The 100 best contemporary books

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel and The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman lead the 100 best contemporary books, ranked by literary regard. To start, Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi is the most approachable of the highly regarded books here, about 2.2 hours to read.

Each point of light is one of the 100, placed by how hard it is to read. The brighter, the higher it ranks. The dotted line is one way up.

100
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1,065
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No. 1 of 100

The Handmaid's Tale

Margaret Atwood · 2017

Difficulty 59/1007.7 hours

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Showing 100 books

About 1,065 hours for 100 of 100 books with measured lengths. Estimates use 250 words a minute, adjusted for each book's difficulty. At 2 hours a day, about 533 days for those books.

1–10 · 93 hours

  1. No. 1 on this list. The Handmaid's Tale

    Margaret Atwood · 2017

    Challenging7.7 hours

    Taught in schools: AQA GCSE and A-level English Literature (UK), OCR GCSE and A-level English Literature (UK), Pearson Edexcel GCSE and A-level English Literature (UK)

    The novel is a staple of high school and university courses on dystopia and feminist literature. It was shortlisted for the Booker Prize, appears on the 1001 Books list, and is published as a Penguin Modern Classic.

    Start this book

  2. The historical novel that changed the genre's literary status. Thomas Cromwell's rise, rendered in present tense and close third person, made Tudor politics feel immediate. Core text in contemporary fiction and historical fiction courses.

    Start this book

  3. Widely taught in universities and high schools as the defining Holocaust graphic memoir, Maus appears on hundreds of literature and history syllabi worldwide. It is listed on virtually every major 'essential reading' and 'greatest books' compilation that includes graphic literature, from the Modern Library to Time's All-TIME 100 Novels. While not on syllabi at the scale of Fitzgerald or Austen, it holds unique canonical status as the book that forced academia to take comics seriously.

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  4. Published in 2024, James immediately entered literary conversation by directly engaging Twain's canonical Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Educators across the country now integrate it into curricula alongside Twain's original, positioning it as essential counter-narrative to American literary canon. Its Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award signal rapid canonization, though its ultimate standing requires more temporal distance to fully assess.

    Start this book

  5. No. 5 on this list. Happening

    Annie Ernaux · 2000

    Challenging1.8 hours

    Happening has become one of Ernaux's most discussed and translated works, widely taught in French literature courses at university level and increasingly prominent in Anglophone curricula following her 2022 Nobel Prize. Its frank treatment of illegal abortion in 1960s France grants it significant cultural-historical standing alongside landmark autofictional texts.

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  6. Appears on 372 university syllabi (64th percentile, Open Syllabus Project) and is listed in TIME's All-TIME 100 Novels (2005) and 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. Published in Library of America, Everyman's Library, and Penguin Classics editions — the institutional markers of canonical status. Wikipedia articles exist in 15 languages with dedicated reception and adaptations sections.

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  7. The final book in the Thomas Cromwell trilogy, following Cromwell from Jane Seymours death to his own execution.

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  8. No. 8 on this list. Never Let Me Go

    Kazuo Ishiguro · 2005

    Challenging7.2 hours

    Taught in schools: AQA GCSE and A-level English Literature (UK), OCR GCSE and A-level English Literature (UK), Pearson Edexcel GCSE and A-level English Literature (UK)

    Ishiguro's devastating meditation on mortality and purpose. Kathy H.'s narration of Hailsham and the donations revealed a dystopia through English understatement. Core text in contemporary fiction and bioethics courses. The 2010 film extended its reach.

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  9. Lorde is taught across literature, gender studies and Black studies.

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  10. The Dispossessed (1974) is one of the most taught science-fiction novels, read in courses on utopian literature, political philosophy and science fiction alike. It appears on most lists of essential science fiction and in the Library of America's edition of Le Guin's Hainish novels.

