The Greatest Books Since 1990

Click to learn how this list is calculated.

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.

View: List Grid Table
Filter by: Genres Dates Countries

Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
1392 Evicted Matthew Desmond 2016 American English
1394 Soldiers of Salamis Javier Cercas 2001 Spanish Spanish
1408 Amongst Women John McGahern 1990 Irish English
1413 All the Light We Cannot See Anthony Doerr 2014 American English
1433 Random Family Adrian Nicole LeBlanc 2003 American English
1435 Life After Life Kate Atkinson 2013 British English
1443 Mason & Dixon Thomas Pynchon 1997 American English
1445 Faceless Killers Henning Mankell 1991 Swedish Swedish
1448 Suite Française Irène Némirovsky 2004 French French
1451 The Children of Men P. D. James 1992 British English
1456 Flights Olga Tokarczuk 2007 Polish Polish
1460 Never Mind Edward St Aubyn 1992 British English
1472 The Beauty Of The Husband Anne Carson 2001 Canadian English
1484 Independence Day Richard Ford 1995 American English
1495 Behind the Beautiful Forevers Katherine Boo 2012 American English
1497 How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents Julia Alvarez 1991 Dominican English
1505 The Famished Road Ben Okri 1991 Nigerian English
1506 Selected Stories William Trevor 1992 Irish English
1510 The Duke and I Julia Quinn 2000 American English
1531 Jurassic Park Michael Crichton 1990 American English
1538 Snow Orhan Pamuk 2002 Turkish Turkish
1542 The Devil In The White City Erik Larson 2003 American English
1554 The Unconsoled Kazuo Ishiguro 1995 British English
1563 Runaway Alice Munro 2004 Canadian English
1565 A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again David Foster Wallace 1997 American English
1585 Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell Susanna Clarke 2004 British English
1597 Snow Crash Neal Stephenson 1992 American English
1610 The Hours Michael Cunningham 1998 American English
1627 Dora Bruder Patrick Modiano 1997 French French
1638 Postwar Tony Judt 2005 British English
1643 Angela's Ashes Frank McCourt 1996 American English
1648 Wizard of the Crow Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o 2006 Kenyan English
1650 Sing, Unburied, Sing Jesmyn Ward 2017 American English
1655 The Beauty Myth Naomi Wolf 1990 American English
1672 Pulphead John Jeremiah Sullivan 2011 American English
1675 The Time Traveler's Wife Audrey Niffenegger 2003 American English
1684 Train Dreams Denis Johnson 2002 American English
1693 The Lovely Bones Alice Sebold 2002 American English
1697 The Stone Diaries Carol Shields 1993 Canadian English
1698 Stories of Your Life and Others Ted Chiang 2002 American English
1700 The Hunger Angel Herta Müller 2009 German German
1701 The New Jim Crow Michelle Alexander 2010 American English
1703 The Argonauts Maggie Nelson 2015 American English
1704 Celestial Harmonies Peter Esterhazy 2000 Hungarian Hungarian
1709 The Club Dumas Arturo Pérez-Reverte 1993 Spanish Spanish
1715 The Clay Machine-gun Victor Pelevin 1996 Russian Russian
1723 1Q84 Haruki Murakami 2009 Japanese Japanese
1744 Haroun and the Sea of Stories Salman Rushdie 1990 British English
1748 The Fox Was Ever The Hunter Herta Müller 1992 German German
1751 NW Zadie Smith 2012 British English
1752 Men We Reaped Jesmyn Ward 2013 American English
1755 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince J. K. Rowling 2005 British English
1758 Sabbath's Theater Philip Roth 1995 American English
1765 A Little Life Hanya Yanagihara 2015 American English
1771 Stone Butch Blues Leslie Feinberg 1993 American English
1775 Interpreter of Maladies Jhumpa Lahiri 1999 American English
1783 A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius Dave Eggers 2000 American English
1790 The Master Colm Toibin 2004 Irish English
1797 Texaco Patrick Chamoiseau 1992 Martinican French
1799 The Giver Lois Lowry 1993 American English
