The Bostonians
by Henry James, England
Novel
The Island of Doctor Moreau
by H.G. Wells, England
Novel
1897
Captains Courageous
by Rudyard Kipling, England
Novel
The Invisible Man
by H.G. Wells, England
Novel
Pharaoh
by Boleslaw Prus, Poland
Novel
1898
The War of the Worlds
by H.G. Wells, England
Novel
The Stechlin
by Theodor Fontane, Germany
Novel
1899
Hunger
by Knut Hamsun, Norway
Novel
The Awakening
by Kate Chopin, United States
Novel
Sister Carrie
by Theodore Dreiser, United States
Novel
1901
My Brilliant Career
by Miles Franklin, Australia
Novel
Resurrection
by Leo Tolstoy, Russia
Novel
The Wings of the Dove
by Henry James, United States
Novel
1905–1928
A Flower in a Sinful Sea
by Jin Tianhe, Zeng Pu, China
Novel
The Riddle of the Sands
by Erskine Childers, England
Novel
The Ambassadors
by Henry James, United States
Novel
The Golden Bowl
by Henry James, United States
Novel
1905
Professor Unrat
by Heinrich Mann, Germany
Novel
The House of Mirth
by Edith Wharton, United States
Novel
1906
The Confusions of Young Törless
by Robert Musil, England, Austria
The Jungle
by Upton Sinclair, United States
Novel
1907
The Travels of Lao Can
by Liu E, China
Novel
Mother
by Maxim Gorky, Russia
Novel
1908
Anne of Green Gables
by L.M. Montgomery, Canada
Novel
The Old Wives' Tale
by Arnold Bennett, England
Novel
A Room With a View
by E.M. Forster, England
Novel
The Wind in the Willows
by Kenneth Grahame, England
Novel
1910
Howards End
by E.M. Forster, England
Novel
1912
Zuleika Dobson
by Max Beerbohm, England
Novel
1913
Sons and Lovers
by D.H. Lawrence, England
Novel
Le Grand Meaulnes
by Alain-Fournier, France
Novel
Petersburg
by Andrei Bely, Russia
Novel
1913–1927
In Search of Lost Time
by Marcel Proust, France
Novel in seven volumes, including Swann's Way, In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower, The Guermantes Way, Time Regained
1914
Locus Solus
by Raymond Rousel, CFrance
Novel
The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropist
by Robert Tressell, Ireland
Novel
Kokoro
by Sōseki Natsume, Japan
Novel
Tarzan of the Apes
by Edgar Rice Burroughs, United States
Novel
1915
The Rainbow
by D.H. Lawrence, England
Novel
The Good Soldier
by Ford Maddox Ford, England
Novel
Of Human Bondage
by W. Somerset Maughham, England
Novel
1916
The Home and the World
by Rabindranath Tagore, Bengal
Novel
The Underdogs
by Mariano Azuela, Mexico
Novel
1917
The Charwoman's Daughter
by James Stephens, Ireland
Novel
1920
The Wreath
by Sigrid Unset, Norway
Novel
1920–1923
The Good Soldier Schweik
by Jaroslav Hasek, Czechia
Novel
1921
Women in Love
by D.H. Lawrence, England
Novel
The Age of Innocence
by Edith Wharton, United States
Novel
The Worm Ouroboros
by E.R. Eddison, England
Novel
Babbitt
by Sinclair Lewis, United States
Novel
1923
The Confessions of Zeno
by Italo Svevo, Italy
Novel
Chapayev
by Dmitry Furmanov, Russia
Novel
A Passage to India
by E.M. Forster, England
Novel
We
by Yevgeny Zamyatin, Russia
Novel
1925
The Trial
by Franz Kafka, Czech.