    Start this book
11–20 · 74 hours

  1. No. 11 on this list. The Great Enigma: New Collected Poems · Tomas Tranströmer · 2006

    Nobel Prize-winning collected poems. The defining Swedish poet of the twentieth century.

    Moderate1.1 hours

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  2. No. 12 on this list. The Fifth Season · N.K. Jemisin · 2015

    The Fifth Season won the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2016, the first book in what became an unprecedented trilogy of consecutive Hugo wins for Jemisin—a feat unmatched in the award's history. It appears on contemporary science fiction and fantasy syllabi and in critical discussions of the genre's formal and political possibilities. Its position in the canon is still consolidating, but its influence on subsequent speculative fiction is already evident.

    Difficult18 hours

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  3. No. 13 on this list. Exhalation: Stories · Ted Chiang · 2019

    Exhalation appears on 129 syllabi across university courses in science fiction, ethics, and philosophy of mind. With a Wikipedia presence across 24 languages and inclusion on Barack Obama's 2019 summer reading list, the collection has achieved broad recognition outside genre boundaries. It sits at the high end of contemporary short fiction without yet reaching the settled canonical status of Chiang's own Story of Your Life.

    Challenging7.9 hours

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  4. No. 14 on this list. The Plague of Doves · Louise Erdrich · 2008

    Pulitzer Prize finalist (2009) and the first entry in a trilogy whose second volume, The Round House, won the National Book Award. Taught in university courses on contemporary American and Native American literature, with an established academic presence in postcolonial and ethnic studies. Widely regarded as one of Erdrich's most formally accomplished novels.

    Difficult14 hours

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  5. No. 15 on this list. Austerlitz · W.G. Sebald · 2001

    Austerlitz appears on 197 university syllabi at the 57th percentile, placing it solidly in the serious literary canon—standard in contemporary European fiction and Holocaust literature courses at major universities. Wikipedia covers the book in 23 languages, indicating meaningful global critical reach. It is routinely assigned alongside Primo Levi, Paul Celan, and Imre Kertész in courses on memory and atrocity literature.

    Difficult9.5 hours

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  6. No. 16 on this list. Runaway · Alice Munro · 2004

    One of Munro's most celebrated collections, frequently cited as the peak of her mature work. Winner of the Giller Prize and numerous international honors.

    Moderate5.5 hours

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  7. No. 17 on this list. Unfortunately, It Was Paradise · Mahmoud Darwish · 2003

    No syllabus data was found in the database for this English translation, but the Arabic originals anchor Darwish as the most-taught Arab poet in world literature and comparative literature courses globally. This collection, published by University of California Press and with a foreword by poet Fady Joudah, is the only comprehensive selected poems in English spanning his entire career. It is widely assigned in Middle Eastern studies, postcolonial literature, and translation studies programs.

    Difficult3.8 hours

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  8. No. 18 on this list. Gilead · Marilynne Robinson · 2005

    Gilead won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and sits firmly within the American literary canon. It appears on university syllabi and in lists of essential contemporary American literature, securing Robinson's place among 21st-century literary institutions. However, it lacks the canonical inevitability of works like Gatsby or Beloved.

    Moderate6 hours

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  9. No. 19 on this list. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao · Junot Diaz · 2008

    Things have never been easy for Oscar. A ghetto nerd living with his Dominican family in New Jersey, he's sweet but disastrously overweight. He dreams of becoming the next J. R. R. Tolkien and he keeps falling hopelessly in love. Poor Oscar may never get what he wants, thanks to the Fuku - the curse that has haunted his family for generations. With dazzling energy and insight Díaz immerses us in the tumultuous lives of Oscar, his runaway sister Lola, their beautiful mother Belicia, and in the family's uproarious journey from the Dominican Republic to the US and back. Rendered with uncommon warmth and humour, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is a literary triumph, that confirms Junot Díaz as one of the most exciting writers of our time.

