The 100 best books of the 21st century

This is one of the 759 lists we use to generate our main The Greatest Books list.

About this list

The Guardian, 100 Books

Dazzling debut novels, searing polemics, the history of humanity and trailblazing memoirs ... Read our pick of the best books since 2000

This list was originally published in 2019 and was added to this site over 6 years ago.

View: List Grid Table
Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
397 Wolf Hall Hilary Mantel 2009 British English
475 Gilead Marilynne Robinson 2004 American English
1027 Secondhand Time Svetlana Alexievich 2013 Belarusian Russian
266 Never Let Me Go Kazuo Ishiguro 2005 British English
262 Austerlitz W. G. Sebald 2001 German German
2970 The Amber Spyglass Philip Pullman 2000 British English
1209 Between the World and Me Ta-Nehisi Coates 2015 American English
9073 Autumn Ali Smith 2016 British English
427 Cloud Atlas David Mitchell 2004 British English
1158 Half of a Yellow Sun Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 2006 Nigerian English
409 My Brilliant Friend Elena Ferrante 2012 American Italian
918 The Plot Against America Philip Roth 2004 American English
1204 Nickel And Dimed Barbara Ehrenreich 2001 American English
1010 Fingersmith Sarah Waters 2002 British English
1844 The Sixth Extinction Elizabeth Kolbert 2014 American English
237 The Corrections Jonathan Franzen 2001 American English
290 The Road Cormac McCarthy 2006 American English
3421 The Shock Doctrine Naomi Klein 2007 Canadian English
1812 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time Mark Haddon 2003 British English
1435 Life After Life Kate Atkinson 2013 British English
1252 Sapiens Yuval Noah Harari 2011 Israeli Hebrew
1898 Tenth of December George Saunders 2013 American English
13941 The Noonday Demon Andrew Solomon 2001 American English
421 A Visit From The Goon Squad Jennifer Egan 2010 American English
1211 Normal People Sally Rooney 2018 Irish English
2627 Capital in the Twenty-First Century Thomas Piketty 2013 French French
2467 Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage Alice Munro 2001 Canadian English
6841 Rapture Carol Ann Duffy 2005 British English
898 My Struggle Karl Ove Knausgård 2009 Norwegian Norwegian
770 The Underground Railroad Colson Whitehead 2016 American English
1703 The Argonauts Maggie Nelson 2015 American English
1974 The Emperor of All Maladies Siddhartha Mukherjee 2010 American English
1060 Fun Home Alison Bechdel 2006 American English
1101 Outline Rachel Cusk 2014 British English
4980 The Hare with Amber Eyes Edmund de Waal 2010 British English
1827 Experience Martin Amis 2000 British English
5995 The Green Road Anne Enright 2015 Irish English
723 The Line of Beauty Alan Hollinghurst 2004 British English
221 White Teeth Zadie Smith 2000 British English
370 The Year of Magical Thinking Joan Didion 2005 American English
248 Atonement Ian McEwan 2001 British English
2899 Moneyball Michael M. Lewis 2003 American English
1861 Citizen Claudia Rankine 2014 American English
5927 Hope in the Dark Rebecca Solnit 2004 American English
17152 Levels of Life Julian Barnes 2013 British English
17152 Human Chain Seamus Heaney 2010 Irish English
670 Persepolis Marjane Satrapi 2000 French French
9363 Night Watch Terry Pratchett 2002 British English
2596 Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? Jeanette Winterson 2011 British English
3130 Oryx and Crake Margaret Atwood 2003 Canadian English
2367 Brooklyn Colm Toibin 2009 Irish English
2486 Small Island Andrea Levy 2004 British English
1154 True History of the Kelly Gang Peter Carey 2000 Australian English
17152 Women & Power Mary Beard 2017 British English
4751 The Omnivore's Dilemma Michael Pollan 2006 American English
8492 Underland Robert Macfarlane 2019 British English
314 The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay Michael Chabon 2000 American English
1638 Postwar Tony Judt 2005 British English
1472 The Beauty Of The Husband Anne Carson 2001 Canadian English
14232 Dart Alice Oswald 2002 British English
14985 This House of Grief Helen Garner 2014 Australian English
3136 Mother's Milk Edward St Aubyn 2005 British English
1817 The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Rebecca Skloot 2010 American English
1265 On Writing Stephen King 2000 American English
791 Gone Girl Gillian Flynn 2012 American English
14985 Seven Brief Lessons on Physics Carlo Rovelli 2015 Italian Italian
17152 The Silence of the Girls Pat Barker 2018 British English
5686 The Constant Gardener John le Carré 2001 British English
14985 The Infatuations Javier Marias 2011 Spanish Spanish
14985 Notes on a Scandal Zoë Heller 2003 British English
2341 Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth Chris Ware 2000 American English
7752 The Age of Surveillance Capitalism Shoshana Zuboff 2019 American English
3520 Nothing to Envy Barbara Demick 2009 American English
5339 Days Without End Sebastian Barry 2016 Irish English
1194 Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead Olga Tokarczuk 2009 Polish Polish
2076 Thinking, Fast and Slow Daniel Kahneman 2011 Israeli English
10503 Signs Preceding the End of the World Yuri Herrera 2009 Mexican Spanish
1117 The Fifth Season N. K. Jemisin 2015 American English
14985 The Spirit Level Richard Wilkinson 2009 British English
1698 Stories of Your Life and Others Ted Chiang 2002 American English
10165 Harvest Jim Crace 2013 British English
4655 Coraline Neil Gaiman 2002 British English
4740 Tell Me How It Ends Valeria Luiselli 2017 Mexican English
10450 The Cost of Living Deborah Levy 2018 British English
10116 The God Delusion Richard Dawkins 2006 British English
14985 Adults in the Room Yanis Varoufakis 2017 Greek English
3178 Priestdaddy Patricia Lockwood 2017 American English
2171 Noughts and Crosses Malorie Blackman 2001 British English
11867 Bad Blood Lorna Sage 2000 British English
6288 Visitation Jenny Erpenbeck 2008 German German
5930 Light M. John Harrison 2002 British English
13941 The Siege Helen Dunmore 2001 British English
4637 Darkmans Nicola Barker 2007 British English
3171 The Tipping Point Malcolm Gladwell 2000 American English
8891 Chronicles Bob Dylan 2004 American English
1765 A Little Life Hanya Yanagihara 2015 American English
1842 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire J. K. Rowling 2000 British English
2189 The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Stieg Larsson 2005 Swedish Swedish
17152 Broken Glass Alain Mabanckou 2005 Congolese French
5034 I Feel Bad About My Neck Nora Ephron 2006 American English