The Modern Library: The Two Hundred Best Novels in English Since 1950

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

About this list

The Modern Library (Book), 209 Books

The authors have chosen the 200 books since 1950 that they consider to be the best. It includes some familiar names and some surprises. Witty and controversial, their aim is to encourage reading.

The Authors
- Dame Carmen Thérèse Callil, DBE, FRSL was an Australian publisher, writer and critic who spent most of her career in the United Kingdom. She founded Virago Press in 1973 and received the Benson Medal from the Royal Society of Literature in 2017
- Colm Tóibín FRSL is an Irish novelist, short story writer, essayist, journalist, critic, playwright and poet. His first novel, The South, was published in 1990. The Blackwater Lightship was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

This list was originally published in 2011 and was added to this site over 2 years ago.

View: List Grid Table
Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
331 Housekeeping Marilynne Robinson 1980 American English
203 A Confederacy of Dunces John Kennedy Toole 1980 American English
17152 Puffball Fay Weldon 1980 British English
1166 Lanark Alasdair Gray 1981 Scottish English
1001 Red Dragon Thomas Harris 1981 American English
64 Midnight's Children Salman Rushdie 1981 Indian English
1965 A Flag For Sunrise Robert Stone 1981 American English
2512 On the Black Hill Bruce Chatwin 1982 British English
1028 Schindler's List Thomas Keneally 1982 Australian English
157 The Color Purple Alice Walker 1982 American English
1067 A Boy's Own Story Edmund White 1982 American English
750 Money Martin Amis 1984 British English
1569 Empire of the Sun J. G. Ballard 1984 British English
988 Flaubert's Parrot Julian Barnes 1984 British English
14232 In Custody Anita Desai 1984 Indian English
14985 The Children's Bach Helen Garner 1984 Australian English
17152 Nation Of Fools Balraj Khanna 1984 Indian English
2303 Machine Dreams Jayne Anne Phillips 1984 American English
17152 Family And Friends Anita Brookner 1985 British English
198 Blood Meridian Cormac McCarthy 1985 American English
623 Lonesome Dove Larry McMurtry 1985 American English
17152 Black Robe Brian Moore 1985 Canadian English
1461 Oranges are not the only Fruit Jeanette Winterson 1985 British English
1637 The Sportswriter Richard Ford 1986 American English
3069 An Artist of the Floating World Kazuo Ishiguro 1986 British English
2347 A Summons to Memphis Peter Taylor 1986 American English
1888 A Dark Adapted Eye Barbara Vine 1986 British English
4446 Ellen Foster Kaye Gibbons 1987 American English
14985 Double Whammy Carl Hiaasen 1987 American English
1086 Misery Stephen King 1987 American English
49 Beloved Toni Morrison 1987 American English
4286 In The Skin Of A Lion Michael Ondaatje 1987 Canadian English
17152 The Other Garden Francis Wyndham 1987 British English
1561 Oscar and Lucinda Peter Carey 1988 Australian English
924 Where I'm Calling From Raymond Carver 1988 American English
3167 Paris Trout Pete Dexter 1988 American English
17152 The Sugar Mother Elizabeth Jolley 1988 Australian English
17152 Forty Seventeen Frank Moorhouse 1988 Australian English
5308 Ice-Candy-Man Bapsi Sidhwa 1988 Pakistani English
2388 Breathing Lessons Anne Tyler 1988 American English
310 Bonfire of the Vanities Tom Wolfe 1987 American English
12146 The Book Of Evidence John Banville 1989 Irish English
2395 The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love Oscar Hijuelos 1989 American English
738 The Joy Luck Club Amy Tan 1989 American English
718 Possession A. S. Byatt 1990 British English
14985 Age Of Iron J. M. Coetzee 1990 South African English
14985 A Home at the End of the World Michael Cunningham 1990 American English
17152 The Snapper Roddy Doyle 1990 Irish English
1111 Get Shorty Elmore Leonard 1990 American English
17152 The Great World David Malouf 1990 Australian English
1408 Amongst Women John McGahern 1990 Irish English
11003 Friend Of My Youth Alice Munro 1990 Canadian English
849 Regeneration Pat Barker 1991 British English
2697 Wise Children Angela Carter 1991 British English
14985 A Strange And Sublime Address Amit Chaudhuri 1991 Indian English
570 American Psycho Bret Easton Ellis 1991 American English
17152 The Redundancy Of Courage Timothy Mo 1991 British English
1200 Mating Norman Rush 1991 American English
14985 Downriver Iain Sinclair 1991 British English
1000 A Thousand Acres Jane Smiley 1991 American English
17152 Reading Turgenev William Trevor 1991 Irish English
3827 Cloudstreet Tim Winton 1991 Australian English
13248 Death And Nightingales Eugene McCabe 1992 Irish English
2357 The Butcher Boy Patrick McCabe 1992 Irish English
279 The Secret History Donna Tartt 1992 American English
1972 The Virgin Suicides Jeffrey Eugenides 1993 American English
1070 Birdsong Sebastian Faulks 1993 British English
10164 A River Sutra Gita Mehta 1993 Indian English
488 The Shipping News Annie Proulx 1993 Canadian English
17152 My Idea Of Fun Will Self 1993 British English
735 A Suitable Boy Vikram Seth 1993 Indian English
2208 Trainspotting Irvine Welsh 1993 Scottish English
2326 What a Carve Up! Jonathan Coe 1994 British English
1935 Corelli's Mandolin Louis de Bernières 1994 British English
14985 The Folding Star Alan Hollinghurst 1994 British English
17152 Original Sin P. D. James 1994 British English
2067 How Late It Was, How Late James Kelman 1994 Scottish English
6561 The Tortilla Curtain T. Coraghessan Boyle 1995 American English
1099 The Blue Flower Penelope Fitzgerald 1995 British English
549 A Fine Balance Rohinton Mistry 1995 Indian English
4473 Alias Grace Margaret Atwood 1996 Canadian English
9957 Asylum Patrick McGrath 1996 British English
13338 Last Orders Graham Swift 1996 British English
17152 The Night In Question Tobias Wolff 1996 American English
5153 Quarantine Jim Crace 1997 British English
411 Underworld Don DeLillo 1997 American English
1877 Cold Mountain Charles Frazier 1997 American English
380 American Pastoral Philip Roth 1997 American English
15910 The Lady From Guatemala V. S. Pritchett 1957 British English