The Greatest Drama, Fiction, and Friendship Books Since 2000

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This list represents a comprehensive and trusted collection of the greatest books. Developed through a specialized algorithm, it brings together 488 '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
210 The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay Michael Chabon 2000 American English
551 My Brilliant Friend Elena Ferrante 2011 Italian Italian
553 The Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini 2003 Afghan English
624 The Book Thief Markus Zusak 2005 Australian English
697 The Line of Beauty Alan Hollinghurst 2004 British English
863 The Goldfinch Donna Tartt 2013 American English
1233 Normal People Sally Rooney 2018 American English
1572 Small Island Andrea Levy 2004 British English
1818 A Little Life Hanya Yanagihara 2015 American English
1853 NW Zadie Smith 2012 British English
1958 Empire Falls Richard Russo 2001 American English
2070 The Sense of an Ending Julian Barnes 2011 British English
2140 The Fault in Our Stars John Green 2012 American English
2592 Demon Copperhead Barbara Kingsolver 2022 American English
2674 The Neapolitan Novels Elena Ferrante 2011 Italian Italian
2811 A Thousand Splendid Suns Khaled Hosseini 2007 Afghan English
2848 What I Loved Siri Hustvedt 2003 American English
3027 What Is the What Dave Eggers 2006 American English
3088 A Man Called Ove Fredrik Backman 2012 Swedish Swedish
3127 Let the Great World Spin Colum McCann 2009 American English
3137 Blanche Passes Go Barbara Neely 2000 American English
3179 The Hate U Give Angie Thomas 2017 American English
3303 Fates and Furies Lauren Groff 2015 American English
3622 Deacon King Kong James McBride 2020 American English
3703 Girl, Woman, Other Bernardine Evaristo 2019 British English
3708 11 22 63 Stephen King 2011 American English
3846 The Help Kathryn Stockett 2009 American English
3941 In The Woods Tana French 2007 Irish English
4012 Big Little Lies Liane Moriarty 2014 Australian English
4243 Netherland Joseph O'Neill 2008 Irish English
4298 All My Puny Sorrows Miriam Toews 2014 Canadian English
4563 Shantaram Gregory David Roberts 2003 Australian English
4815 The Crossover Kwame Alexander 2014 American English
4885 Seven Husbands Of Evelyn Hugo Taylor Jenkins Reid 2017 American English
5063 The Emperor's Children Claire Messud 2006 American English
5188 A Horse Walks Into A Bar David Grossman 2014 Israeli Hebrew
5210 Lives Other Than My Own Emmanuel Carrère 2009 French French
5294 Chanda's Secrets Allan Stratton 2004 Canadian English
5338 The Death of Vivek Oji Akwaeke Emezi 2020 Nigerian English
5858 Beartown Fredrik Backman 2016 Swedish Swedish
6286 Notes on a Scandal Zoë Heller 2003 British English
6424 Blankets Craig Thompson 2003 American English
6486 Code Talker Joseph Bruchac 2005 American English
6559 American Rust Philipp Meyer 2009 American English
6650 The Slap Christos Tsiolkas 2008 Australian English
6983 Long Way Down Jason Reynolds 2017 American English
7022 Ten Thousand Saints Eleanor Henderson 2011 American English
7261 Night Boat To Tangier Kevin Barry 2019 Irish English
7261 The Association Of Small Bombs Karan Mahajan 2016 Indian English
7527 Me Before You Jojo Moyes 2012 British English
7652 Dear Martin Nic Stone 2017 American English
7759 Tiger Daughter Rebecca Lim 2021 Australian English
7813 The Half Brother Lars Saabye Christensen 2001 Norwegian Norwegian
7828 Daisy Jones & The Six Taylor Jenkins Reid 2019 American English
7929 Sweat Lynn Nottage 2015 American English
8301 The Woman Upstairs Claire Messud 2013 American English
8333 American Street Ibi Zoboi 2017 American English
9113 The Black Flamingo Dean Atta 2019 British English
9220 Stonedogs Craig Marriner 2002 New Zealander English
9214 This Blinding Absence Of Light Tahar Ben Jelloun 2001 French French
10804 Three Junes Julia Glass 2002 American English
10914 Cafe Scheherazade Arnold Zable 2001 Australian English
10967 Mr. Ibrahim And The Flowers Of The Koran Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt 2001 French French
11184 LaRose Louise Erdrich 2016 American English
11238 Anxious People Fredrik Backman 2019 Swedish Swedish
11278 Lovecraft Country Matt Ruff 2016 American English
11278 Wolf Hollow Lauren Wolk 2016 American English
11348 Crank Ellen Hopkins 2004 American English
11358 Ttyl Lauren Myracle 2004 American English
11807 The Destroyers Christopher Bollen 2017 American English
11823 A Long Way Down Nick Hornby 2005 British English
11879 Ttfn Lauren Myracle 2006 American English
11946 L8r, G8r Lauren Myracle 2007 American English
12034 Heroine Mindy McGinnis 2019 American English
12163 I Loved You More Tom Spanbauer 2014 American English
12470 Ninth House Leigh Bardugo 2019 American English
12508 Mars Room Rachel Kushner 2018 American English
12552 The Children Carolina Sanin 2016 Colombian Spanish
12584 These Violent Delights Micah Nemerever 2020 American English
12632 The Paper Palace Miranda Cowley Heller 2021 American English
12701 Five Point Someone Chetan Bhagat 2004 Indian English
13255 The History Boys Alan Bennett 2004 British English
14371 Intimate Apparel Lynn Nottage 2003 American English
14371 The Flick Annie Baker 2014 American English
14371 4000 Miles Amy Herzog 2011 American English
14371 The Aliens Annie Baker 2010 American English
14371 The Inheritance Matthew Lopez 2020 American English
14371 Good People David Lindsay-Abaire 2011 American English
14371 The Motherf**Ker With The Hat Stephen Adly Guirgis 2011 American English
14371 Between Riverside & Crazy Stephen Adly Guirgis 2014 American English
14371 The Wolves Sarah DeLappe 2016 American English
14371 Queenie Candice Carty-Williams 2019 British English
14371 I'll Be Right There Kyung-sook Shin 2010 South Korean Korean
14371 The Spare Room Helen Garner 2008 Australian English
14371 The End Of Loneliness Benedict Wells 2016 German German