The 100 Best Books of the Decade(2000)

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

About this list

Times, 100 Books

The Time's list of the 100 Best Books of the 2000s. It's a mix of fiction and nonfiction.

This list was originally published in 2009 and was added to this site over 12 years ago.

View: List Grid Table
Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
290 The Road Cormac McCarthy 2006 American English
670 Persepolis Marjane Satrapi 2000 French French
2206 Dreams from My Father Barack Obama 1995 American English
17119 Masterworks of the Classical Haida Mythtellers Robert Bringhurst 2000 Canadian English
1448 Suite Française Irène Némirovsky 2004 French French
3170 The Tipping Point Malcolm Gladwell 2000 American English
1142 Life of Pi Yann Martel 2001 Canadian English
14983 Payback Margaret Atwood 2008 Canadian English
248 Atonement Ian McEwan 2001 British English
1074 The Da Vinci Code Dan Brown 2003 American English
12 War and Peace Leo Tolstoy 1869 Russian Russian
1783 A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius Dave Eggers 2000 American English
262 Austerlitz W. G. Sebald 2001 German German
3101 Reading Lolita in Tehran Azar Nafisi 2003 Iranian English
10115 The God Delusion Richard Dawkins 2006 British English
6841 Rapture Carol Ann Duffy 2005 British English
2232 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows J. K. Rowling 2007 British English
5412 Bad Science Ben Goldacre 2008 British English
237 The Corrections Jonathan Franzen 2001 American English
221 White Teeth Zadie Smith 2000 British English
918 The Plot Against America Philip Roth 2004 American English
2968 The Amber Spyglass Philip Pullman 2000 British English
9605 The 9/11 Commission Report 9/11 Commission 2004 American English
266 Never Let Me Go Kazuo Ishiguro 2005 British English
1812 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time Mark Haddon 2003 British English
11867 Bad Blood Lorna Sage 2000 British English
2109 Oxford English Dictionary Oxford University Press 1884 British English
7687 The Rest is Noise Alex Ross 2007 American English
7844 The Accidental Ali Smith 2005 British English
892 The Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini 2003 Afghan English
7735 The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel Amy Hempel 2006 American English
2885 Everything Is Illuminated Jonathan Safran Foer 2002 American English
8889 Chronicles Bob Dylan 2004 American English
4076 Seabiscuit Laura Hillenbrand 2001 American English
3946 The Arrival Shaun Tan 2006 Australian English
9047 How I Live Now Meg Rosoff 2004 British English
1506 Selected Stories William Trevor 1992 Irish English
13941 The Noonday Demon Andrew Solomon 2001 American English
1563 Runaway Alice Munro 2004 Canadian English
7042 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Simon Armitage 2007 British Middle english
4887 The Secret Scripture Sebastian Barry 2008 Irish English
1060 Fun Home Alison Bechdel 2006 American English
17119 Thursbitch Alan Garner 2003 British English
3233 Freakonomics Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner 2005 American English
13941 London Peter Ackroyd 2000 British English
418 Middlesex Jeffrey Eugenides 2002 American English
14983 Collected Poems of Ted Hughes Ted Hughes 2003 British English
8970 A Short History Of Nearly Everything Bill Bryson 2003 American English
14983 The Ghost Robert Harris 2007 British English
2183 No Logo Naomi Klein 1999 Canadian English
1876 Home Marilynne Robinson 2008 American English
5719 Youth J. M. Coetzee 2002 South African English
17119 Wolf Brother Michelle Paver 2004 British English
9216 Eats, Shoots and Leaves Lynne Truss 2003 British English
5086 Imperial Life in the Emerald City Rajiv Chandrasekaran 2006 American English
14983 If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things Jon McGregor 2002 British English
17119 Fleshmarket Close Ian Rankin 2004 Scottish English
14232 Dart Alice Oswald 2002 British English
17119 Moondust Andrew Smith 2005 British English
13702 Collapse Jared Diamond 2005 American English
723 The Line of Beauty Alan Hollinghurst 2004 British English
1010 Fingersmith Sarah Waters 2002 British English
3282 The Blank Slate Steven Pinker 2002 American English
17119 Staying Alive Neil Astley 2002 British English
17119 Peeling the Onion Günter Grass 2006 German German
427 Cloud Atlas David Mitchell 2004 British English
2202 The Kindly Ones Jonathan Littell 2006 French French
3907 Out Stealing Horses Per Petterson 2003 Norwegian Norwegian
1299 My Name is Red Orhan Pamuk 1998 Turkish Turkish
17119 The PowerBook Jeanette Winterson 2000 British English
1827 Experience Martin Amis 2000 British English
1154 True History of the Kelly Gang Peter Carey 2000 Australian English
6185 Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman Haruki Murakami 2006 Japanese Japanese
16847 War Music Christopher Logue 1959 British English
14232 The Damned Utd David Peace 2006 British English
17119 England in Particular Sue Clifford, Angela King 2006 British English
17119 Collected Poems of Michael Donaghy Michael Donaghy 2004 British English
5460 Giving up the Ghost Hilary Mantel 2003 British English
2340 Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth Chris Ware 2000 American English
2971 The White Tiger Aravind Adiga 2008 Indian English
5309 The Emperor's Children Claire Messud 2006 American English
17119 Born Yesterday Gordon Burn 2008 British English
17119 Fatal Purity Ruth Scurr 2006 British English
14983 The Enchantress of Florence Salman Rushdie 2008 British English
2682 Twilight Stephenie Meyer 2005 American English
14983 My Father and other Working-Class Football Heroes Gary Imlac 2005 British English
14983 Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned Wells Tower 2009 American English
14232 The Ascent of Money Niall Ferguson 2008 British English
5982 Maximum City Suketu Mehta 2004 American English
10449 This Republic of Suffering Drew Gilpin Faust 2008 American English
2927 Unless Carol Shields 2002 Canadian English
14232 Berlin Antony Beevor 2002 British English
17119 District and Circle Seamus Heaney 2006 Irish English
17119 The Carhullan Army Sarah Hall 2007 British English
4296 The Emperor's Babe Bernardine Evaristo 2001 British English
1884 The Looming Tower Lawrence Wright 2006 American English
396 The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Junot Diaz 2007 Dominican English
1158 Half of a Yellow Sun Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 2006 Nigerian English
17119 The Lost Leader Mick Imlah 2008 British English
17119 The Position Meg Wolitzer 2005 American English