The Greatest Fiction and Political Books Since 1980

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This list represents a comprehensive and trusted collection of the greatest books. Developed through a specialized algorithm, it brings together 407 '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
72 The Handmaid's Tale Margaret Atwood 1985 Canadian English
173 White Teeth Zadie Smith 2000 British English
309 Bonfire of the Vanities Tom Wolfe 1987 American English
399 American Pastoral Philip Roth 1997 American English
635 Waiting for the Barbarians J. M. Coetzee 1980 South African English
645 Underworld Don DeLillo 1997 American English
665 The Plot Against America Philip Roth 2004 American English
668 The Line of Beauty Alan Hollinghurst 2004 British English
759 The Sympathizer Viet Thanh Nguyen 2015 American English
855 The Sellout Paul Beatty 2015 American English
881 The War of the End of the World Mario Vargas Llosa 1981 Peruvian Spanish
1157 Life & Times of Michael K J. M. Coetzee 1983 South African English
1158 A Brief History of Seven Killings Marlon James 2014 Jamaican English
1163 The Hunt for Red October Tom Clancy 1984 American English
1446 The Children of Men P. D. James 1992 British English
1452 Citizen Claudia Rankine 2014 American English
1470 Snow Orhan Pamuk 2002 Turkish Turkish
1637 What a Carve Up! Jonathan Coe 1994 British English
1697 On Beauty Zadie Smith 2005 British English
1852 In the Time of the Butterflies Julia Alvarez 1994 Dominican English
1904 The Sorrow of Belgium Hugo Claus 1983 Belgian Dutch
1943 I Served The King Of England Bohumil Hrabal 1983 Czech Czech
1958 Wizard of the Crow Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o 2006 Kenyan English
1981 The Passage Of Power Robert Caro 2012 American English
2152 Shame Salman Rushdie 1983 British English
2183 The Witness Juan José Saer 1983 Argentinian Spanish
2445 Lost Children Archive Valeria Luiselli 2019 Mexican English
2447 Santa Evita Tomás Eloy Martínez 1995 Argentinian Spanish
2471 Half of Man is Woman Zhang Xianliang 1985 Chinese Chinese
2613 The Zone Sergei Dovlatov 1982 Russian Russian
2651 Paradise of the Blind Dương Thu Hương 1988 Vietnamese Vietnamese
2657 The White Tiger Aravind Adiga 2008 Indian English
2740 Operation Shylock Philip Roth 1993 American English
2968 Tree of Smoke Denis Johnson 2007 American English
3042 Mortals Norman Rush 2003 American English
3227 The Stone Of Laughter Hoda Barakat 1990 Lebanese Arabic
3260 The Moscoviad Yuri Andrukhovych 1993 Ukrainian Ukrainian
3265 Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk Ben Fountain 2012 American English
3381 Democracy Joan Didion 1984 American English
3391 Libra Don DeLillo 1988 American English
3460 Our Lady of the Assassins Fernando Vallejo 1994 Colombian Spanish
3520 Ancestral Voices Etienne van Heerden 1986 South African Afrikaans
3587 Matigari Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o 1987 Kenyan Gikuyu
3605 Mao II Don DeLillo 1991 American English
3609 Dark Money Jane Mayer 2016 American English
3778 The Emperor Of Ocean Park Stephen L. Carter 2002 American English
4038 Pereira Maintains Antonio Tabucchi 1994 Italian Italian
4044 The Constant Gardener John le Carré 2001 British English
4082 The Ministry Of Pain Dubravka Ugrešić 2004 Croatian Croatian
4131 Waiting for the Dark, Waiting for the Light Ivan Klima 1993 Czech Czech
4131 Disappearance David Dabydeen 1993 Guyanese English
4149 Mountain Language Harold Pinter 1988 British English
4201 The Man Who Loved Dogs Leonardo Padura 2009 Cuban Spanish
4204 Happy Moscow Andrey Platonov 1991 Russian Russian
4461 Home Fire Kamila Shamsie 2017 British English
4478 The Late-night News Petros Markaris 1995 Greek Greek
