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

NY Times, 102 Books

As voted on by 503 novelists, nonfiction writers, poets, critics and other book lovers — with a little help from the staff of
The New York Times Book Review.

This list was originally published in 2024 and was added to this site almost 2 years ago.

View: List Grid Table
Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
409 My Brilliant Friend Elena Ferrante 2012 American Italian
909 The Warmth Of Other Suns Isabel Wilkerson 2010 American English
397 Wolf Hall Hilary Mantel 2009 British English
574 The Known World Edward P. Jones 2003 American English
237 The Corrections Jonathan Franzen 2001 American English
232 2666 Roberto Bolaño 2004 Chilean Spanish
770 The Underground Railroad Colson Whitehead 2016 American English
262 Austerlitz W. G. Sebald 2001 German German
266 Never Let Me Go Kazuo Ishiguro 2005 British English
475 Gilead Marilynne Robinson 2004 American English
396 The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Junot Diaz 2007 Dominican English
370 The Year of Magical Thinking Joan Didion 2005 American English
290 The Road Cormac McCarthy 2006 American English
1101 Outline Rachel Cusk 2014 British English
1206 Pachinko Min Jin Lee 2017 American English
314 The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay Michael Chabon 2000 American English
837 The Sellout Paul Beatty 2015 American English
1022 Lincoln in the Bardo George Saunders 2017 American English
1995 Say Nothing Patrick Radden Keefe 2018 American English
1272 Erasure Percival Everett 2001 American English
1392 Evicted Matthew Desmond 2016 American English
1495 Behind the Beautiful Forevers Katherine Boo 2012 American English
2467 Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage Alice Munro 2001 Canadian English
1110 The Overstory Richard Powers 2018 American English
1433 Random Family Adrian Nicole LeBlanc 2003 American English
248 Atonement Ian McEwan 2001 British English
443 Americanah Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 2013 Nigerian English
427 Cloud Atlas David Mitchell 2004 British English
874 The Last Samurai Helen DeWitt 2000 American English
1650 Sing, Unburied, Sing Jesmyn Ward 2017 American English
221 White Teeth Zadie Smith 2000 British English
723 The Line of Beauty Alan Hollinghurst 2004 British English
1368 Salvage the Bones Jesmyn Ward 2011 American English
1861 Citizen Claudia Rankine 2014 American English
1060 Fun Home Alison Bechdel 2006 American English
1209 Between the World and Me Ta-Nehisi Coates 2015 American English
597 The Years Annie Ernaux 2008 French French
355 The Savage Detectives Roberto Bolaño 1998 Chilean Spanish
421 A Visit From The Goon Squad Jennifer Egan 2010 American English
2679 H Is For Hawk Helen MacDonald 2014 British English
2344 Small Things Like These Claire Keegan 2021 Irish English
1390 A Brief History of Seven Killings Marlon James 2014 Jamaican English
1638 Postwar Tony Judt 2005 British English
1117 The Fifth Season N. K. Jemisin 2015 American English
1703 The Argonauts Maggie Nelson 2015 American English
741 The Goldfinch Donna Tartt 2013 American English
2857 A Mercy Toni Morrison 2008 American English
670 Persepolis Marjane Satrapi 2000 French French
804 The Vegetarian Han Kang 2007 Korean Korean
3060 Trust Hernan Díaz 2022 Argentinian English
1435 Life After Life Kate Atkinson 2013 British English
1684 Train Dreams Denis Johnson 2002 American English
1563 Runaway Alice Munro 2004 Canadian English
1898 Tenth of December George Saunders 2013 American English
1884 The Looming Tower Lawrence Wright 2006 American English
2001 The Flamethrowers Rachel Kushner 2013 American English
1204 Nickel And Dimed Barbara Ehrenreich 2001 American English
5187 Stay True Hua Hsu 2022 Chinese English
418 Middlesex Jeffrey Eugenides 2002 American English
2608 Heavy Kiese Laymon 2018 American English
2107 Demon Copperhead Barbara Kingsolver 2022 American English
2843 10:04 Ben Lerner 2014 American English
1369 Veronica Mary Gaitskill 2005 American English
1983 The Great Believers Rebecca Makkai 2018 American English
918 The Plot Against America Philip Roth 2004 American English
4394 We The Animals Justin Torres 2011 American English
2182 Far From the Tree Andrew Solomon 2012 American English
4392 The Friend Sigrid Nunez 2018 American English
1701 The New Jim Crow Michelle Alexander 2010 American English
6369 All Aunt Hagar’s Children Edward P. Jones 2006 American English
2691 Childhood Tove Ditlevsen 1967 Danish Danish
3572 Youth Tove Ditlevsen 1967 Danish Danish
2690 Dependency Tove Ditlevsen 1971 Danish Danish
1027 Secondhand Time Svetlana Alexievich 2013 Belarusian Russian
2523 The Passage Of Power Robert Caro 2012 American English
1354 Olive Kitteridge Elizabeth Strout 2008 American English
2227 Exit West Mohsin Hamid 2017 Pakistani English
2829 Tomorrow, And Tomorrow, And Tomorrow Gabrielle Zevin 2022 American English
2636 An American Marriage Tayari Jones 2018 American English
2883 Septology Jon Fosse 2019 Norwegian Norwegian
2827 A Manual For Cleaning Women Lucia Berlin 2015 American English
2867 The Story Of The Lost Child Elena Ferrante 2014 Italian Italian
1672 Pulphead John Jeremiah Sullivan 2011 American English
2647 Hurricane Season Fernanda Melchor 2017 Mexican Spanish
3205 When We Cease To Understand The World Adrian Nathan West, Benjamin Labatut 2020 Chilean Spanish
1974 The Emperor of All Maladies Siddhartha Mukherjee 2010 American English
2505 Pastoralia George Saunders 2000 American English
2992 Frederick Douglass David W. Blight 2018 American English
4415 Detransition, Baby Torrey Peters 2021 American English
1909 The Collected Stories Of Lydia Davis Lydia Davis 2009 American English
2927 The Return Hisham Matar 2016 Libyan English
922 The Sympathizer Viet Thanh Nguyen 2015 American English
420 The Human Stain Philip Roth 2000 American English
3265 The Days Of Abandonment Elena Ferrante 2002 Italian Italian
1381 Station Eleven Emily St John Mandel 2014 Canadian English
2468 On Beauty Zadie Smith 2005 British English
2919 Bring Up the Bodies Hilary Mantel 2012 British English
6787 Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments Saidiya Hartman 2019 American English
1752 Men We Reaped Jesmyn Ward 2013 American English
947 Bel Canto Ann Patchett 2001 American English
2335 How to be both Ali Smith 2014 British English
2101 Tree of Smoke Denis Johnson 2007 American English