Novel
Parade's End
by Ford Maddox Ford, England
Novel
The Counterfeiters
by André Gide, France
Novel
An American Tragedy
by Theodore Dreiser, United States
Novel
1926
The Castle
by Franz Kafka, Czechia
Novel
Under Satan's Sun
by Georges Bernanos, France
Novel
Envy
by Yuri Olesha, Russia
Novel
Steppenwolf
by Herman Hesse, Switzerland
Novel
1928
Lady Chatterley's Lover
by D.H. Lawrence, England
Novel
Orlando
by Virginia Woolf, England
Novel
Nadja
by André Breton, France
Novel
And Quiet Flows the Don
by Mikhail Sholokov, Russia
Novel
Quicksand
by Nella Larsen, United States
Novel
1929
A High Wind in Jamaica
by Richard Hughes, England
Novel
The Holy Terrors
by Jean Cocteau, France
Novel
Berlin Alexanderplatz
by Alfred Döblin, Germany
Novel
The Time of Indifference
by Alberto Moravia, Italy
Novel
Some Prefer Nettles
by Jun'ichiro Tanizaki, Japan
Novel
The Sound and the Fury
by William Faulkner, United States
Novel
Look Homeward, Angel
by Thomas Wolfe, United States
Novel
1930
The Foundation Pit
by Andrey Platonov, Russia
Novel
The 42nd Parallel
by John Dos Passos, United States
Novel
As I Lay Dying
by William Faulkner, United States
Novel
1930–1943
The Man Without Qualities
by Robert Musil, Austria
Novel
The Good Earth
by Pearl S. Buck, United States
Novel
At the Mountains of Madness
by H.P. Lovecraft, United States
Novel
Journey to the End of the Night
by Louis-Ferdinand Céline, France
Novel
Viper's Tangle
by Francois Mauriac, France
Novel
Tobacco Road
by Erskine Caldwell, United States
Novel
Light in August
by William Faulkner, United States
Novel
1933
Man's Fate
by André Malraux, France
Novel
The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas
by Gertrude Stein, United States
Novel
The Nine Tailors
by Dorothy L. Sayers, England
Novel
A Handful of Dust
by Evelyn Waugh, England
Novel
They Were Counted
by Miklós Bánffy, Hungary
Novel
How the Steel Was Tempered
by Nikolai Ostrovsky, Ukraine
Novel
Tropic of Cancer
by Henry Miller, United States
Novel
1934–1935
Independent People
by Halldór Laxness, Iceland
Novel
1935
The Tower of Babels
by Elias Canetti, Belgium
Novel
Untouchable
by Mulk Raj Anand, India
Novel
Call It Sleep
by Henry Roth, United States
Novel
Invitation to a Beheading
by Vladimir Nabokov, Russia
Novel
Nightwood
by Djuna Barnes, United States
Novel
Absalom, Absalom!
by William Faulkner, United States
Novel
Gone with the Wind
by Margaret Mitchell, United States
Novel
1937
Rickshaw Boy
by Lao She, China
Novel
The Hobbit
by J.R.R. Tolkien, England
Novel
The Blind Owl
by Sadegh Hedayat, Iran
Novel
Their Eyes Were Watching God
by Zora Neale Hurston, United States
Novel
1938
Rebecca
by Daphne du Maurier, England
Novel
Brighton Rock
by Graham Greene, England
Novel
Scoop
by Evelyn Waugh, England
Novel
The Code of the Woosters
by P.G. Wodehouse, England
Novel
Nausea
by Jean-Paul Sartre, France
Novel
The Death of the Heart
by Elizabeth Bowen, Ireland
Novel
1939
The Mask of Dimitrios
by Eric Ambler, England
Novel
At Swim-Two-Birds
by Flann O'Brien, Ireland
Novel
The Day of the Locust
by Nathanael West, United States
Novel
1940
The Invention of Morel
by Adolfo Bioy Casares, Argentina
Novel
The Man Who Loved Children
by Christina Stead, Australia
Novel
The Power and the Glory
by Graham Greene, England
Novel
The Tartar Steppe
by Dino Buzzati, Italy
Novel
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
