BVBook Verdict

Literary Fiction · 2000s

Best Literary Fiction of the 2000s

The best literary fiction books first published in the 2000s, ranked — a focused list of 50 titles.

Moth Smoke Mohsin Hamid · 2000 Essential Read Get it on Amazon →
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay Michael Chabon · 2000 Essential Read Get it on Amazon →
The Amber Spyglass Philip Pullman · 2000 Essential Read Get it on Amazon →
The Human Stain Philip Roth · 2000 Essential Read See details →
Atonement Ian McEwan · 2001 Essential Read See details →
The Corrections Jonathan Franzen · 2001 Essential Read See details →
American Gods Neil Gaiman · 2001 Essential Read See details →
The Shadow of the Wind Carlos Ruiz Zafon · 2001 Essential Read See details →
Austerlitz W.G. Sebald · 2001 Essential Read See details →
Bel Canto Ann Patchett · 2001 Essential Read See details →
Everything Is Illuminated Jonathan Safran Foer · 2002 Essential Read See details →
Fingersmith Sarah Waters · 2002 Essential Read See details →
The Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini · 2003 Essential Read See details →
Purple Hibiscus Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie · 2003 Essential Read See details →
We Need to Talk About Kevin Lionel Shriver · 2003 Essential Read See details →
Brick Lane Monica Ali · 2003 Essential Read See details →
Cloud Atlas David Mitchell · 2004 Essential Read See details →
The Line of Beauty Alan Hollinghurst · 2004 Essential Read See details →
Small Island Andrea Levy · 2004 Essential Read See details →
Suite Francaise Irene Nemirovsky · 2004 Essential Read See details →
No Country for Old Men Cormac McCarthy · 2005 Essential Read See details →
The Sea John Banville · 2005 Essential Read See details →
The Lightning Thief Rick Riordan · 2005 Essential Read See details →
On Beauty Zadie Smith · 2005 Essential Read See details →
Half of a Yellow Sun Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie · 2006 Essential Read See details →
The Bastard of Istanbul Elif Shafak · 2006 Essential Read See details →
The Reluctant Fundamentalist Mohsin Hamid · 2007 Essential Read See details →
On Chesil Beach Ian McEwan · 2007 Essential Read See details →
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Junot Diaz · 2007 Essential Read See details →
The Gathering Anne Enright · 2007 Essential Read See details →
Flights Olga Tokarczuk · 2007 Essential Read See details →
The Vegetarian Han Kang · 2007 Essential Read See details →
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian Sherman Alexie · 2007 Essential Read See details →
The Secret Scripture Sebastian Barry · 2008 Essential Read See details →
Kairos Jenny Erpenbeck · 2008 Essential Read See details →
Brooklyn Colm Tóibín · 2009 Essential Read See details →
My Struggle Book 1 Karl Ove Knausgard · 2009 Essential Read See details →
Let the Great World Spin Colum McCann · 2009 Essential Read See details →
The Help Kathryn Stockett · 2009 Essential Read See details →
1Q84 Haruki Murakami · 2009 Essential Read See details →
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead Olga Tokarczuk · 2009 Essential Read See details →
Brooklyn Colm Toibin · 2009 Essential Read See details →
White Teeth Zadie Smith · 2000 Recommended See details →
Life of Pi Yann Martel · 2001 Recommended See details →
Middlesex Jeffrey Eugenides · 2002 Recommended See details →
Kafka on the Shore Haruki Murakami · 2002 Recommended See details →
The Namesake Jhumpa Lahiri · 2003 Recommended See details →
Gilead Marilynne Robinson · 2004 Recommended See details →
A Thousand Splendid Suns Khaled Hosseini · 2007 Recommended See details →
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button F. Scott Fitzgerald · 2007 Recommended See details →

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