The Greatest Books Since 1990

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This list represents a comprehensive and trusted collection of the greatest books. Developed through a specialized algorithm, it brings together 759 'best of' book lists to form a definitive guide to the world's most acclaimed books. For those interested in how these books are chosen, additional details can be found on the rankings page.

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Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
221 White Teeth Zadie Smith 2000 British English
232 2666 Roberto Bolaño 2004 Chilean Spanish
236 Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone J. K. Rowling 1997 British English
237 The Corrections Jonathan Franzen 2001 American English
248 Atonement Ian McEwan 2001 British English
255 Disgrace J. M. Coetzee 1999 South African English
262 Austerlitz W. G. Sebald 2001 German German
266 Never Let Me Go Kazuo Ishiguro 2005 British English
279 The Secret History Donna Tartt 1992 American English
290 The Road Cormac McCarthy 2006 American English
314 The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay Michael Chabon 2000 American English
333 Infinite Jest David Foster Wallace 1996 American English
355 The Savage Detectives Roberto Bolaño 1998 Chilean Spanish
359 The God of Small Things Arundhati Roy 1997 Indian English
370 The Year of Magical Thinking Joan Didion 2005 American English
380 American Pastoral Philip Roth 1997 American English
396 The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Junot Diaz 2007 Dominican English
397 Wolf Hall Hilary Mantel 2009 British English
399 His Dark Materials Philip Pullman 1995 British English
409 My Brilliant Friend Elena Ferrante 2012 American Italian
411 Underworld Don DeLillo 1997 American English
418 Middlesex Jeffrey Eugenides 2002 American English
420 The Human Stain Philip Roth 2000 American English
421 A Visit From The Goon Squad Jennifer Egan 2010 American English
427 Cloud Atlas David Mitchell 2004 British English
443 Americanah Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 2013 Nigerian English
452 A Heart So White Javier Marias 1992 Spanish Spanish
473 The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle Haruki Murakami 1994 Japanese Japanese
475 Gilead Marilynne Robinson 2004 American English
488 The Shipping News Annie Proulx 1993 Canadian English
549 A Fine Balance Rohinton Mistry 1995 Indian English
570 American Psycho Bret Easton Ellis 1991 American English
574 The Known World Edward P. Jones 2003 American English
597 The Years Annie Ernaux 2008 French French
607 House of Leaves Mark Z. Danielewski 2000 American English
641 Bridget Jones's Diary Helen Fielding 1996 British English
644 The English Patient Michael Ondaatje 1992 Canadian English
648 The Things They Carried Tim O'Brien 1990 American English
657 The Elementary Particles Michel Houellebecq 1998 French French
670 Persepolis Marjane Satrapi 2000 French French
697 The Rings of Saturn W. G. Sebald 1995 German German
701 The Feast of the Goat Mario Vargas Llosa 2000 Peruvian Spanish
718 Possession A. S. Byatt 1990 British English
722 Bastard Out of Carolina Dorothy Allison 1992 American English
723 The Line of Beauty Alan Hollinghurst 2004 British English
735 A Suitable Boy Vikram Seth 1993 Indian English
741 The Goldfinch Donna Tartt 2013 American English
747 Blonde Joyce Carol Oates 2000 American English
751 All the Pretty Horses Cormac McCarthy 1992 American English
770 The Underground Railroad Colson Whitehead 2016 American English
784 Rabbit at Rest John Updike 1990 American English
791 Gone Girl Gillian Flynn 2012 American English
804 The Vegetarian Han Kang 2007 Korean Korean
837 The Sellout Paul Beatty 2015 American English
842 Outlander Diana Gabaldon 1991 American English
849 Regeneration Pat Barker 1991 British English
