The 30 best fiction books of the last 30 years
This is one of the 759 lists we use to generate our main The Greatest Books list.
About this list
Los Angeles Times, 30 Books
This list showcases the 30 best fiction books published in the last 30 years, curated to celebrate the 30th edition of the L.A. Times Festival of Books. The selection focuses on outstanding works of fiction published since the festival's inception in 1996. It was curated by a diverse group of experts including authors, editors, critics, and scholars, ensuring a broad and informed perspective on what constitutes the most impactful fiction of the past three decades. The Los Angeles Times organized and presented this list, although the detailed methodology of how each book was chosen beyond the expert input is not specified.
Who Voted: Authors, editors, critics, scholars, and other experts.
I am not sure the exact count but they have a different expert/critic/author write about each of the books, so I am going to go with 30 since that's how many books there are.
This list was originally published in 2025 and was added to this site about 1 year ago.