by Carson McCullers, United States
Novel
Native Son
by Richard Wright, United States
Novel
1943
The Fountainhead
by Ayn Rand, United States
Novel
1944
The Horse's Mouth
by Joyce Cary, England
Novel
Aurélien
by Louis Aragon, France
Novel
Our Lady of the Flowers
by Jean Genet, France
Novel
The Makioka Sisters
by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki, Japan
Novel
1945
The Tin Flute
by Gabrielle Roy, Canada
Novel
Loving
by Henry Green, England
Novel
Brideshead Revisited
by Evelyn Waugh, England
Novel
The Shadow of the Wind
by Carlos Luiz Zafón, Spain
Novel
The Glass Bead Game
by Herman Hesse, Switzerland
Novel
1946
Titus Groan
by Mervyn Peake, England
Novel
Zorba the Greek
by Nikos Kazantzakis, Greece
Novel
All the King's Men
by Robert Penn Warren, United States
Novel
The Bridge on the Drina
by Ivo Andrić, Yugoslavia
Novel
1947
A Case to Answer
by Edgar Lustgarten, England
Novel
Under the Volcano
by Malcolm Lowry, England
Novel
Froth on the Daydream
by Boris Vian, France
Novel
Doctor Faustus
by Thomas Mann, Germany
Novel
All About H. Hatterr
by G.V. Desani, England
Novel
Snow Country
by Yasunari Kawabata, Japan
Novel
The Franchise Affair
by Josephine Tey, Scotland
Novel
Cry, the Beloved Country
by Alan Paton, South Africa
Novel
1949
The Kingdom of This World
by Alejo Carpentier, Cuba
Novel
The Emigrants
by Vilhelm Moberg, Sweden
Novel
Confessions of a Mask
by Yukio Mishima, Japan
Novel
The Man With the Golden Arm
by Nelson Algren, United States
Novel
The Sheltering Sky
by Paul Bowles, United States
Novel
The Moon and the Bonfires
by Cesare Pavese, Italy
Novel
Barrabas
by Pär Lagerkvist, Sweden
Novel
Strangers on a Train
by Patricia Highsmith, United States
Novel
1951
Memoirs of Hadrian
by Marguerite Yourcenar, Belgium
Novel
The End of the Affair
by Graham Greene, England
Novel
The Day of the Triffids
by John Wyndham, England
Novel
The Opposing Shore
by Julien Gracq, France
Novel
Samuel Beckett
by Molloy, Ireland
Novel
The Daughter of Time
by Josephine Tey, Scotland
Novel
From Here to Eternity
by James Jones, United States
Novel
1952
Thousand Cranes
by Yasunari Kawabata, Japan
Novel
The Palm-Wine Drunkard
by Amos Tutuola, Nigeria
Novel
Invisible Man
by Ralph Ellison, United States
Novel
Wise Blood
by Flannery O'Connor, United States
Novel
Charlotte's Web
by E.B. White, United States
Novel
1953
Childhood's End
by Arthur C. Clarke, England
Novel
The Go-Between
by L.P. Hartley, England
Novel
The Adventures of Augie March
by Saul Bellow, United States
Novel
1954
Lucky Jim
by Kingsley Amis, England
Novel
Lord of the Flies
by William Golding, England
Novel
Under the Net
by Iris Murdoch, England
Novel
The Mandarins
by Simone de Beauvoir, France
Novel
I'm Not Stiller
by Max Frisch, Switzerland
Novel
Nectar in a Sieve
by Kamala Markandaya, India
Novel
Go Tell It on the Mountain
by James Baldwin, United States
Novel
1954–1955
Lord of the Rings
by J.R.R. Tolkien, England
Novel
The Recognitions
by William Gaddis, United States
Novel
The Talented Mr. Ripley
by Patricia Highsmith, United States
Novel
1956
The Devil to Pay in the Backlands
by João Guimarães Rosa, Brazil
Novel
The Temple of the Golden Pavilion
by Yukio Mishima, Japan
Novel
Giovanni's Room
by James Baldwin, United States
Novel
1957
Voss
by Patrick White, Australia
Novel
Justine
by Laurence Durrell, England
Novel
From Russia With Love
