What are the Goncourt Winners’ Favorite Books?

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

About this list

Télérama, 80 Books

Discover the treasured reads of Goncourt Prize laureates. This collection brings together the personal favorites of ten distinguished French and Francophone writers, each a recipient of the prestigious Goncourt Prize.

From the vibrant narrative styles of young Senegalese author Mohamed Mbougar Sarr to the seasoned perspectives of Hervé Le Tellier, these celebrated authors reveal the books that have profoundly influenced their literary journeys.

Featuring a diverse array of titles that have captivated these writers since childhood, this list offers a rich exploration of literary lineage and inspiration. Dive into the 'ideal library' of Leïla Slimani, Nicolas Mathieu, Marie NDiaye, and other notable voices, and enhance your reading repertoire with works that have shaped some of the greatest minds in contemporary literature.

This list was originally published in 2023 and was added to this site almost 2 years ago.

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Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
1497 A King Alone Jean Giono 1947 French French
11 Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoevsky 1866 Russian Russian
213 Life and Fate Vasily Grossman 1980 Russian Russian
9 The Sound and the Fury William Faulkner 1929 American English
688 Them Joyce Carol Oates 1969 American English
485 Tristes Tropiques Claude Lévi-Strauss 1955 French French
451 A Heart So White Javier Marias 1992 Spanish Spanish
10 Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy 1877 Russian Russian
2633 The Lament Of The Linnet Anna Maria Ortese 1997 Italian Italian
4869 Apoutsiak, Le Petit Flocon De Neige Paul-Émile Victor 1948 French French
49 Beloved Toni Morrison 1987 American English
746 Blonde Joyce Carol Oates 2000 American English
3597 Celtic Tales Hugo Pratt 1980 Italian Italian
297 Kristin Lavransdatter Sigrid Undset 1920 Norwegian Norwegian
1844 Drifting Cities Stratis Tsirkas 1960 Greek Greek
3 The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald 1925 American English
3161 Paris Trout Pete Dexter 1988 American English
1244 Danube Claudio Magris 1986 Italian Italian
259 Disgrace J. M. Coetzee 1999 South African English
100 Dune Frank Herbert 1965 American English
5160 Edith's Diary Patricia Highsmith 1977 American English
5328 Ellis Island Georges Perec 1980 French French
5622 Ego Monster Sayd Bahodine Majrouh 1985 Afghan French
4869 To The End Of The World Blaise Cendrars 1957 French French
6168 Geste Michelle Grangaud 1991 French French
207 A Good Man Is Hard to Find Flannery O'Connor 1953 American English
7068 Hermina Sami Tchak 2003 French French
4869 Heroes And Tombs Ernesto Sábato 1961 Argentinian Spanish
446 Homage to Catalonia George Orwell 1938 British English
3274 Holy Week Louis Aragon 1958 French French
28 Jane Eyre Charlotte Brontë 1847 British English
48 Journey to the End of The Night Louis-Ferdinand Céline 1932 French French
798 Kaputt Curzio Malaparte 1944 Italian Italian
373 Kolyma Stories Varlam Shalamov 1954 Russian Russian
1239 The Life Before Us Romain Gary 1975 French French
5090 Three To Kill Jean-Patrick Manchette 1976 French French
2643 Gemini Michel Tournier 1975 French French
40 Les Misérables Victor Hugo 1862 French French
455 Let Us Now Praise Famous Men James Agee 1941 American English
4869 L'instant Fatal Raymond Queneau 1948 French French
1119 Fantasia Assia Djebar 1985 French French
2476 Mangeclous Albert Cohen 1938 French French
4869 Massâlik Al Jinân Cheikh Ahmadou Bamba 1895 Senegalese Arabic
370 History of My Life Giacomo Casanova 1822 Italian French
430 Memoirs From Beyond the Grave François-Auguste-René de Chateaubriand 1849 French French
1148 A Sportsman's Notebook Ivan Turgenev 1852 Russian Russian
122 Memoirs of Hadrian Marguerite Yourcenar 1951 French French
955 Moravagine Blaise Cendrars 1926 Swiss French
1859 Notebook Of A Return To The Native Land Aimé Césaire 1939 French French
8832 Pain Zeruya Shalev 2015 Israeli Hebrew
610 Requiem Anna Akhmatova 1963 Russian Russian
2559 Segu Maryse Condé 1984 French French
434 El Aleph Jorge Luis Borges 1949 Argentinian Spanish
604 The Blind Owl Ṣādiq Hidāyat 1937 Iranian Persian
2721 The Book Of Questions Edmond Jabès 1963 French French
1698 The Hunger Angel Herta Müller 2009 German German
4869 The Cat Colette 1933 French French
87 The Count of Monte Cristo Alexandre Dumas 1844 French French
230 Death of Virgil Hermann Broch 1945 Austrian German
795 The Fall Albert Camus 1956 French French
26 The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck 1939 American English
57 The Idiot Fyodor Dostoevsky 1869 Russian Russian
2140 The Conference Of The Birds Attar Neyshabouri 1177 Persian Persian
4869 The Little Black Fish Samad Behrangi 1968 Iranian Persian
296 The Lover Marguerite Duras 1984 French French
34 The Master and Margarita Mikhail Bulgakov 1967 Russian Russian
24 The Odyssey Homer -740 Greek Ancient greek
54 The Old Man and the Sea Ernest Hemingway 1952 American English
532 The Passion According to G.H. Clarice Lispector 1964 Brazilian Portuguese
418 The Human Stain Philip Roth 2000 American English
4535 The Stone Of Laughter Hoda Barakat 1990 Lebanese Arabic
1390 Voices from Chernobyl Svetlana Alexievich 1997 Belarusian Russian
20 The Trial Franz Kafka 1925 Czech German
2294 Le Roman Inachevé Louis Aragon 1956 French French
4869 The Wound Malick Fall 1967 Senegalese French
597 The Years Annie Ernaux 2008 French French
260 Wings of the Dove Henry James 1902 American English
62 Under the Volcano Malcolm Lowry 1947 British English
502 W, or the Memory of Childhood Georges Perec 1975 French French
1137 The Unwomanly Face Of War Svetlana Alexievich 1985 Russian Russian