The Greatest Social & Cultural Fiction Books Since 2000
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.
| Rank | Book | Authors | Year | Country | Language | Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9830 | The Opposite Of A Person | Lieke Marsman | 2017 | Dutch | Dutch | |
| 9835 | Sea of Poppies | Amitav Ghosh | 2008 | Indian | English | |
| 9856 | Exciting Times | Naoise Dolan | 2020 | Irish | English | |
| 9857 | Afterlives | Abdulrazak Gurnah | 2020 | British | English | |
| 9897 | Falling Is Like Flying | Manon Uphoff | 2019 | Dutch | Dutch | |
| 9902 | Modern Lovers | Emma Straub | 2016 | American | English | |
| 9905 | 디디의 우산 | 황정은 | 2019 | Korean | Korean | |
| 9917 | Your House Will Pay | Steph Cha | 2019 | American | English | |
| 9920 | Crooked Plow | Itamar Vieira Junior | 2019 | Brazilian | Portuguese | |
| 9948 | Joseph | Marie-Hélène Lafon | 2014 | French | French | |
| 9951 | El Testigo | Juan Villoro | 2004 | Mexican | Spanish | |
| 9960 | Actress | Anne Enright | 2020 | Irish | English | |
| 9961 | Big Girl, Small Town | Michelle Gallen | 2020 | Irish | English | |
| 9968 | Varieties Of Exile | Mavis Gallant | 2003 | Canadian | English | |
| 9968 | Mailman | J. Robert Lennon | 2003 | American | English | |
| 9976 | Chai Time At Cinnamon Gardens | Shankari Chandran | 2022 | Unknown | English | |
| 9980 | Where’d You Go, Bernadette | Maria Semple | 2012 | American | English | |
| 9978 | Gebrek Is Een Groot Woord | Nina Polak | 2018 | Dutch | Dutch | |
| 9983 | Mirror, Shoulder, Signal | Dorthe Nors | 2016 | Danish | English | |
| 9994 | The Lost Highway | David Adams Richards | 2007 | Canadian | English | |
| 10006 | Narcopolis | Jeet Thayil | 2012 | Indian | English | |
| 10006 | Em And The Big Hoom | Jerry Pinto | 2012 | Indian | English | |
| 10017 | Three Stories | J. M. Coetzee | 2014 | South African | English | |
| 10022 | The Architects Are Here | Michael Winter | 2007 | Canadian | English | |
| 10021 | Qu’elle Aille Au Diable Meryl Streep | Rachid El-Daïf | 2007 | Unknown | French | |
| 10026 | The End Of The World Is A Cul De Sac | Louise Kennedy | 2021 | Irish | English | |
| 10043 | Goat Days | Benyamin | 2008 | Indian | Malayalam | |
| 10041 | 10 Minutes, 38 Seconds In This Strange World | Elif Shafak | 2019 | Turkish | English | |
| 10074 | Verdes Valles, Colinas Rojas | Ramiro Pinilla | 2004 | Spanish | Spanish | |
| 10083 | Habibi | Craig Thompson | 2011 | American | English | |
| 10103 | The People In The Trees | Hanya Yanagihara | 2013 | American | English | |
| 10105 | Colored Television | Danzy Senna | 2024 | Unknown | English | |
| 10114 | Carte Muette | Philippe Vasset | 2007 | French | French | |
| 10130 | White City | Kevin Power | 2021 | Irish | English | |
| 10138 | Nora | Nuala O’Connor | 2021 | Irish | English | |
| 10158 | Land Of Milk And Honey | C Pam Zhang | 2023 | Unknown | English | |
| 10164 | Transmission | Hari Kunzru | 2004 | British | English | |
| 10164 | The Darling | Russell Banks | 2004 | American | English | |
| 10171 | Harvest | Jim Crace | 2013 | British | English | |
| 10191 | Immigrant, Montana | Amitava Kumar | 2017 | American | English | |
| 10193 | The Woman Upstairs | Claire Messud | 2013 | American | English | |
| 10199 | How Beautiful We Were | Imbolo Mbue | 2021 | Cameroonian | English | |
| 10212 | Peripathetic | Cher Tan | 2020 | Unknown | English | |
| 10217 | Iron Moon | Qin Xiaoyu | 2017 | Chinese | English | |
| 10235 | Long Island Compromise | Taffy Brodesser-Akner | 2024 | American | English | |
| 10238 | Que Cavalos São Aqueles Que Fazem Sombra No Mar? | António Lobo Antunes | 2009 | Portuguese | Portuguese | |
| 10281 | This Strange Eventful History | Claire Messud | 2024 | Unknown | English | |
| 10291 | The Light Eaters | Zoë Schlanger | 2024 | Unknown | English | |
| 10300 | April Fool's Day | Josip Novakovich | 2004 | Croatian | English | |
| 10304 | Dirt Music | Tim Winton | 2001 | Australian | English | |
| 10362 | The Colony | Audrey Magee | 2022 | Irish | English | |
| 10373 | Sweet Land Stories | E. L. Doctorow | 2004 | American | English | |
| 10373 | Still Can't See Nothin' Comin' | Daniel Grey Marshall | 2004 | American | English | |
| 10372 | Close To Home | Michael Magee | 2023 | Irish | English | |
| 10375 | Complete Poems | James Weldon Johnson | 2000 | American | English | |
| 10387 | Tiger Daughter | Rebecca Lim | 2021 | Australian | English | |
| 10387 | Human Looking | Andy Jackson | 2021 | Unknown | English | |
| 10394 | Spent Light | Lara Pawson | 2024 | Unknown | English | |