    Moderate6.4 hours

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  10. No. 20 on this list. Persepolis · Marjane Satrapi · 2000

    Persepolis is one of the most widely taught graphic narratives in schools and universities, a standard text in courses on memoir, comics and the modern Middle East. It sits beside Art Spiegelman's Maus at the core of the graphic-memoir curriculum.

    Easy2.2 hours

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21–30 · 119 hours

  1. No. 21 on this list. The Corrections · Jonathan Franzen · 2001

    As a National Book Award winner immediately recognized as a major achievement in contemporary American fiction, The Corrections has secured a prominent position in the late 20th-century literary canon. It appears regularly on university syllabi and 'best of' lists, including being named one of the best novels of the 21st century by multiple critics and publications.

    Challenging15 hours

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  2. No. 22 on this list. My Name Is Red · Orhan Pamuk · 2003

    In sixteenth-century Istanbul, the Sultan commissions a secret book to celebrate his magnificence, but the assignment to create illuminations in the European style triggers a theological crisis and a murder. Master Elegant Effendi speaks from a well where his killer has abandoned his corpse, demanding that his death be avenged and properly buried. Black returns to the city after twelve years abroad, drawn by nostalgia and loss, only to become entangled in the mystery and in his childhood devotion to Shekure, Enishte Effendi's ravishing daughter. The dead man, the bereaved family, the competing miniaturists Osman and Butterfly, and the household itself—each voice emerges from the narrative to confess secrets and suspicions. What begins as a hunt for a murderer expands into an interrogation of art itself, specifically whether the depiction of human figures violates Islamic law and destroys the soul. The conflict between Ottoman miniature tradition, with its rejection of perspective and realism, and the infiltrating European techniques of representation gives the mystery its metaphysical weight. Pamuk employs an architectural narrative that shifts perspective constantly, allowing a dog, the color red, and a gold coin to testify alongside human characters, creating a polyphonic structure where each voice exposes a different layer of religious anxiety, artistic ambition, and personal desire. The novel moves toward its resolution with gathering momentum despite this apparent fragmentation, tightening around questions of identity, authenticity, and the costs of aesthetic choice.

    Challenging16 hours

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  3. No. 23 on this list. Middlesex · Jeffrey Eugenides · 2003

    Winner of the 2003 Pulitzer Prize, Middlesex appears on college syllabi addressing American immigration, gender studies, and contemporary fiction. While not yet achieving the ubiquity of modernist classics, it has rapidly entered the contemporary canon as a defining work of 21st-century American literature, regularly taught alongside Roth, Morrison, and DeLillo.

    Challenging15 hours

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  4. No. 24 on this list. The Overstory · Richard Powers · 2018

    The Overstory won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and was shortlisted for the 2018 Booker Prize, establishing it as one of the most decorated American novels of the decade. It appears on 72 university syllabuses across literature, environmental studies, and American fiction courses, and has entered the standard contemporary literary canon. The Pulitzer win gives it institutional standing equivalent to Beloved or To Kill a Mockingbird in their respective periods, though its long-term canonical durability remains uncertain given its recency.

    Challenging13 hours

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  5. No. 25 on this list. No Country for Old Men · Cormac McCarthy · 2005

    Regularly included in syllabi for contemporary American literature and crime fiction courses. The 2007 Coen Brothers adaptation—Best Picture winner—dramatically expanded cultural reach and cemented the novel in the popular imagination. McCarthy's status as a major American literary figure ensures it appears on most critical inventories of important post-2000 American fiction.

    Challenging6.8 hours

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  6. No. 26 on this list. Treacle Walker · Alan Garner · 2022

    Published in 2021, Treacle Walker is too recent for canonical judgment, but Garner's lifelong integration of British folklore into literary fiction gives it strong claims. As his late-career distillation of myth, archaeology, and language, it consolidates his reputation as a major British fantasist.

