The Books of Our Time

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

About this list

Der Spiegel, 50 Books

The list of 50 books in the article was curated by a team from SPIEGEL, including Tobias Becker, Martin Doerry, Sebastian Hammelehle, Elke Schmitter, Claudia Voigt, and Volker Weidermann. The purpose of this list is to reflect the pivotal moments and the dramatic shifts in global politics, culture, and society since the epochal year of 1989. The selected books represent a diverse range of voices and themes, illustrating how literature has engaged with the complex realities of our time. These works were chosen for their significance in capturing the spirit of the post-Cold War era, addressing issues such as the rise of global capitalism, the clash between secular and religious ideologies, and the personal and collective struggles of individuals in a rapidly changing world .

This list was originally published in 2016 and was added to this site almost 2 years ago.

View: List Grid Table
Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
534 Satanic Verses Salman Rushdie 1988 British English
14041 Durcheinandertal Friedrich Dürrenmatt 1989 Swiss German
2408 Lust Elfriede Jelinek 1989 Austrian German
570 American Psycho Bret Easton Ellis 1991 American English
14063 Silent Close No. 6 Monika Maron 1991 German German
2680 Generation X Douglas Coupland 1991 Canadian English
1344 The Emigrants W. G. Sebald 1992 German German
2909 Love Life Zeruya Shalev 2000 Israeli Hebrew
359 The God of Small Things Arundhati Roy 1997 Indian English
236 Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone J. K. Rowling 1997 British English
14332 Europa Tim Parks 1997 British English
657 The Elementary Particles Michel Houellebecq 1998 French French
420 The Human Stain Philip Roth 2000 American English
12131 The Glass Palace Amitav Ghosh 2000 Indian English
221 White Teeth Zadie Smith 2000 British English
237 The Corrections Jonathan Franzen 2001 American English
14429 1979 Christian Kracht 2001 German German
1538 Snow Orhan Pamuk 2002 Turkish Turkish
885 A Tale of Love and Darkness Amos Oz 2002 Israeli Hebrew
892 The Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini 2003 Afghan English
2905 What I Loved Siri Hustvedt 2003 American English
232 2666 Roberto Bolaño 2004 Chilean Spanish
1648 Wizard of the Crow Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o 2006 Kenyan English
266 Never Let Me Go Kazuo Ishiguro 2005 British English
6730 Saturday Ian McEwan 2005 British English
8688 Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close Jonathan Safran Foer 2005 American English
6081 The Power Of The Dog Don Winslow 2005 American English
13595 A Family Record Patrick Modiano 1977 French French
290 The Road Cormac McCarthy 2006 American English
8030 Falling Man Don DeLillo 2007 American English
396 The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Junot Diaz 2007 Dominican English
6169 The Tower Uwe Tellkamp 2008 German German
14649 Wetlands Charlotte Roche 2008 German German
2318 To The End Of The Land David Grossman 2008 Israeli Hebrew
1700 The Hunger Angel Herta Müller 2009 German German
898 My Struggle Karl Ove Knausgård 2009 Norwegian Norwegian
397 Wolf Hall Hilary Mantel 2009 British English
6756 The Corpse Walker Liao Yiwu 2008 Chinese Chinese
14098 Why We Took The Car Wolfgang Herrndorf 2010 German German
2447 The Map And The Territory Michel Houellebecq 2010 French French
3098 Open City Teju Cole 2011 American English
11334 The French Art Of War Alexis Jenni 2011 French French
14925 Johann Holtrop Rainald Goetz 2012 German German
1027 Secondhand Time Svetlana Alexievich 2013 Belarusian Russian
15589 Ghana Must Go Taiye Selasi 2013 American English
14343 The Circle Dave Eggers 2013 American English
443 Americanah Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 2013 Nigerian English
15638 Planet Magnon Leif Randt 2015 German German
14482 Glanz Und Gloria Henning Ahrens 2003 German German
3208 Submission Michel Houellebecq 2015 French French