by Ian Fleming, England
Novel
Jealousy
by Alain Robbe-Grillet, France
Novel
Pnin
by Vladimir Nabokov, Russia
Novel
Doctor Zhivago
by Boris Pasternak, Russia
Novel
The Wapshot Chronicle
by John Cheever, United States
Novel
Atlas Shrugged
by Ayn Rand, United States
Novel
1958
Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon
by Jorge Amado, Brazil
Novel
The Guide
by R.K. Narayan, India
Novel
The Leopard
by Giusseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, Italy
Novel
Things Fall Apart
by Chinua Achebe, Nigeria
Novel
The Once and Future King
by T.H. White, England
Novel
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
by Alan Sillitoe, England
Novel
1959
The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz
by Mordecai Richler, Canada
Novel
The Golden Notebook
by Doris Lessing, England
Novel
Zazie in the Zoo
by Raymond Queneau, France
Novel
Billiards at Half Past Nine
by Heinrich Böll, Germany
Novel
The Tin Drum
by Günter Grass, Germany
Novel
Henderson the Rain King
by Saul Bellow, United States
Novel
Naked Lunch
by William S. Burroughs, United States
Novel
A Separate Peace
by John Knowles, United States
Novel
1960
A Canticle for Leibowitz
by Walter M. Miller, United States
Novel
1961
Solaris
by Stanislaw Lem, Poland
Novel
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
by Muriel Spark, Scotland
Novel
A House for Mr Biswas
by V.S. Naipaul, Trinidad
Novel
The Moviegoer
by Walker Percy, United States
Novel
Franny and Zooey
by J.D. Salinger, United States
Novel
Revolutionary Road
by Richard Yates, United States
Novel
1962
The Death of Artemio Cruz
by Carlos Fuentes, Mexico
Novel
Pale Fire
by Vladimir Nabokov, Russia
Novel
A Clockwork Orange
by Anthony Burgess, England
Novel
A Wrinkle in Time
by Madeleine L'Engle, United States
Novel
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
by Ken Kesey, United States
Novel
1963
The General of the Dead Army
by Ismail Kadare, Albania
Novel
Hopscotch
by Julio Cortazar, Argentina
Novel
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold
by John le Carré, England
Novel
V.
by Thomd Pynchon, United States
Novel
Cat's Cradle
by Kurt Vonnegut, United States
Novel
The Ravishing of Lol Stein
by Marguerite Duras, France
Novel
Arrow of God
by Chinua Achebe, Nigeria
Novel
Herzog
by Saul Bellow, United States
Novel
Things
by Georges Perec, France
Novel
The Magus
by John Fowles, England
Novel
Black Sheep
by Georgette Heyer, England
Novel
Wide Sargasso Sea
by Jean Rhys, England
Novel
Silence
by Shūsaku Endō, Japan
Novel
Season of Migration to the North
by Tayeb Salih, Sudan
Novel
In Cold Blood
by Truman Capote, United States
Nonfiction novel
Flowers for Algernon
by Daniel Keyes, United States
Novel
1967
Picnic at Hanging Rock
by Joan Lindsay, Australia
Novel
One Hundred Years of Solitude
by Gabriel García Márquez, Colombia
Novel
Children of Gebelawi
by Naguib Mahfouz, Egypt
Novel
The Third Policeman
by Flann O'Brien, Ireland
Novel
The Master and Margarita
by Mikhail Bulgakov, Russia
Novel
Babel-17
by Samuel R. Delany, United States
Novel
The Outsiders
by S.E. Hinton, United States
Novel
The Confessions of Nat Turner
by William Styron, United States
Novel
Lord of Light
by Roger Zelazny, United States
Novel
1968
2001: A Space Odyssey
by Arthur C. Clarke, England
Novel
The German Lesson
by Siegfried Lenz, Germany
Novel
The Quest for Christa T.