4561 V for Vendetta Alan Moore 1982 British English
4565 The Good Life Elsewhere Vladimir Lorchenkov 2008 Russian Russian
4615 Primary Colors Anonymous 1996 American English
4682 A Short Border Handbook Gazmend Kapllani 2009 Greek Albanian
4742 The Garlic Ballads Yan Mo 1988 Chinese Chinese
4865 Voroshilovgrad Serhiy Zhadan 2010 Ukrainian Ukrainian
4865 Flight From The Ussr Dato Turashvili 2010 Georgian Georgian
5071 A Flag For Sunrise Robert Stone 1981 American English
5164 Quiet Flows The Una Faruk Šehić 2011 Bosnian Bosnian
5164 A Geração Da Utopia Pepetela 1992 Angolan Portuguese
5197 The Ministry For the Future Kim Stanley Robinson 2020 American English
5213 De Niro's Game Rawi Hage 2006 Canadian English
5222 The Reluctant Fundamentalist Mohsin Hamid 2007 Pakistani English
5224 As If I Am Not There Slavenka Drakulic 1999 Croatian English
5224 In Search of Klingsor Jorge Volpi Escalante 1999 Mexican Spanish
5274 A Spare Life Lidija Dimkovksa 2012 Macedonian Macedonian
5328 Eat the Document Dana Spiotta 2006 American English
5335 Stones In The Wall Dai Houying 1980 Chinese Chinese
5374 Submission Michel Houellebecq 2015 French French
5394 Cutting The Rose Efua Doorkenoo 1994 Ghanaian English
5455 Leaving the Atocha Station Ben Lerner 2011 American English
5594 Carbide Andriy Lyubka 2014 Ukrainian Ukrainian
5717 Becoming Madame Mao Anchee Min 2000 American English
5792 Minor Detail Adania Shibli 2017 Palestinian Arabic
5917 The Successor Ismail Kadare 2003 Albanian Albanian
6037 The Other Americans Laila Lalami 2019 Moroccan English
6068 Silent Close No. 6 Monika Maron 1991 German German
6078 Angels & Demons Dan Brown 2000 American English
6121 Redeployment Phil Klay 2014 American English
6572 Somersault Kenzaburō Ōe 1999 Japanese Japanese
6574 The Assault Harry Mulisch 1982 Dutch Dutch
6601 A Case Of Exploding Mangoes Mohammed Hanif 2008 Pakistani English
6705 A Promised Land Barack Obama 2020 American English
6715 Beijing Coma Ma Jian 2008 Chinese Chinese
6756 Malvinas Requiem Fogwill 1983 Argentine Spanish
6778 Tortura Pe înțelesul Tuturor Florin Constantin Pavlovici 2001 Romanian Romanian
6846 The Vagrants Yiyun Li 2009 American English
6847 The Fat Years Chan Koonchung 2009 Chinese Chinese
6849 Allah Is Not Obliged Ahmadou Kourouma 2000 French French
6931 Distant Star Roberto Bolaño 1996 Chilean Spanish
7155 How Beautiful We Were Imbolo Mbue 2021 Cameroonian English
7155 Homeland Elegies Ayad Akhtar 2020 American English
7155 American Prison Shane Bauer 2018 American English
7155 The Association Of Small Bombs Karan Mahajan 2016 Indian English
7155 Thirteen Days In September Lawrence Wright 2014 American English
7155 After The Music Stopped Alan S. Blinder 2013 American English
7155 Arguably Christopher Hitchens 2011 British English
7155 The Dark Side Jane Mayer 2008 American English
7155 The Nine Jeffrey Toobin 2007 American English
7155 The Assassins’ Gate George Packer 2005 American English
7218 Black and Blur Fred Moten 2017 American English
7267 Homeland Fernando Aramburu 2016 Spanish Spanish
7491 Go Went Gone Jenny Erpenbeck 2015 German German
7559 La Guerra De Galio Héctor Aguilar Camín 1991 Mexican Spanish
7836 The Orphanage Serhiy Zhadan 2017 Ukrainian Ukrainian
7953 Gb84 David Peace 2004 British English
7975 Das Verschwinden Des Philip S. Ulrike Edschmid 2013 German German
8082 Amberlough Lara Elena Donnelly 2017 American English
8128 Money To Burn Ricardo Piglia 1997 Argentinian Spanish
8145 Lucky Worries About His Country Chang Ta-chun 2001 Chinese Chinese
8246 Behold the Dreamers Imbolo Mbue 2016 Cameroonian English
8367 El Traductor Salvador Benesdra 1998 Argentinian Spanish
8560 The French Art Of War Alexis Jenni 2011 French French
8688 The Border Don Winslow 2019 American English