    Challenging1.5 hours

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  7. No. 27 on this list. Salvage the Bones · Jesmyn Ward · 2011

    Salvage the Bones is widely taught in contemporary American literature, African American literature, and Southern literature courses. Its National Book Award win brought it immediate and sustained academic attention, and Ward's subsequent acclaim has only reinforced the book's position on university reading lists. With 400 syllabus appearances it sits in the mid-canonical tier — solidly established but not yet at the frequency of works like Beloved or Their Eyes Were Watching God.

    Moderate6 hours

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  8. No. 28 on this list. Fun Home · Alison Bechdel · 2006

    Fun Home is foundational in graphic novel studies, queer memoir, and contemporary comics curricula at the university level. It appears on syllabi in English, gender studies, and art courses across North America, though it does not yet occupy the traditional Western canon. Its inclusion in Time's All-TIME 100 Graphic Novels list marks it as essential reading within its form.

    Challenging5.3 hours

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  9. No. 29 on this list. Tree of Smoke · Denis Johnson · 2007

    Tree of Smoke appears on 12 course syllabi, placing it in the 27th percentile of syllabus appearances — solid but not dominant. Its canonical footprint is real: it is reliably taught in American literature survey courses covering the Vietnam War alongside O'Brien's The Things They Carried, and appears on graduate reading lists in contemporary fiction. Its 2007 National Book Award win cements its status as a significant contemporary novel, but it has not yet achieved the widespread undergraduate course presence of Johnson's Jesus' Son or of the Vietnam War's more established literary canon.

    Difficult28 hours

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  10. No. 30 on this list. The Human Stain · Philip Roth · 2001

    Part of Roth's 'American Trilogy' — widely referenced in American fiction surveys and on reading lists for postwar American literature. Wikipedia article available in 9 languages with a dedicated reception section and adaptations section (2003 film with Anthony Hopkins and Nicole Kidman). The Open Syllabus data records no standalone syllabus appearances, suggesting it is typically taught as part of the trilogy rather than alone.

    Challenging13 hours

    Start this book
31–40 · 98 hours

  1. No. 31 on this list. The Sympathizer

    Viet Thanh Nguyen · 2015

  2. No. 32 on this list. The Garden of Evening Mists

    Tan Twan Eng · 2013

  3. No. 33 on this list. Snow

    Orhan Pamuk · 2002

  4. No. 34 on this list. 10:04

    Ben Lerner · 2014

  5. No. 35 on this list. Life of Pi

    Yann Martel · 2002

  6. No. 36 on this list. Interpreter of Maladies

    Jhumpa Lahiri · 2000

  7. No. 37 on this list. The Stranger's Child

    Alan Hollinghurst · 2011

  8. No. 38 on this list. Trust Exercise

    Susan Choi · 2019

  9. No. 39 on this list. Parable of the Sower

    Octavia E. Butler · 1993

  10. No. 40 on this list. Erasure

    Percival Everett · 2001

41–50 · 53 hours

  1. No. 41 on this list. The Road

    Cormac McCarthy · 2007

  2. No. 42 on this list. By Night in Chile

    Roberto Bolaño · 2000

  3. No. 43 on this list. War Dances

    Sherman Alexie · 2010

  4. No. 44 on this list. The Years

    Annie Ernaux · 2019

  5. No. 45 on this list. The Known World

    Edward P. Jones · 2004

  6. No. 46 on this list. A Visit from the Goon Squad

    Jennifer Egan · 2011

  7. No. 47 on this list. Piranesi

    Susanna Clarke · 2021

  8. No. 48 on this list. The Vegetarian

    Han Kang · 2016

  9. No. 49 on this list. 4.48 Psychosis

    Sarah Kane · 2000

  10. No. 50 on this list. A Girl Is a Half-Formed Thing

    Eimear McBride · 2014

51–60 · 95 hours

  1. No. 51 on this list. A Number

    Caryl Churchill · 2002

  2. No. 52 on this list. The Underground Railroad

    Colson Whitehead · 2016

    Taught in schools: Leaving Certificate English – NCCA / State Examinations Commission (Ireland)