1809 The Shadow of the Wind Carlos Ruiz Zafon 2001 Spanish Spanish
1812 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time Mark Haddon 2003 British English
1817 The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Rebecca Skloot 2010 American English
1818 Barbarian Days William Finnegan 2015 American English
1827 Experience Martin Amis 2000 British English
1829 To The Friend Who Did Not Save My Life Hervé Guibert 1990 French French
1835 Sophie's World Jostein Gaarder 1991 Norwegian Norwegian
1842 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire J. K. Rowling 2000 British English
1844 The Sixth Extinction Elizabeth Kolbert 2014 American English
1861 Citizen Claudia Rankine 2014 American English
1876 Home Marilynne Robinson 2008 American English
1877 Cold Mountain Charles Frazier 1997 American English
1882 Pereira Maintains Antonio Tabucchi 1994 Italian Italian
1884 The Looming Tower Lawrence Wright 2006 American English
1886 Poems, New And Collected, 1957 1997 Wislawa Szymborska 1998 Polish Polish
1895 Me Talk Pretty One Day David Sedaris 2000 American English
1898 Tenth of December George Saunders 2013 American English
1907 Consider The Lobster David Foster Wallace 2005 American English
1909 The Collected Stories Of Lydia Davis Lydia Davis 2009 American English
1910 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix J. K. Rowling 2003 British English
1917 In the Time of the Butterflies Julia Alvarez 1994 Dominican English
1929 Killing Floor Lee Child 1997 British English
1934 Corelli's Mandolin Louis de Bernières 1994 British English
1958 Let the Great World Spin Colum McCann 2009 Irish English
1971 Parable of the Talents Octavia E. Butler 1998 American English
1972 The Virgin Suicides Jeffrey Eugenides 1993 American English
1974 The Emperor of All Maladies Siddhartha Mukherjee 2010 American English
1983 The Great Believers Rebecca Makkai 2018 American English
1989 Your Face Tomorrow Javier Marias 2002 Spanish Spanish
1995 Say Nothing Patrick Radden Keefe 2018 American English
2001 The Flamethrowers Rachel Kushner 2013 American English
2002 Freedom Jonathan Franzen 2010 American English
2010 The Notebook Nicholas Sparks 1996 American English
2022 The Color of Water James McBride 1995 American English
2023 Elizabeth Costello J. M. Coetzee 2003 South African English
2025 Memoirs of a Geisha Arthur Golden 1997 American English
2058 A Thousand Splendid Suns Khaled Hosseini 2007 Afghan English
2067 How Late It Was, How Late James Kelman 1994 Scottish English
2069 The Round House Louise Erdrich 2012 American English
2074 Snow Falling on Cedars David Guterson 1994 American English
2076 Thinking, Fast and Slow Daniel Kahneman 2011 Israeli English
2082 Santa Evita Tomás Eloy Martínez 1995 Argentinian Spanish
2084 Fight Club Chuck Palahniuk 1996 American English
2101 Tree of Smoke Denis Johnson 2007 American English
2107 Demon Copperhead Barbara Kingsolver 2022 American English
2113 The Luminous Novel Mario Levrero 2005 Uruguayan Spanish
2114 All Souls' Day Cees Nooteboom 1998 Dutch Dutch
2115 Just Kids Patti Smith 2010 American English
2133 I Will Bear Witness Victor Klemperer 1995 German German
2144 Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets J. K. Rowling 1998 British English
2145 Cryptonomicon Neal Stephenson 1999 American English
2159 Soul and Other Stories Andrey Platonov 1999 Russian Russian
2165 The Buddha in the Attic Julie Otsuka 2011 American English
2166 Morvern Callar Alan Warner 1995 Scottish English
2170 Noughts and Crosses Malorie Blackman 2001 British English
2182 Far From the Tree Andrew Solomon 2012 American English
2183 No Logo Naomi Klein 1999 Canadian English
2185 On Love Alain de Botton 1993 British English
2188 No Country for Old Men Cormac McCarthy 2005 American English
2189 The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo Stieg Larsson 2005 Swedish Swedish