by Christa Wolf, Germany
Novel
Cancer Ward
by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Russia
Novel
The First Circle
by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Russia
Novel
Belle du Seigneur
by Albert Cohen, Switzerland
Novel
Stand on Zanzibar
by John Brunner, United States
Novel
Myra Breckinridge
by Gore Vidal, United States
Novel
1969
Heartbreak Tango
by Manuel Puig, Argentina
Novel
The French Lieutenant's Woman
by John Fowles, England
Novel
Master and Commander
by Patrick O'Brian, England
Novel
A Void
by Georges Perec, France
Novel
Ada or Ardor
by Vladimir Nobokov, Russia
Novel
them
by Joyce Carol Oates, United States
Novel
The Godfather
by Mario Puzo, United States
Novel
Slaughterhouse Five
by Kurt Vonnegut, United States
Novel
1970
Fifth Business
by Robertson Davies, Canada
Novel
Troubles
by J.G. Farrell, England
Novel
Deliverance
by James Dickey, United States
Novel
1971
The Day of the Jackal
by Frederick Forsyth, England
Novel
In a Free State
by V.S. Naipaul, Trinidad
Novel
The Bell Jar
by Sylvia Plath, United States
Novel
Angle of Repose
by Wallace Stegner, United States
Novel
Rabbit Redux
by John Updike, United States
Novel
1972
Watership Down
by Richard Adams, United States
Novel
Rendezvous With Rama
by Arthur C. Clarke, England
Novel
The Twilight Years
by Sawako Ariyoshi, Japan
Novel
Roadside Picnic
by Arkady and Boris Strugatski, Russia
Novel
The Gods Themselves
by Isaac Asimov, United States
Novel
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
by Hunter S. Thompson, United States
Novel
1973
The Siege of Krishnapur
by J.G. Farrell, England
Novel
Gravity's Rainbow
by Thomas Pynchon, United States
Novel
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
by John le Carré, England
Novel
History: A Novel
by Elsa Morante, Italy
Novel
The Forever War
by Joe Halderman, United States
Novel
Dog Soldiers
by Robert Stone, United States
Novel
1975
Correction
by Thomas Bernhard, Austria
Novel
The Autumn of the Patriarch
by Gabriel García Márquez, Colombia
Novel
W, or the Memory of Childhood
by Georges Perec, France
Novel
Humboldt's Gift
by Saul Bellow, United States
Novel
Ragtime
by E.L. Doctorow, United States
Novel
Interview With the Vampire
by Anne Rice, United States
Novel
1976
Bear
by Marian Engel, Canada
Novel
1977
Monkey Grip
by Helen Garner, Australia
Novel
The Thorn Birds
by Colleen McCullough, Australia
Novel
The Hour of the Star
by Clarice Lispector, Brazil
Novel
The Wars
by Timothy Findley, Canada
Novel
Aunt Julia and the Script-Writer
by Mario Vargas Llosa, Peru
Novel
The Shining
by Stephen King, United States
Novel
Song of Solomon
by Toni Morrison, United States
Novel
Gateway
by Frederick Pohl, United States
Novel
1978
Eye of the Needle
by Ken Follett, England
Novel
The Sea, the Sea
by Iris Murdoch, England
Novel
Life a User's Manual
by Georges Perecs, France
Novel
The Stand
Stephen King, United States
Novel
Going After Cacciato
by Tim O'Brien, United States
Novel
Smiley's People
by John Le Carré, England
Novel
If on a Winter's Night a Traveler
by Italo Calvino, Italy
Novel
A Bend in the River
by V.S. Naipaul, Trinidad
Novel
Burger's Daughter
by Nadine Gordimer, South Africa
Novel
Sophie's Choice
by William Styron, United States
Novel
1980
Clear Light of Day
by Anita Desai, India
Novel
The Name of the Rose
by Umberto Eco, Italy
Novel
So Long a Letter
by Miriam Bâ, Senegal
Novel
Waiting for the Barbarians
by J.M. Coetzee, South Africa
Novel
Life and Fate
by Vasily Grossman, Ukraine
Novel
The Mists of Avalon
by Marion Zimmer Bradley, United States
Novel
So Long, See You Tomorrow
