50 Essential Reads by Contemporary Authors

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

About this list

Orange Prize for Fiction, 53 Books

In support of the 2004 award, the Orange Prize for Fiction - now known as the Women's Prize for Fiction - published a list of 50 contemporary "essential reads". As per their press release: "The results were compiled by public vote during the first week of the Guardian Hay festival and represent the audience's definitive 'must have' bookshelf by living writers".
According to Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_Prize_for_Fiction - a sample of 500 festival attendees chose these particular titles.

This list was originally published in 2004 and was added to this site over 1 year ago.

View: List Grid Table
Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
5 One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel García Márquez 1967 Colombian Spanish
530 A Prayer for Owen Meany John Irving 1989 American English
748 A Suitable Boy Vikram Seth 1993 Indian English
378 American Pastoral Philip Roth 1997 American English
248 Atonement Ian McEwan 2001 British English
4932 Being Dead Jim Crace 1999 British English
1083 Birdsong Sebastian Faulks 1993 British English
1932 Corelli's Mandolin Louis de Bernières 1994 British English
3822 Cloudstreet Tim Winton 1991 Australian English
259 Disgrace J. M. Coetzee 1999 South African English
3852 Enduring Love Ian McEwan 1997 British English
13835 Faith Singer Rosie Scott 2000 Australian English
1007 Fingersmith Sarah Waters 2002 British English
13835 Fred And Edie Jill Dawson 2000 British English
2949 Fugitive Pieces Anne Michaels 1996 Canadian English
6994 The Girl With The Pearl Earring Tracy Chevalier 1999 British English
13521 Grace Notes Bernard MacLaverty 1997 British English
889 High Fidelity Nick Hornby 1995 British English
397 His Dark Materials Philip Pullman 1995 British English
13920 Hotel World Ali Smith 2001 British English
415 Middlesex Jeffrey Eugenides 2002 American English
64 Midnight's Children Salman Rushdie 1981 Indian English
1084 Misery Stephen King 1987 American English
862 Smilla's Sense of Snow Peter Høeg 1992 Danish Danish
749 Money Martin Amis 1984 British English
4861 Music and Silence Rose Tremain 1999 British English
1461 Oranges are not the only Fruit Jeanette Winterson 1985 British English
5215 Riders Jilly Cooper 1985 British English
85 Slaughterhouse-Five Kurt Vonnegut 1969 American English
1260 The Blind Assassin Margaret Atwood 2000 Canadian English
237 The Corrections Jonathan Franzen 2001 American English
61 The Golden Notebook Doris May Lessing 1962 British English
132 The Handmaid's Tale Margaret Atwood 1985 Canadian English
290 The House of the Spirits Isabel Allende 1982 Chilean Spanish
114 The Name of the Rose Umberto Eco 1980 Italian Italian
1104 The Passion Jeanette Winterson 1987 British English
888 The Poisonwood Bible Barbara Kingsolver 1998 American English
174 Rabbit, Run John Updike 1960 American English
666 Rabbit Redux John Updike 1971 American English
684 Rabbit Is Rich John Updike 1981 American English
783 Rabbit at Rest John Updike 1990 American English
848 Regeneration Pat Barker 1991 British English
278 The Secret History Donna Tartt 1992 American English
488 The Shipping News Annie Proulx 1993 Canadian English
91 The Tin Drum Günter Grass 1959 German German
473 The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle Haruki Murakami 1994 Japanese Japanese
2655 The Women's Room Marilyn French 1977 American English
6122 The Story of Tracy Beaker Jacqueline Wilson 1991 British English
2196 Trainspotting Irvine Welsh 1993 Scottish English
2922 Unless Carol Shields 2002 Canadian English
2319 What a Carve Up! Jonathan Coe 1994 British English
2898 What I Loved Siri Hustvedt 2003 American English
221 White Teeth Zadie Smith 2000 British English