The Greatest Fiction 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 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
237 The Corrections Jonathan Franzen 2001 American English
248 Atonement Ian McEwan 2001 British English
262 Austerlitz W. G. Sebald 2001 German German
290 The Road Cormac McCarthy 2006 American English
314 The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay Michael Chabon 2000 American English
396 The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Junot Diaz 2007 Dominican English
397 Wolf Hall Hilary Mantel 2009 British English
409 My Brilliant Friend Elena Ferrante 2012 American Italian
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
475 Gilead Marilynne Robinson 2004 American English
574 The Known World Edward P. Jones 2003 American English
607 House of Leaves Mark Z. Danielewski 2000 American English
701 The Feast of the Goat Mario Vargas Llosa 2000 Peruvian Spanish
723 The Line of Beauty Alan Hollinghurst 2004 British English
741 The Goldfinch Donna Tartt 2013 American English
747 Blonde Joyce Carol Oates 2000 American English
770 The Underground Railroad Colson Whitehead 2016 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
874 The Last Samurai Helen DeWitt 2000 American English
892 The Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini 2003 Afghan English
898 My Struggle Karl Ove Knausgård 2009 Norwegian Norwegian
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
1010 Fingersmith Sarah Waters 2002 British English
1022 Lincoln in the Bardo George Saunders 2017 American English
1074 The Da Vinci Code Dan Brown 2003 American English
1085 The Book Thief Markus Zusak 2005 Australian English
1101 Outline Rachel Cusk 2014 British English
1110 The Overstory Richard Powers 2018 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
1201 Kafka On The Shore Haruki Murakami 2002 Japanese Japanese
1206 Pachinko Min Jin Lee 2017 American English
1211 Normal People Sally Rooney 2018 Irish English
1261 The Blind Assassin Margaret Atwood 2000 Canadian English
1272 Erasure Percival Everett 2001 American English
1330 The Song of Achilles Madeline Miller 2011 American English
1354 Olive Kitteridge Elizabeth Strout 2008 American English
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
1388 The Hunger Games Suzanne Collins 2008 American English
1390 A Brief History of Seven Killings Marlon James 2014 Jamaican English
1394 Soldiers of Salamis Javier Cercas 2001 Spanish Spanish
1413 All the Light We Cannot See Anthony Doerr 2014 American English
1435 Life After Life Kate Atkinson 2013 British English
1448 Suite Française Irène Némirovsky 2004 French French
1456 Flights Olga Tokarczuk 2007 Polish Polish
1472 The Beauty Of The Husband Anne Carson 2001 Canadian English
1538 Snow Orhan Pamuk 2002 Turkish Turkish
1563 Runaway Alice Munro 2004 Canadian English
1585 Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell Susanna Clarke 2004 British English
1648 Wizard of the Crow Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o 2006 Kenyan English
1650 Sing, Unburied, Sing Jesmyn Ward 2017 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
1698 Stories of Your Life and Others Ted Chiang 2002 American English
1700 The Hunger Angel Herta Müller 2009 German German
1704 Celestial Harmonies Peter Esterhazy 2000 Hungarian Hungarian
1723 1Q84 Haruki Murakami 2009 Japanese Japanese
1751 NW Zadie Smith 2012 British English
1755 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince J. K. Rowling 2005 British English
1765 A Little Life Hanya Yanagihara 2015 American English
1790 The Master Colm Toibin 2004 Irish 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
1842 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire J. K. Rowling 2000 British English
1876 Home Marilynne Robinson 2008 American English
1898 Tenth of December George Saunders 2013 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
1958 Let the Great World Spin Colum McCann 2009 Irish English
1983 The Great Believers Rebecca Makkai 2018 American English
1989 Your Face Tomorrow Javier Marias 2002 Spanish Spanish
2001 The Flamethrowers Rachel Kushner 2013 American English
2002 Freedom Jonathan Franzen 2010 American English
2023 Elizabeth Costello J. M. Coetzee 2003 South African English
2058 A Thousand Splendid Suns Khaled Hosseini 2007 Afghan English
2069 The Round House Louise Erdrich 2012 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
2165 The Buddha in the Attic Julie Otsuka 2011 American English
2170 Noughts and Crosses Malorie Blackman 2001 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
2192 American Gods Neil Gaiman 2001 British English
2202 The Kindly Ones Jonathan Littell 2006 French French
2218 The Sense of an Ending Julian Barnes 2011 British English
2224 My Year of Rest and Relaxation Ottessa Moshfegh 2018 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
2294 Family Life Akhil Sharma 2014 Indian English
2311 Solenoid Mircea Cărtărescu 2015 Romanian Romanian
2317 To The End Of The Land David Grossman 2008 Israeli Hebrew
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
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
2360 Bartleby & Co Enrique Vila-Matas 2000 Spanish Spanish
2367 Brooklyn Colm Toibin 2009 Irish English