by William Maxwell, United States
Novel
1981
Obasan
by Joy Kogawa, Canada
Novel
Lanark
by Alasdair Graye, Scotland
Novel
Midnight's Children
by Salman Rushdie, India
Novel
The War of the End of the World
by Mario Vargas Llosa, India
Novel
July's People
by Nadine Gordimer, South Africa
Novel
Red Dragon
by Thomas Harris, United States
Novel
Rabbit Is Rich
by John Updike, United States
Novel
1982
Schindler's List
by Thomas Keneally, Australia
Novel
The House of the Spirits
by Isabel Allende, Chile
Novel
A Wild Sheep Chase
by Haruki Murakami, Japan
Novel
The Color Purple
by Alice Walker, United States
Novel
1983
The Piano Teacher
by Elfriede Jelinek, Austria
Novel
Mr Palomar
by Italo Calvino, Italy
Novel
The Life and Times of Michael K
by J.M. Coetzee, South Africa
Novel
The Christmas Oratorio
by Göran Tunström, Sweden
Novel
Startide Rising
by David Brin, United States
Novel
LaBrava
by Elmore Leonard, United States
Novel
1984
Neuromancer
by William Gibson, Canada
Novel
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
by Milan Kundera, Czechoslovakia
Novel
Money
by Martin Amis, England
Novel
Hotel du Lac
by Anita Brookner, England
Novel
Bright Lights, Big City
by Jay McInerney, United States
Novel
1985
Annie John
by Jamaica Kincaid, Antigua
Novel
Half of Man Is Woman
by Zhang Xianliang, China
Novel
Love in the Time of Cholera
by Gabriel García Márquez, Colombia
Novel
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
by Patrick Suskind, Germany
Novel
White Noise
by Don DeLillo, United States
Novel
Blood Meridian
by Cormac McCarthy, United States
Novel
Lonesome Dove
by Larry McMurtry, United States
Novel
The Accidental Tourist
by Anne Tyler, United States
Novel
1986
An Artist of the Floating World
by Kazuo Ishiguro, England
Novel
A Dark-Adapted Eye
by Barbara Vine, England
Novel
Matigari
by Ngugi Wa Thiong'o, Kenya
Novel
1986–1987
Red Sorghum
by Mo Yan, Canada
Novel
1987
The Stone Diaries
by Carol Shields, Canada
Novel
In the Skin of a Lion
by Michael Ondaatje, Canada
Novel
The Radiant Way
by Margaret Drabble, England
Novel
Norwegian Wood
by Haruki Murakami, Japan
Novel
Misery
by Stephen King, United States
Novel
Beloved
by Toni Morrison, United States
Novel
1988
Oscar and Lucinda
by Peter Carey, Australia
Novel
The Alchemist
by Paulo Coelho, Brazil
Novel
The Shadow Lines
by Amitav Ghosh, India
Novel
The Satanic Verses
by Salman Rushdie, India
Novel
Kitchen
by Banana Yoshimoto, Japan
Novel
Obabakoak
by Bernard Atxaga, Spain
Novel
The Joy Luck Club
by Amy Tan, United States
Novel
Breathing Lessons
by Anne Tyler, United States
Novel
Nervous Conditions
by Dangarembga Tsitsi, Zimbabwe
Novel
1989
The Remains of the Day
by Kazuo Ishiguro, England
Novel
London Fields
by Martin Amis, England
Novel
The Pillars of the Earth
by Ken Follett, England
Novel
The Great Indian Novel
by Shashi Tharoor, India
Novel
Like Water for Chocolate
by Laura Esquivel, Mexico
Novel
The Storyteller
by Mario Vargas Llosa, Peru
Novel
1990
Possession
by A.S. Byatt, England
Novel
Vertigo
by W.G. Sebald, Germany
Novel
Amongst Women
by John MacGahern, Ireland
Novel
The Eye of the World
by Robert Jordan, United States
Novel
Get Shorty
by Elmore Leonard, United States
Novel
1991
Cloudstreet
by Tim Winton, Australia
Novel
1991
Generation X
by Douglas Coupland, Canada
Novel
Wild Swans
by Jung Chang, China
Nonfiction novel
Regeneration
by Pat Barker, England
Novel
Includes Regeneration, The Eye in the Door, The Ghost Road
The Famished Road
by Ben Okri, Nigeeria
Novel
The Book of Disquiet
by Fernando Pessoa, Portugal
Novel
Mating
by Norman Rush, United States
Novel
The Kitchen God's Wife
