New York Times Best Books of the 21st Century

Updated August 9, 2024
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Bel canto
Patchett, Ann
Paper Book
Winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award * Winner of the Orange Prize * National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist * New York Times Readers' Pick: Top 100 Books of the 21st Century "Bel Canto is its own universe. A marvel of a book." --Washington Post Book World Ann Patchett's...
Men we reaped :
Ward, Jesmyn.
Paper Book
Named one of the Best Books of the Century by New York Magazine The two-time National Book Award winner and author of Salvage the Bones and Let Us Descend, contends with the deaths of five young men dear to her, and the risk of being a Black man in the...
Bring up the bodies
Mantel, Hilary
Paper Book
By 1535 Thomas Cromwell, the blacksmith's son, is far from his humble origins. Chief Minister to Henry VIII, his fortunes have risen with those of Anne Boleyn, Henry's second wife, for whose sake Henry has broken with Rome and created his own church. But Henry's actions have forced England into...
On beauty : a novel
Smith, Zadie.
Paper Book
Set on both sides of the Atlantic, Smith's third novel is a brilliant analysis of family life, the institution of marriage, intersections of the personal and the political, and an honest look at people's deceptions.
Station Eleven : a novel
Mandel, Emily St. John
Paper Book
An audacious, darkly glittering novel about art, fame and ambition set in the eerie days of civilization's collapse, from the author of three highly acclaimed previous novels. One snowy night a famous Hollywood actor slumps over and dies onstage during a production of...
The human stain
Roth, Philip
Paper Book
NATIONAL BESTSELLER * WINNER OF THE PEN/FAULKNER AWARD * The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of American Pastoral delivers "a master novelist's haunting parable about our troubled modern moment" (The Wall Street Journal). One of the New York Times's 100 Best...
The sympathizer /
Nguyen, Viet Thanh,
Paper Book
Now an HBO Limited Series from Executive Producers Park Chan-wook and Robert Downey Jr., Streaming Exclusively on Max Winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction Winner of the 2016 Edgar Award for Best First Novel Winner of the 2016 Andrew Carnegie Medal for...
The return : fathers, sons and the land in between
Matar, Hisham
Paper Book
WINNER OF THE 2017 PULITZER PRIZE: from Man Booker Prize and National Book Critics Circle Award finalist Hisham Matar, a memoir of his journey home to his native Libya in search of answers to his father's disappearance. In 2012, after the overthrow of Qaddafi, the acclaimed...
The story of the lost child
Ferrante, Elena
Paper Book
A BEST BOOK OF THE CENTURY - NEW YORK TIMES The "stunning conclusion" to the bestselling saga of the fierce lifelong bond between two women, from a gritty Naples childhood through old age (Publishers Weekly, starred review). The Story of the Lost Child concludes the...
A manual for cleaning women :
Berlin, Lucia.
Paper Book
One ofTheNew York Times Book Review's Ten Best Books of 2015 One ofJezebel's Favorite Books of 2016 A Manual for Cleaning Womencompiles the best work of the legendary short-story writer Lucia Berlin. With the...
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow : a novel
Zevin, Gabrielle.
Paper Book
ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES' BEST BOOKS OF THE 21ST CENTURY * A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * A GLOBE AND MAIL BESTSELLER * A JIMMY FALLON BOOK CLUB PICK In this exhilarating novel by the best-selling author of The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry two friends-...
Exit west :
Hamid, Mohsin,
Paper Book
One of The New York Times's 100 Best Books of the 21st Century FINALIST FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE & WINNER OF THE L.A. TIMES BOOK PRIZE FOR FICTION and THE ASPEN WORDS LITERARY PRIZE "It was as if Hamid knew what was going to happen to America and the...
An American marriage : a novel
Jones, Tayari
Paper Book
OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB 2018 SELECTION One of the most anticipated novels of 2018 according to Entertainment Weekly * Goodreads * Esquire * Elle * Cosmopolitan *BBC * Huffington Post * Bustle * Southern Living *...
Olive Kitteridge
Strout, Elizabeth
Paper Book
WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE * The beloved first novel featuring Olive Kitteridge, from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Oprah's Book Club pick Olive, Again   "Fiction lovers, remember this name: Olive...
The friend
Nunez, Sigrid
Paper Book
An Award-winning AuthorWhen a woman unexpectedly loses her lifelong best friend and mentor, she finds herself burdened with the dog he left behind. Now her own battle against grief is intensified by the mute suffering of a huge Great Dane, and by the threat of eviction. Increasingly obsessed with...
Far from the tree : parents, children and the search for identity
Solomon, Andrew
Paper Book
Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, a Books for a Better Life Award, and one of The New York Times Book Review's Ten Best Books of 2012, this masterpiece by the National Book Award-winning author of The Noonday Demon features stories of parents who not only learn to...
