The Books of Our Time

This is one of the 743 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
13984 Durcheinandertal Friedrich Dürrenmatt 1989 Swiss German
2400 Lust Elfriede Jelinek 1989 Austrian German
569 American Psycho Bret Easton Ellis 1991 American English
14006 Silent Close No. 6 Monika Maron 1991 German German
2676 Generation X Douglas Coupland 1991 Canadian English
1342 The Emigrants W. G. Sebald 1992 German German
2902 Love Life Zeruya Shalev 2000 Israeli Hebrew
358 The God of Small Things Arundhati Roy 1997 Indian English
236 Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone J. K. Rowling 1997 British English
14264 Europa Tim Parks 1997 British English
656 The Elementary Particles Michel Houellebecq 1998 French French
418 The Human Stain Philip Roth 2000 American English
12105 The Glass Palace Amitav Ghosh 2000 Indian English
221 White Teeth Zadie Smith 2000 British English
237 The Corrections Jonathan Franzen 2001 American English
14358 1979 Christian Kracht 2001 German German
1536 Snow Orhan Pamuk 2002 Turkish Turkish
884 A Tale of Love and Darkness Amos Oz 2002 Israeli Hebrew
891 The Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini 2003 Afghan English
2898 What I Loved Siri Hustvedt 2003 American English
232 2666 Roberto Bolaño 2004 Chilean Spanish
1646 Wizard of the Crow Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o 2006 Kenyan English
267 Never Let Me Go Kazuo Ishiguro 2005 British English
6717 Saturday Ian McEwan 2005 British English
8671 Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close Jonathan Safran Foer 2005 American English
6071 The Power Of The Dog Don Winslow 2005 American English
13548 A Family Record Patrick Modiano 1977 French French
291 The Road Cormac McCarthy 2006 American English
8015 Falling Man Don DeLillo 2007 American English
395 The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Junot Diaz 2007 Dominican English
6158 The Tower Uwe Tellkamp 2008 German German
14568 Wetlands Charlotte Roche 2008 German German
2310 To The End Of The Land David Grossman 2008 Israeli Hebrew
1698 The Hunger Angel Herta Müller 2009 German German
896 My Struggle Karl Ove Knausgård 2009 Norwegian Norwegian
402 Wolf Hall Hilary Mantel 2009 British English
6744 The Corpse Walker Liao Yiwu 2008 Chinese Chinese
14036 Why We Took The Car Wolfgang Herrndorf 2010 German German
2441 The Map And The Territory Michel Houellebecq 2010 French French
3090 Open City Teju Cole 2011 American English
11302 The French Art Of War Alexis Jenni 2011 French French
14837 Johann Holtrop Rainald Goetz 2012 German German
1024 Secondhand Time Svetlana Alexievich 2013 Belarusian Russian
15502 Ghana Must Go Taiye Selasi 2013 American English
14275 The Circle Dave Eggers 2013 American English
441 Americanah Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 2013 Nigerian English
15538 Planet Magnon Leif Randt 2015 German German
14407 Glanz Und Gloria Henning Ahrens 2003 German German
3201 Submission Michel Houellebecq 2015 French French