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
2192 American Gods Neil Gaiman 2001 British English
2197 Veronika Decides to Die Paulo Coelho 1998 Brazilian Portuguese
2202 The Kindly Ones Jonathan Littell 2006 French French
2206 Dreams from My Father Barack Obama 1995 American English
2207 Waiting Ha Jin 1999 Chinese English
2208 Trainspotting Irvine Welsh 1993 Scottish English
2218 The Sense of an Ending Julian Barnes 2011 British English
2223 Good Omens Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman 1990 British English
2224 My Year of Rest and Relaxation Ottessa Moshfegh 2018 American English
2226 Operation Shylock Philip Roth 1993 American English
2227 Exit West Mohsin Hamid 2017 Pakistani English
2229 A Gentleman in Moscow Amor Towles 2016 American English
2232 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows J. K. Rowling 2007 British English
2242 Milkman Anna Burns 2018 Irish English
2244 The Gathering Anne Enright 2007 Irish English
2275 Long Walk To Freedom Nelson Mandela 1994 South African English
2285 The Crossing Cormac McCarthy 1994 American English
2290 Arcadia Tom Stoppard 1993 British English
2292 Consciousness Explained Daniel Dennett 1991 American English
2294 Family Life Akhil Sharma 2014 Indian English
2297 Out Natsuo Kirino 1997 Japanese Japanese
2311 Solenoid Mircea Cărtărescu 2015 Romanian Romanian
2315 Backlash Susan Faludi 1991 American English
2317 To The End Of The Land David Grossman 2008 Israeli Hebrew
2322 The End And The Beginning Wislawa Szymborska 1993 Polish Polish
2325 Being Mortal Atul Gawande 2014 American English
2326 What a Carve Up! Jonathan Coe 1994 British English
2327 The Three-Body Problem Cixin Liu 2006 Chinese Chinese
2335 How to be both Ali Smith 2014 British English
2337 There There Tommy Orange 2018 American English
2339 Master of the Senate Robert Caro 2002 American English
2340 Personal History Katharine Graham 1997 American English
2341 Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth Chris Ware 2000 American English
2344 Small Things Like These Claire Keegan 2021 Irish English
2354 Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress Dai Sijie 2000 Chinese French
2357 The Butcher Boy Patrick McCabe 1992 Irish English
2360 Bartleby & Co Enrique Vila-Matas 2000 Spanish Spanish
2364 The Sorrow Of War Bao Ninh 1990 Vietnamese Vietnamese
2367 Brooklyn Colm Toibin 2009 Irish English
2390 The Wheel of Time Series Robert Jordan 1990 American English
2394 The Glass Castle Jeannette Walls 2005 American English
2400 Remembering Babylon David Malouf 1993 Australian English
2409 That They May Face the Rising Sun John McGahern 2002 Irish English
2415 Educated Tara Westover 2018 American English
2424 Into Thin Air Jon Krakauer 1997 American English
2425 Platform Michel Houellebecq 2001 French French
2426 Soul Mountain Xingjian Gao 1990 Chinese Chinese
2429 The Intuitionist Colson Whitehead 1999 American English
2438 The Crow Road Iain Banks 1992 British English
2446 The Map And The Territory Michel Houellebecq 2010 French French
2464 The Silent Duchess Dacia Maraini 1990 Italian Italian
2467 Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage Alice Munro 2001 Canadian English
2468 On Beauty Zadie Smith 2005 British English
2473 Fall On Your Knees Ann-Marie MacDonald 1996 Canadian English
2484 The Firm John Grisham 1991 American English
2486 Small Island Andrea Levy 2004 British English
2487 The Golden Compass Philip Pullman 1995 British English
2488 Measuring the World Daniel Kehlmann 2005 German German
2492 A Lesson Before Dying Ernest J. Gaines 1993 American English
2497 Mortals Norman Rush 2003 American English
2498 Room Emma Donoghue 2010 Irish English
2503 Homegoing Yaa Gyasi 2016 Ghanaian English
2505 Pastoralia George Saunders 2000 American English
2516 L.A. Confidential James Ellroy 1990 American English
2523 The Passage Of Power Robert Caro 2012 American English
2524 Old Filth Jane Gardam 2004 British English
2527 On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous Ocean Vuong 2019 American English
2534 A Man Called Ove Fredrik Backman 2012 Swedish Swedish
2535 Into the Wild Jon Krakauer 1996 American English
2537 Jazz Toni Morrison 1992 American English
2540 Journal, 1935 44 Mihail Sebastian 1996 Romanian Romanian
2587 Empire Falls Richard Russo 2001 American English
2589 Hamnet Maggie O'Farrell 2020 Irish English
2596 Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? Jeanette Winterson 2011 British English
2597 Possessing the Secret of Joy Alice Walker 1992 American English
2602 Darkness Visible William Styron 1990 American English
2603 Regarding the Pain of Others Susan Sontag 2003 American English
2608 Heavy Kiese Laymon 2018 American English
2610 Whatever Michel Houellebecq 1994 French French
2611 What It Takes Richard Ben Cramer 1992 American English
2618 The Neapolitan Novels Elena Ferrante 2011 Italian Italian
2620 To Live Yu Hua 1993 Chinese Chinese
2627 Capital in the Twenty-First Century Thomas Piketty 2013 French French
2636 An American Marriage Tayari Jones 2018 American English
2637 The Lament Of The Linnet Anna Maria Ortese 1997 Italian Italian
2638 The Adventures of Captain Underpants Dav Pilkey 1997 American English
2639 Fatherland Robert Harris 1992 British English
2642 The Power Naomi Alderman 2016 British English
2647 Hurricane Season Fernanda Melchor 2017 Mexican Spanish
2650 The House of Scorta Laurent Gaudé 2004 French French
2651 The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian Sherman Alexie 2007 American English
2652 Circe Madeline Miller 2018 American English
2658 The Daughter Pavlos Matesis 1990 Greek Greek
2661 The Years with Laura Diaz Carlos Fuentes 1999 Mexican Spanish
2679 H Is For Hawk Helen MacDonald 2014 British English
2680 Generation X Douglas Coupland 1991 Canadian English
2681 El Día Del Watusi Francisco Casavella 2002 Spanish Spanish
2683 Twilight Stephenie Meyer 2005 American English
2688 Blinding Mircea Cărtărescu 1996 Romanian Romanian
2694 Waiting to Exhale Terry McMillan 1992 American English
2697 Wise Children Angela Carter 1991 British English
2698 All Over But The Shoutin' Rick Bragg 1997 American English
2699 Cod Mark Kurlansky 1997 American English
2702 Close Range Annie Proulx 1999 American English
2703 The Nightingale Kristin Hannah 2015 American English
2706 Lost Children Archive Valeria Luiselli 2019 Mexican English
2709 The Help Kathryn Stockett 2009 American English
2732 Lost Souls Poppy Z. Brite 1992 American English
2736 Severance Ling Ma 2018 American English
2741 The Martian Andy Weir 2011 American English
2805 Fates and Furies Lauren Groff 2015 American English
2806 James Percival Everett 2024 American English
2808 Summertime J. M. Coetzee 2009 South African English
2818 The Great Fire Shirley Hazzard 2003 Australian English
2827 A Manual For Cleaning Women Lucia Berlin 2015 American English
2829 Tomorrow, And Tomorrow, And Tomorrow Gabrielle Zevin 2022 American English
2843 10:04 Ben Lerner 2014 American English
2847 The Museum of Unconditional Surrender Dubravka Ugrešić 1997 Croatian Croatian
2848 What Is the What Dave Eggers 2006 American English
2850 Bad News Edward St Aubyn 1992 British English