Demon Copperhead : a novel
Kingsolver, Barbara
Paper Book
WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE * WINNER OF THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION New York Times Readers' Pick: Top 100 Books of the 21st Century * An Oprah's Book Club Selection * An Instant New York Times Bestseller * An Instant Wall Street Journal Bestseller * A #1 Washington Post...
Middlesex
Eugenides, Jeffrey.
Other
Middlesex is the winner of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. A dazzling triumph from the bestselling author of The Virgin Suicides--the astonishing tale of a gene that passes down through three generations of a Greek-American family and flowers in the body...
The flamethrowers : a novel
Kushner, Rachel.
Paper Book
* Selected as ONE of the BEST BOOKS of the 21st CENTURY by The New York Times * NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST * New York magazine's #1 Book of the Year * Best Book of the Year by: The Wall Street Journal; Vogue; O, The Oprah Magazine; Los Angeles Times;...
The looming tower :
Wright, Lawrence,
Paper Book
A sweeping narrative history of the events leading to 9/11, a groundbreaking look at the people and ideas, the terrorist plans and the Western intelligence failures that culminated in the assault on America. Lawrence Wright's remarkable book is based on five years of research and hundreds of...
Tenth of December : stories
Saunders, George
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST * NAMED ONE OF TIME'S TEN BEST FICTION BOOKS OF THE DECADE * NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE DECADE BY ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY AND BUZZFEED * NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK...
Runaway : stories
Munro, Alice
Paper Book
“Runaway” is the first story in this stunning collection, sure to be a runaway success. All of the eight stories here are new, published in book form for the first time. Two of the eight have never appeared anywhere, so this will be a special feast for the millions of Munro fans around...
Life after life : a novel
Atkinson, Kate
Paper Book
"Is there Life After Life, chance after chance to rewrite one's destiny? That is the question posed by Atkinson's tale and brought to life by the miracle of her talent." --Toronto Star What if you had the chance to live your life again and again, until you...
Persepolis
Satrapi, Marjane
Paper Book
A New York TimesNotable Book A Time Magazine"Best Comix of the Year" A San Francisco Chronicle and Los Angeles TimesBest-seller Wise, funny, and heartbreaking, Persepolisis Marjane Satrapi's memoir of growing up in Iran during the Islamic...
A mercy
Morrison, Toni
Paper Book
A powerful tragedy distilled into a small masterpiece by the Nobel Prize--winning author of Beloved and, almost like a prelude to that story, set two centuries earlier. Jacob is an Anglo-Dutch trader in 1680s United States, when the slave trade is still in its infancy. Reluctantly he takes a small...
The goldfinch
Tartt, Donna.
Paper Book
A young New Yorker grieving his mother's death is pulled into a gritty underworld of art and wealth in this "extraordinary" and beloved Pulitzer Prize winner from the author of The Secret History that "connects with the heart as well as the mind" (Stephen King, New York Times Book...
The fifth season /
Jemisin, N. K.
Paper Book
At the end of the world, a woman must hide her secret power and find her kidnapped daughter in this "intricate and extraordinary" Hugo Award winning novel of power, oppression, and revolution. (The New York Times) This is the way the world ends. . .for the last time. ...
H is for Hawk
Macdonald, Helen
Paper Book
As a child the author was determined to become a falconer. She learned the arcane terminology and read all the classic books, including T H White's tortured masterpiece, The Goshawk, which describes White's struggle to train a hawk as a spiritual contest. This book offers an account of his struggle...
Sing, unburied, sing a novel
Ward, Jesmyn.
Paper Book
A New York Times BestsellerAn Indie Next PickA National Book Award-winning AuthorA Finalist for the National Book Award for FictionA Finalist for the Kirkus PrizeA Finalist for the Andrew Carnegie MedalA Publishers Weekly Top 10 of 2017Jesmyn Ward brings the archetypal road novel into rural 21st...
Cloud atlas
Mitchell, David
Paper Book
By the New York Times bestselling author of The Bone Clocks | Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize A postmodern visionary and one of the leading voices in twenty-first-century fiction, David Mitchell combines flat-out adventure, a Nabokovian love of puzzles, a...
Americanah : a novel
Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi
Paper Book
WINNER 2013 - National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction FINALIST 2014 - Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction FINALIST 2014 - Andrew Carnegie Medal for Fiction LONGLISTED 2015  - International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award A searing new novel, at...
Atonement
McEwan, Ian
Paper Book
On the hottest day of the summer of 1935, thirteen-year-old Briony Tallis sees her sister Cecilia strip off her clothes and plunge into the fountain in the garden of their country house. Watching her too is Robbie Turner who, like Cecilia, has recently come down from Cambridge. By the...