by Amy Tan, United States
Novel
1992
The English Patient
by Michael Ondaatje, Canada
Novel
Smilla's Sense of Snow
by Peter Høeg, Denmark
Novel
Children of Men
by P.D. James, England
Novel
The Emigrants
by W.G. Sebald, Germany
Novel
The Butcher Boy
by Patrick McCabe, Ireland
Novel
The Triple Mirror of the Self
by Zulfikar Ghose, Pakistan
Novel
The Crow Road
by Iain Banks, Scotland
Novel
All the Pretty Horses
by Cormac McCarthy, United States
Novel
The Secret History
by Donna Tartt, United States
Novel
1993
Remembering Babylon
by David Malouf, Australia
Novel
Green Grass, Running Water
by Thomas King, Canada
Novel
To Live
by Yu Hua, China
Novel
Birdsong
by Sebastian Faulks, England
Novel
A Suitable Boy
by Vikram Seth, India
Novel
Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha
by Roddy Doyle, Ireland
Novel
The Life of Insects
by Victor Pelevin, Russia
Novel
The Shipping News
by Annie Proulx, United States
Novel
1994
Of Love and Shadows
by Isabel Allende, Chile
Novel
Captain Corelli's Mandolin
by Louis de Bernieres, England
Novel
How Late It Was, How Late
by James Kelman, Scotland
Novel
1994–1995
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
by Haruki Murakami, Canada
Novel
1995
A Fine Balance
by Rohinton Mistry, Canada
Novel
Northern Lights
by Philip Pullman, England
Novel
The Reader
by Bernhard Schlink, Germany
Novel
Fall on Your Knees
by Ann-Marie MacDonald, Canada
Novel
Fugitive Pieces
by Anne Michaels, Canada
Novel
Chapayev and Pustota
by Victor Pelevin, Russia
Novel
A Game of Thrones
by George R.R. Martin, United States
Novel
Infinite Jest
by David Foster Wallace, United States
Novel
1997
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
by J.K. Rowling, England
Novel
The God of Small Things
by Arundhati Roy, India
Novel
Memoirs of a Geisha
by Arthur Golden, United States
Novel
Underworld
by Don DeLillo, United States
Novel
Cold Mountain
by Charles Frazier, United States
Novel
Mason and Dixon
by Thomas Pynchon, United States
Novel
Charming Billy
by Alice McDermott, United States
Novel
1998
The Colony of Unrequited Dreams
by Wayne Johnston, Canada
Novel
The Savage Detectives
by Roberto Bolaño, Chile
Novel
Amsterdam
by Ian McEwan, England
Novel
The Elementary Particles
by Michel Houellbecq, France
Novel
My Name Is Red
by Orhan Pamuk, Turkey
Novel
The Hours
by Michael Cunningham, United States
Novel
The Poisonwood Bible
by Barbara Kingsolver, United States
Novel
1999
No Great Mischief
by Alistair MacLeod, Canada
Novel
The Life and Times of Michael K
by J.M. Coetzee, South Africa
Novel
Waiting
by Ha Jin, United States
Novel
2000
True History of the Kelly Gang
by Peter Carey, Australia
Novel
White Teeth
by Zadie Smith, England
Novel
Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamtress
by Dai Sijie, France
Novel
The Feast of the Goat
by Mario Vargas Llosa, Peru
Novel
Bartleby and Co
by Enrique Vila-Matas, Peru
Novel
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
by Michael Chabon, United States
Novel
2000–2001
Persepolis
by Marjane Satrapi, Iran, graphic novel
American Gods
by Neil Gaiman, England
Novel
The Other Boleyn Girl
by Philippa Gregory, England
Novel
Austerlitz
by W.G. Sebald, Germany
Novel
The Corrections
by Jonathan Franzen, United States
Novel
2002
Life of Pi
by Yann Martel, Canada
Novel
City of the Beasts
by Isabel Allende, Chile
Novel
Middlesex
by Jeffrey Eugenides, United States
Novel
Fingersmith
by Sarah Waters, Wales
Novel
2003
The Great Fire
by Shirley Hazzard, Australia
Novel
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
by Mark Haddon, England
Novel
The Housekeeper and the Professor