862 Smilla's Sense of Snow Peter Høeg 1992 Danish Danish
874 The Last Samurai Helen DeWitt 2000 American English
878 The Poisonwood Bible Barbara Kingsolver 1998 American English
885 A Tale of Love and Darkness Amos Oz 2002 Israeli Hebrew
890 High Fidelity Nick Hornby 1995 British English
892 The Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini 2003 Afghan English
898 My Struggle Karl Ove Knausgård 2009 Norwegian Norwegian
903 Wild Swans Jung Chang 1991 Chinese English
909 The Warmth Of Other Suns Isabel Wilkerson 2010 American English
918 The Plot Against America Philip Roth 2004 American English
922 The Sympathizer Viet Thanh Nguyen 2015 American English
947 Bel Canto Ann Patchett 2001 American English
968 Jesus' Son Denis Johnson 1992 American English
971 The Discovery of Heaven Harry Mulisch 1992 Dutch Dutch
975 The Reader Bernhard Schlink 1995 German German
994 Blindness José Saramago 1995 Portuguese Portuguese
1000 A Thousand Acres Jane Smiley 1991 American English
1010 Fingersmith Sarah Waters 2002 British English
1017 Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban J. K. Rowling 1999 British English
1022 Lincoln in the Bardo George Saunders 2017 American English
1027 Secondhand Time Svetlana Alexievich 2013 Belarusian Russian
1039 Birds of America Lorrie Moore 1998 American English
1050 The Buddha of Suburbia Hanif Kureishi 1990 British English
1060 Fun Home Alison Bechdel 2006 American English
1070 Birdsong Sebastian Faulks 1993 British English
1074 The Da Vinci Code Dan Brown 2003 American English
1085 The Book Thief Markus Zusak 2005 Australian English
1099 The Blue Flower Penelope Fitzgerald 1995 British English
1101 Outline Rachel Cusk 2014 British English
1110 The Overstory Richard Powers 2018 American English
1111 Get Shorty Elmore Leonard 1990 American English
1117 The Fifth Season N. K. Jemisin 2015 American English
1129 The Namesake Jhumpa Lahiri 2003 American English
1142 Life of Pi Yann Martel 2001 Canadian English
1154 True History of the Kelly Gang Peter Carey 2000 Australian English
1158 Half of a Yellow Sun Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 2006 Nigerian English
1194 Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead Olga Tokarczuk 2009 Polish Polish
1200 Mating Norman Rush 1991 American English
1201 Kafka On The Shore Haruki Murakami 2002 Japanese Japanese
1204 Nickel And Dimed Barbara Ehrenreich 2001 American English
1206 Pachinko Min Jin Lee 2017 American English
1209 Between the World and Me Ta-Nehisi Coates 2015 American English
1211 Normal People Sally Rooney 2018 Irish English
1252 Sapiens Yuval Noah Harari 2011 Israeli Hebrew
1261 The Blind Assassin Margaret Atwood 2000 Canadian English
1265 On Writing Stephen King 2000 American English
1270 Omeros Derek Walcott 1990 Saint Lucian English
1272 Erasure Percival Everett 2001 American English
1285 Selected Stories of Alice Munro Alice Munro 1996 Canadian English
1289 A Game of Thrones George R. R. Martin 1996 American English
1299 My Name is Red Orhan Pamuk 1998 Turkish Turkish
1315 Voices from Chernobyl Svetlana Alexievich 1997 Belarusian Russian
1322 Devil in a Blue Dress Walter Mosley 1990 American English
1328 Parable Of The Sower Octavia E. Butler 1993 American English
1330 The Song of Achilles Madeline Miller 2011 American English
1344 The Emigrants W. G. Sebald 1992 German German
1354 Olive Kitteridge Elizabeth Strout 2008 American English
1366 The Adversary Emmanuel Carrère 2000 French French
1368 Salvage the Bones Jesmyn Ward 2011 American English
1369 Veronica Mary Gaitskill 2005 American English
1381 Station Eleven Emily St John Mandel 2014 Canadian English
1384 Guns, Germs, and Steel Jared Diamond 1997 American English
1388 The Hunger Games Suzanne Collins 2008 American English
1390 A Brief History of Seven Killings Marlon James 2014 Jamaican English