The overstory : a novel
Powers, Richard
Paper Book
The Overstory, winner of the 2019 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction, is a sweeping, impassioned work of activism and resistance that is also a stunning evocation of--and paean to--the natural world. From the roots to the crown and back to the seeds, Richard Powers's twelfth novel unfolds in concentric...
Hateship, friendship, courtship, loveship, marriage : stories
Munro, Alice
Paper Book
As always, Alice Munro surprises us. While the nine stories in this new collection could not be written by anyone else, they are subtly different. The title story, for example, ranges from small-town Ontario just after the war to a near-deserted hotel on the bald Saskatchewan prairie. The setting...
Behind the beautiful forevers : life, death, and hope in the undercity of Mumbai
Boo, Katherine
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER * ONE OF TIME'S TEN BEST NONFICTION BOOKS OF THE DECADE * ONE OF THE NEW YORK TIMES'S 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE 21ST CENTURY "Inspiring . . . extraordinary . . . [Katherine Boo] shows us how people in the...
Evicted poverty and profit in the American city
Desmond, Matthew
Paper Book
A New York Times BestsellerWinner of the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for General NonfictionWinner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for NonfictionWinner of the Pen/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for NonfictionWinner of The Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in NonfictionFinalist for the Los Angeles...
Say nothing : a true story of murder and memory in Northern Ireland
Keefe, Patrick Radden
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * SOON TO BE AN FX LIMITED SERIES STREAMING ON HULU * NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER * From the author of Empire of Pain--a stunning, intricate narrative about a notorious killing in Northern Ireland and its devastating...
Lincoln in the bardo : a novel
Saunders, George
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * WINNER OF THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE The "devastatingly moving" (People) first novel from the author of Tenth of December: a moving and original father-son story featuring none other than Abraham Lincoln, as well as an unforgettable cast...
The sellout : a novel
Beatty, Paul
Paper Book
Winner of the 2016 Man Booker Prize Winner of the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award in Fiction Named one of the best books of 2015 by The New York Times Book Review and the Wall Street Journal A biting satire...
Pachinko /
Lee, Min Jin,
Paper Book
In this New York Times bestseller, four generations of a poor Korean immigrant family fight to control their destiny in 20th-century Japan-the inspiration for the television series on Apple TV+.  In the early 1900s, teenaged Sunja, the adored...
Outline
Cusk, Rachel
Paper Book
Literary Hub, Best Books of the Decade, A Finalist for the Folio Prize, the Goldsmiths Prize, the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and the Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction One of The New York Times' Top Ten Books of the Year Named a A New York Times...
The road /
McCarthy, Cormac,
Paper Book
WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE * NATIONAL BESTSELLER * A searing, post-apocalyptic novel about a father and son's fight to survive, this "tale of survival and the miracle of goodness only adds to McCarthy's stature as a living master. It's gripping, frightening and, ultimately,...
The year of magical thinking
Didion, Joan
CD
Didion's journalistic skills are displayed as never before in this story of a year in her life that began with her daughter in a medically induced coma and her husband unexpectedly dead due to a heart attack. This powerful and moving work is Didion's "attempt to make sense of the weeks and then...
Never let me go
Ishiguro, Kazuo
Paper Book
NOBEL PRIZE WINNER * The moving, suspenseful, beautifully atmospheric modern classic from the acclaimed author of The Remains of the Day and Klara and the Sun--"a Gothic tour de force" (The New York Times) with an extraordinary twist. ...
The Underground Railroad :
Whitehead, Colson,
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * PULITZER PRIZE WINNER * NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER * "An American masterpiece" (NPR) that chronicles a young slave's adventures as she makes a desperate bid for freedom in the antebellum South. One of The New York Times's 10...
The corrections
Franzen, Jonathan
Paper Book
#1 NEW YORK TIMES Bestseller NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER "A spellbinding novel" (People) from the New York Times bestselling author Jonathan Franzen, The Corrections is a comic, tragic epic of worlds colliding: an old-fashioned world...
The known world
Jones, Edward P.
Paper Book
From National Book Award-nominated author Edward P. Jones comes a debut novel of stunning emotional depth and unequaled literary power. Winner of the 2004 Pulitzer Prize Award and recognized as the fourth best book of the 21st century by the New York Times, The Known World continues to show its...
Wolf Hall
Mantel, Hilary
Paper Book
England in the 1520s is a heartbeat from disaster. If the king dies without a male heir, the country could be destroyed by civil war. Henry VIII wants to annul his marriage of twenty years, and marry Anne Boleyn. The pope and most of Europe oppose him. The quest for the king's freedom destroys...
My brilliant friend
Ferrante, Elena.
Paper Book
#1 BEST BOOK OF THE CENTURY - NEW YORK TIMES Now an HBO series: the first volume in the New York Times-bestselling "enduring masterpiece" about a lifelong friendship between two women from Naples (The Atlantic). Beginning in the 1950s in a poor but vibrant neighborhood on the...

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