The 21 best books of the 21st century

This is one of the 743 lists we use to generate our main The Greatest Books list.

About this list

Babelia en EL PAÍS, 100 Books

A jury of 84 experts has chosen for "Babelia en EL PAÍS" the most relevant titles of the first two decades of the millennium. Note this list has 100 books not 21. 50-100 are all the same rank.

This list was originally published in 2019 and was added to this site almost 2 years ago.

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Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
232 2666 Roberto Bolaño 2004 Chilean Spanish
261 Austerlitz W. G. Sebald 2001 German German
1471 The Beauty Of The Husband Anne Carson 2001 Canadian English
700 The Feast of the Goat Mario Vargas Llosa 2000 Peruvian Spanish
248 Atonement Ian McEwan 2001 British English
3599 Limonov Emmanuel Carrère 2011 French French
1983 Your Face Tomorrow Javier Marias 2002 Spanish Spanish
3498 Borges Adolfo Bioy Casares 2006 Argentine Spanish
2803 Summertime J. M. Coetzee 2009 South African English
369 The Year of Magical Thinking Joan Didion 2005 American English
896 My Struggle Karl Ove Knausgård 2009 Norwegian Norwegian
291 The Road Cormac McCarthy 2006 American English
2895 Cremation Rafael Chirbes 2007 Spanish Spanish
221 White Teeth Zadie Smith 2000 British English
2821 A Manual For Cleaning Women Lucia Berlin 2015 American English
4447 Zurita Raul Zurita 1979 Chilean Spanish
1636 Postwar Tony Judt 2005 British English
1394 Soldiers of Salamis Javier Cercas 2001 Spanish Spanish
1024 Secondhand Time Svetlana Alexievich 2013 Belarusian Russian
668 Persepolis Marjane Satrapi 2000 French French
4970 The Hare with Amber Eyes Edmund de Waal 2010 British English
8672 The One Before Juan José Saer 2015 Argentinian Spanish
267 Never Let Me Go Kazuo Ishiguro 2005 British English
4358 The Anatomy Of A Moment Javier Cercas 2009 Spanish Spanish
7747 Too Much Happiness Alice Munro 2009 Canadian English
3278 The Blank Slate Steven Pinker 2002 American English
597 The Years Annie Ernaux 2008 French French
2641 Hurricane Season Fernanda Melchor 2017 Mexican Spanish
1252 Sapiens Yuval Noah Harari 2011 Israeli Hebrew
1199 Kafka On The Shore Haruki Murakami 2002 Japanese Japanese
7106 The Optic Nerve Maria Gainza 2015 Argentinian Spanish
8772 The Diaries Of Emilio Renzi Ricardo Piglia 2015 Argentinian Spanish
2107 The Luminous Novel Mario Levrero 2005 Uruguayan Spanish
5720 In The Presence Of Absence Mahmoud Darwish 2006 Palestinian Arabic
6801 Scorched Wajdi Mouawad 2003 French French
2071 Thinking, Fast and Slow Daniel Kahneman 2011 Israeli English
237 The Corrections Jonathan Franzen 2001 American English
1363 The Adversary Emmanuel Carrère 2000 French French
418 The Human Stain Philip Roth 2000 American English
5594 Canada Richard Ford 2012 American English
2018 Elizabeth Costello J. M. Coetzee 2003 South African English
9636 Terror Y Utopía Karl Schlögel 2018 German German
9656 Easy Reading Cristina Morales 2018 Spanish Spanish
5925 Las Poetas Visitan A Andrea Del Sarto Juana Bignozzi 1993 Argentinian Spanish
9660 Ordesa Manuel Vilas 2018 Spanish Spanish
3041 Fever Dream Samanta Schweblin 2014 Argentinian Spanish
5112 In The Night Of Time Antonio Muñoz Molina 2012 Spanish Spanish
5921 King Kong Theory Virginie Despentes 2006 French French
7067 The Blazing World Siri Hustvedt 2014 American English
6975 The Testaments Margaret Atwood 2019 Canadian English
441 Americanah Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 2013 Nigerian English
6701 Diccionario De Autores Latinoamericanos César Aira 2001 Argentinian Spanish
1826 Experience Martin Amis 2000 British English
9156 Homeland Fernando Aramburu 2016 Spanish Spanish
7709 A Worldly Country John Ashbery 2007 American English
1058 Fun Home Alison Bechdel 2006 American English
6819 Genius Harold Bloom 2002 American English
7013 Precarious Life Judith Butler 2004 American English
2677 El Día Del Watusi Francisco Casavella 2002 Spanish Spanish
6619 Reveries Of The Wild Woman Hélène Cixous 2000 French French
7120 Slow Man J. M. Coetzee 2005 South African English
1099 Outline Rachel Cusk 2014 British English
395 The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Junot Diaz 2007 Dominican English
6449 Never Did The Fire Diamela Eltit 2022 Chilean Spanish
4437 Oblivion Héctor Abad Faciolince 2006 Colombian Spanish
9694 Eros Is More Juan Antonio González Iglesias 2018 Spanish Spanish
4414 The Swerve Stephen Greenblatt 2011 American English
7013 The Fabric Of The Cosmos Brian Greene 2004 American English
3205 Homo Deus Yuval Noah Harari 2015 Israeli Hebrew
7830 Kingdom Cons Yuri Herrera 2008 Mexican Spanish
3201 Submission Michel Houellebecq 2015 French French
3115 The Possibility Of An Island Michel Houellebecq 2005 French French
3416 The Shock Doctrine Naomi Klein 2007 Canadian English
7944 La Casa De La Fuerza Angélica Liddell 2009 Spanish Spanish
7965 Berta Isla Javier Marias 2017 Spanish Spanish
6366 Asterios Polyp David Mazzucchelli 2009 American English
6911 Necropolitics Achille Mbembe 2003 French French
3536 C Tom McCarthy 2010 British English
4601 Here Richard McGuire 2014 American English
1698 The Hunger Angel Herta Müller 2009 German German
1561 Runaway Alice Munro 2004 Canadian English
1448 Suite Française Irène Némirovsky 2004 French French
5307 Faithless Joyce Carol Oates 2001 American English
8380 The Stag's Leap Sharon Olds 2012 American English
2624 Capital in the Twenty-First Century Thomas Piketty 2013 French French
9927 An Apartment On Uranus Paul B. Preciado 2019 Spanish French
8245 Diccionario Sánscrito Español Oscar Pujol 2011 Spanish Spanish
9927 Retaguardia Roja Fernando del Rey 2019 Spanish Spanish
917 The Plot Against America Philip Roth 2004 American English
1753 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince J. K. Rowling 2005 British English
4586 Last Night James Salter 2005 American English
8961 Clavícula Marta Sanz 2015 Spanish Spanish
6242 The Craftsman Richard Sennett 2008 American English
7709 Stupidity Rafael Spregelburd 2007 Argentinian Spanish
8245 The Poetry Of Thought George Steiner 2011 British English
8961 The Great Divide Joseph Stiglitz 2015 American English
1456 Flights Olga Tokarczuk 2007 Polish Polish
6330 Nothing Holds Back The Night Delphine de Vigan 2011 French French
1905 Consider The Lobster David Foster Wallace 2005 American English
4657 Building Stories Chris Ware 2012 American English