The Greatest Social & Cultural Fiction Books Since 1990

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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
255 Disgrace J. M. Coetzee 1999 South African English
333 Infinite Jest David Foster Wallace 1996 American English
355 The Savage Detectives Roberto Bolaño 1998 Chilean Spanish
359 The God of Small Things Arundhati Roy 1997 Indian English
380 American Pastoral Philip Roth 1997 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
411 Underworld Don DeLillo 1997 American English
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
488 The Shipping News Annie Proulx 1993 Canadian English
549 A Fine Balance Rohinton Mistry 1995 Indian English
574 The Known World Edward P. Jones 2003 American English
644 The English Patient Michael Ondaatje 1992 Canadian English
648 The Things They Carried Tim O'Brien 1990 American English
657 The Elementary Particles Michel Houellebecq 1998 French French
722 Bastard Out of Carolina Dorothy Allison 1992 American English
723 The Line of Beauty Alan Hollinghurst 2004 British English
735 A Suitable Boy Vikram Seth 1993 Indian English
747 Blonde Joyce Carol Oates 2000 American English
770 The Underground Railroad Colson Whitehead 2016 American English
837 The Sellout Paul Beatty 2015 American English
849 Regeneration Pat Barker 1991 British English
878 The Poisonwood Bible Barbara Kingsolver 1998 American English
892 The Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini 2003 Afghan English
918 The Plot Against America Philip Roth 2004 American English
968 Jesus' Son Denis Johnson 1992 American English
994 Blindness José Saramago 1995 Portuguese Portuguese
1000 A Thousand Acres Jane Smiley 1991 American English
1039 Birds of America Lorrie Moore 1998 American English
1050 The Buddha of Suburbia Hanif Kureishi 1990 British English
1074 The Da Vinci Code Dan Brown 2003 American English
1085 The Book Thief Markus Zusak 2005 Australian English
1099 The Blue Flower Penelope Fitzgerald 1995 British English
1101 Outline Rachel Cusk 2014 British English
1110 The Overstory Richard Powers 2018 American English
1129 The Namesake Jhumpa Lahiri 2003 American English
1194 Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead Olga Tokarczuk 2009 Polish Polish
1200 Mating Norman Rush 1991 American English
1206 Pachinko Min Jin Lee 2017 American English
1270 Omeros Derek Walcott 1990 Saint Lucian English
1285 Selected Stories of Alice Munro Alice Munro 1996 Canadian English
1299 My Name is Red Orhan Pamuk 1998 Turkish Turkish
1328 Parable Of The Sower Octavia E. Butler 1993 American English
1344 The Emigrants W. G. Sebald 1992 German German
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
1390 A Brief History of Seven Killings Marlon James 2014 Jamaican English
1448 Suite Française Irène Némirovsky 2004 French French
1460 Never Mind Edward St Aubyn 1992 British English
1484 Independence Day Richard Ford 1995 American English
1505 The Famished Road Ben Okri 1991 Nigerian English
1506 Selected Stories William Trevor 1992 Irish English
1538 Snow Orhan Pamuk 2002 Turkish Turkish
1650 Sing, Unburied, Sing Jesmyn Ward 2017 American English
1697 The Stone Diaries Carol Shields 1993 Canadian English
1700 The Hunger Angel Herta Müller 2009 German German
1704 Celestial Harmonies Peter Esterhazy 2000 Hungarian Hungarian
1715 The Clay Machine-gun Victor Pelevin 1996 Russian Russian
1748 The Fox Was Ever The Hunter Herta Müller 1992 German German
1751 NW Zadie Smith 2012 British English
1771 Stone Butch Blues Leslie Feinberg 1993 American English
1775 Interpreter of Maladies Jhumpa Lahiri 1999 American English
1797 Texaco Patrick Chamoiseau 1992 Martinican French
1882 Pereira Maintains Antonio Tabucchi 1994 Italian Italian
1917 In the Time of the Butterflies Julia Alvarez 1994 Dominican 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
1983 The Great Believers Rebecca Makkai 2018 American English
2001 The Flamethrowers Rachel Kushner 2013 American English
2002 Freedom Jonathan Franzen 2010 American 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
2084 Fight Club Chuck Palahniuk 1996 American English
2107 Demon Copperhead Barbara Kingsolver 2022 American English
2114 All Souls' Day Cees Nooteboom 1998 Dutch Dutch
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
2208 Trainspotting Irvine Welsh 1993 Scottish English
2227 Exit West Mohsin Hamid 2017 Pakistani English
2229 A Gentleman in Moscow Amor Towles 2016 American English
2242 Milkman Anna Burns 2018 Irish English
2244 The Gathering Anne Enright 2007 Irish English
2317 To The End Of The Land David Grossman 2008 Israeli Hebrew
2326 What a Carve Up! Jonathan Coe 1994 British English
2337 There There Tommy Orange 2018 American English
2344 Small Things Like These Claire Keegan 2021 Irish English
2354 Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress Dai Sijie 2000 Chinese French
2400 Remembering Babylon David Malouf 1993 Australian English
2409 That They May Face the Rising Sun John McGahern 2002 Irish English
2425 Platform Michel Houellebecq 2001 French French
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
2468 On Beauty Zadie Smith 2005 British English
2473 Fall On Your Knees Ann-Marie MacDonald 1996 Canadian English
2486 Small Island Andrea Levy 2004 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
2503 Homegoing Yaa Gyasi 2016 Ghanaian English
2537 Jazz Toni Morrison 1992 American English
2597 Possessing the Secret of Joy Alice Walker 1992 American English
2610 Whatever Michel Houellebecq 1994 French French
2620 To Live Yu Hua 1993 Chinese Chinese
2637 The Lament Of The Linnet Anna Maria Ortese 1997 Italian Italian