by Yoko Ogawa, Japan
Novel
The Kite Runner
by Khaled Hosseini, United States
Novel
The Known World
by Edward P. Jones, United States
Novel
The Time Traveler's Wife
by Audrey Niffenegger, United States
Novel
The Da Vinci Code
by Dan Brown, United States
Novel
Vernon God Little
by DBC Pierre, United States
Novel
2004
A Complicated Kindness
by Mariam Toews, Canada
Novel
2666
by Roberto Bolaño, Chile
Novel
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
by Susanna Clarke, England
Novel
The Line of Beauty
by Michael Hollinghurst, England
Novel
Cloud Atlas
by David Mitchell, England
Novel
The Master
by Colm Tóibín, Ireland
Novel
The News From Paraguay
by Lily Tuck, United States
Novel
2005
March
by Geraldine Brooks, Australia
Novel
The Book Thief
by Markus Zusak, Australia
Novel
Never Let Me Go
by Kazuo Ishiguro, England
Novel
Measuring the World
by Daniel Kehlmann, Germany
Novel
The Sea
by John Banville, Ireland
Novel
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan
by Lisa See, United States
Novel
2006
The Elegance of the Hedgehog
by Muriel Barbery, France
Novel
The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
by John Boyne, Ireland
Novel
Half of a Yellow Sun
by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Nigeria
Novel
What Is the What
by Dave Eggers, United States
Nonfiction novel
The Road
by Cormac McCarthy, United States
Novel
2007
Late Nights on Air
by Elizabeth Hay, Canada
Novel
The Book of Negroes
by Lawrence Hill, Canada
Novel
Tree of Smoke
by Denis Johnson, England
Novel
The Gathering
by Anne Enright, Ireland
Novel
The Great Man
by Kate Christenson, United States
Novel
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
by Junot Díaz, United States
Novel
A Thousand Splendid Suns
by Khaled Hosseini, United States
Novel
The Name of the Wind
by Patrick Rothfuss, United States
Novel
2008
The Three-Body Problem
by Liu Cixin, China
Novel
White Tiger
by Aravind Adiga, India
Novel
The Hunger Games
by Suzanne Collins, United States
Novel
2009
February
by Lisa Moore, Canada
Novel
Shanghai Girls
by Lisa See, United States
Novel
Wolf Hall
by Hilary Mantel, England
Novel
Brooklyn
by Colm Tóibín, Ireland
Novel
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead
by Olga Tkarchuk, Poland
Novel
The Magicians
by Lev Grossman, United States
Novel
Let the Great World Spin
by Colum McCann, United States
Novel
2009–2010
IQ84
by Haruki Murakami, England
Novel
2010
Room
by Kathleen Winter, Canada
Novel
Annabel
by Kathleen Winter, Canada
Novel
A Visit From the Goon Squad
by Jennifer Egan, United States
Novel
2011
The Sisters Brothers
by Patrick DeWitt, Canada
Novel
Half-Blood Blues
by Esi Edugyan, Canada
Novel
My Brilliant Friend
by Elena Ferrante, Italy
Novel
2012
Gone Girl
by Gillian Flynn, United States
Novel
2013
The Luminaries
by Eleanor Catton, New Zealand
Novel
Americanah
by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Nigeria
Novel
2014
A Brief History of Seven Killings
by Marlon James, Jamaica
Novel
All the Light We Cannot See
by Anthony Doerr, United States
Novel
2015
The Sellout
by Paul Beatty, United States
Novel
The Fifth Season
by N.K. Jemisin, United States
Novel
2016
Days Without End
by Sebastian Barry, Ireland
Novel
The Underground Railroad
by Colson Whitehead, United States
Novel
2017
The Changeling
by Victor LaValle, United States
Novel
Lincoln in the Bardo
by George Saunders, United States
Novel
Sing, Unburied, Sing
by Jesmyn Ward, United States
Novel
2018
Too Much Lip
by Melissa Lucashenko, Australia
Novel
Normal People
by Sally Rooney, Ireland
Novel
Milkman
by Anna Burns, Northern Ireland
Novel
