Modern classics: 11 novels that belong in the classroom
This is one of the 743 lists we use to generate our main The Greatest Books list.
About this list
Today.com, 11 Books
When we think of English lit classes, we usually think of Hawthorne, Melville, Austen, Tolstoy, Dickens. But the times, they are a-changin’ and so too are the books we read, both in and out of the classroom. Since the millennium, a lot of good—nay, great—books have been published by masterful authors, all of whom are deserving of a spot on a high school or college curriculum. And as evidenced by these 11 novels, whoever said there were no new ideas didn’t know what they were talking about.
This list was originally published in 2012 and was added to this site almost 12 years ago.
| Rank | Book | Authors | Year | Country | Language | Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5240 | The Art of Fielding | Chad Harbach | 2011 | American | English | |
| 1141 | Life of Pi | Yann Martel | 2001 | Canadian | English | |
| 8671 | Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close | Jonathan Safran Foer | 2005 | American | English | |
| 314 | The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay | Michael Chabon | 2000 | American | English | |
| 1128 | The Namesake | Jhumpa Lahiri | 2003 | American | English | |
| 415 | Middlesex | Jeffrey Eugenides | 2002 | American | English | |
| 395 | The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao | Junot Diaz | 2007 | Dominican | English | |
| 291 | The Road | Cormac McCarthy | 2006 | American | English | |
| 237 | The Corrections | Jonathan Franzen | 2001 | American | English | |
| 419 | A Visit From The Goon Squad | Jennifer Egan | 2010 | American | English | |
| 248 | Atonement | Ian McEwan | 2001 | British | English |