About this list

Paste Magazine, 40 Books

Novels have inherent power. From building new worlds to reanimating history, they have the ability to enthrall and challenge us. But their most powerful trait is that they offer an escape while still encouraging readers to think critically, weaving entertainment and reflection into one experience.
As the decade comes to a close, we want to celebrate the novels that impacted us during the last 10 years. This list includes 40 novels published in English between 2010 and September 2019, and we’ve limited it to one book per author. The Paste staff tends to read fantasy and literary fiction, so you’ll notice the majority of the titles below fit those labels. And this list is obviously subjective; it’s by no means representative of the only “good” novels published during the last 10 years. This is simply a collection of the books we wept over, laughed with and were inspired by during a tumultuous decade.

We loved these books, and we believe you will, too.

This list was originally published in 2020 and was added to this site over 6 years ago.