| 10425 | How To Build A Boat | Elaine Feeney | 2023 | Irish | English | |
| 10442 | Bluff | Danez Smith | 2024 | American | English | |
| 10456 | Intimacies | Katie Kitamura | 2021 | American | English | |
| 10456 | Homeland Elegies | Ayad Akhtar | 2020 | American | English | |
| 10456 | The Topeka School | Ben Lerner | 2019 | American | English | |
| 10456 | A Hologram For The King | Dave Eggers | 2012 | American | English | |
| 10456 | Ten Thousand Saints | Eleanor Henderson | 2011 | American | English | |
| 10456 | Crudo | Olivia Laing | 2018 | British | English | |
| 10491 | Munnu | Malik Sajad | 2015 | Indian | English | |
| 10528 | Splinters | Leslie Jamison | 2024 | Unknown | English | |
| 10548 | I Am Not Sidney Poitier | Percival Everett | 2009 | American | English | |
| 10603 | Firekeeper's Daughter | Angeline Boulley | 2021 | American | English | |
| 10610 | Someone Like Us | Dinaw Mengestu | 2024 | American | English | |
| 10620 | Service | Sarah Gilmartin | 2023 | Irish | English | |
| 10615 | Evenings And Weekends | Oisin McKenna | 2024 | Unknown | English | |
| 10621 | Madukka The River Serpent | Julie Janson | 2022 | Unknown | English | |
| 10639 | The New Me | Halle Butler | 2019 | American | English | |
| 10645 | Clear | Carys Davies | 2024 | Unknown | Unknown | |
| 10649 | Poonachi | Perumal Murugan | 2016 | Indian | Tamil | |
| 10652 | 3 Shades Of Blue | James Kaplan | 2024 | Unknown | English | |
| 10654 | Blue Sisters | Coco Mellors | 2024 | Unknown | English | |
| 10660 | Belladonna | Daša Drndić | 2012 | Croatian | Croatian | |
| 10667 | Forest Of Noise | Mosab Abu Toha | 2024 | Unknown | English | |
| 10668 | You Should Be So Lucky | Cat Sebastian | 2024 | Unknown | English | |
| 10672 | Our Migrant Souls | Héctor Tobar | 2023 | American | English | |
| 10670 | Barcelona | Mary Costello | 2024 | Unknown | English | |
| 10672 | 36 Ways Of Writing A Vietnamese Poem | Nam Le | 2024 | Multiple | English | |
| 10678 | Dirrayawadha | Anita Heiss | 2024 | Australian | English | |
| 10700 | Blue Ruin | Hari Kunzru | 2024 | British | English | |
| 10698 | The Faraway World | Patricia Engel | 2023 | American | English | |
| 10705 | Ghostroots | 'Pemi Aguda | 2024 | Nigerian | English | |
| 10711 | The Extinction Of Irena Rey | Jennifer Croft | 2024 | Unknown | English | |
| 10723 | My Good Bright Wolf | Sarah Moss | 2024 | Unknown | English | |
| 10709 | The Hypocrite | Jo Hamya | 2024 | British | English | |
| 10703 | The Great Reclamation | Rachel Heng | 2023 | Unknown | English | |
| 10729 | Dominion | Calvin Baker | 2006 | American | English | |
| 10729 | The Teahouse Fire | Ellis Avery | 2006 | American | English | |
| 10734 | Dirt Poor Islanders | Winnie Dunn | 2022 | Unknown | English | |
| 10754 | The Moor's Account | Laila Lalami | 2014 | American | English | |
| 10782 | Sandalwood Death | Yan Mo | 2001 | Chinese | Chinese | |
| 10788 | Burnt Sugar | Avni Doshi | 2020 | Indian | English | |
| 10798 | Lilas Rouge | Reinhard Kaiser-Mühlecker | 2012 | Unknown | French | |
| 10812 | La Montagne | Jean-Noël Pancrazi | 2012 | French | French | |
| 10814 | The Gypsy Goddess | Meena Kandasamy | 2014 | Indian | English | |
| 10827 | Salt To The Sea | Ruta Sepetys | 2016 | American | English | |
| 10845 | The End Of Days | Jenny Erpenbeck | 2012 | German | German | |
| 10873 | Tyrell | Coe Booth | 2006 | American | English | |
| 10873 | Tokyo Fiancée | Amélie Nothomb | 2007 | Belgian | French | |
| 10882 | West Girls | Laura Elizabeth Woollett | 2023 | Unknown | English | |
| 10882 | Anam | André Dao | 2023 | Unknown | English | |
| 10909 | Liveblog | Megan Boyle | 2015 | American | English | |
| 10945 | I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter | Erika L. Sánchez | 2017 | American | English | |
| 10945 | The Marrow Thieves | Cherie Dimaline | 2017 | Canadian | English | |
| 10949 | Latitudes Of Longing | Shubhangi Swarup | 2018 | Indian | English | |
| 10951 | Golden Hill | Francis Spufford | 2016 | British | English | |
| 10981 | They Know Not What They Do | Jussi Valtonen | 2014 | Finnish | Finnish | |
| 10999 | The Twilight Zone | Nona Fernández | 2016 | Chilean | Spanish | |
| 11058 | Darius The Great Is Not Okay | Adib Khorram | 2018 | Iranian-American | English | |
| 11066 | A Vida Como Ela é... | Nelson Rodrigues | 2006 | Brazilian | Portuguese | |
| 11069 | The Flood | John Broderick | 2000 | Irish | English | |
| 11078 | Life Adjustment Center | Ryan McGinley | 2010 | American | Unknown | |
| 11165 | The Tale Of A Wall | Nasser Abu Srour | 2024 | Unknown | Unknown |