  3. No. 53 on this list. Open City

    Teju Cole · 2011

  4. No. 54 on this list. A Brief History of Seven Killings

    Marlon James · 2015

  5. No. 55 on this list. The Testaments

    Margaret Atwood · 2019

  6. No. 56 on this list. Sing, Unburied, Sing

    Jesmyn Ward · 2018

  7. No. 57 on this list. Stories of Your Life and Others

    Ted Chiang · 2002

  8. No. 58 on this list. Dear Life

    Alice Munro · 2012

  9. No. 59 on this list. Don't Let Me Be Lonely

    Claudia Rankine · 2004

  10. No. 60 on this list. Half of a Yellow Sun

    Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie · 2007

61–70 · 136 hours

  1. No. 61 on this list. Parallel Stories

    László Nádas · 2005

  2. No. 62 on this list. The Pale King

    David Foster Wallace · 2012

  3. No. 63 on this list. White Teeth

    Zadie Smith · 2002

  4. No. 64 on this list. The Accidental

    Ali Smith · 2005

  5. No. 65 on this list. The Nickel Boys

    Colson Whitehead · 2019

  6. No. 66 on this list. Innocent Erendira and Other Stories

    Gabriel García Márquez · 2005

  7. No. 67 on this list. Trust

    Hernan Diaz · 2022

  8. No. 68 on this list. Topdog/Underdog

    Suzan-Lori Parks · 2001

  9. No. 69 on this list. Tenth of December

    George Saunders · 2013

  10. No. 70 on this list. The Plot Against America

    Philip Roth · 2004

71–80 · 81 hours

  1. No. 71 on this list. The Slynx

    Tatyana Tolstaya · 2000

  2. No. 72 on this list. Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay

    Elena Ferrante · 2013

  3. No. 73 on this list. Atonement

    Ian McEwan · 2001

    Taught in schools: AQA GCSE and A-level English Literature (UK), Pearson Edexcel GCSE and A-level English Literature (UK)

  4. No. 74 on this list. Human Acts

    Han Kang · 2014

  5. No. 75 on this list. The Door

    Magda Szabó · 1987

    Taught in schools: Hungarian literature curriculum (magyar nyelv és irodalom) (Hungary)

  6. No. 76 on this list. Building Stories

    Chris Ware · 2012

  7. No. 77 on this list. A Mercy

    Toni Morrison · 2008

  8. No. 78 on this list. Last Evenings on Earth

    Roberto Bolaño · 2006

  9. No. 79 on this list. Anil's Ghost

    Michael Ondaatje · 2000

  10. No. 80 on this list. Flights

    Olga Tokarczuk · 2007

81–90 · 180 hours

  1. No. 81 on this list. Penelopiad

    Margaret Atwood · 2005

  2. No. 82 on this list. The Luminaries

    Eleanor Catton · 2013

  3. No. 83 on this list. Ignorance

    Milan Kundera · 2000

  4. No. 84 on this list. Jack

    Marilynne Robinson · 2020

  5. No. 85 on this list. 1Q84

    Haruki Murakami · 2009

  6. No. 86 on this list. Frog

    Mo Yan · 2009

  7. No. 87 on this list. Against the Day

    Thomas Pynchon · 2006

  8. No. 88 on this list. Baudolino

    Umberto Eco · 2000

  9. No. 89 on this list. Brown Girl Dreaming

    Jacqueline Woodson · 2014

  10. No. 90 on this list. Purple Hibiscus

    Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie · 2004

    Taught in schools: Leaving Certificate English – NCCA / State Examinations Commission (Ireland)

91–100 · 136 hours

  1. No. 91 on this list. Wizard of the Crow

    Ngugi wa Thiong'o · 2004

  2. No. 92 on this list. We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves

    Karen Joy Fowler · 2014

  3. No. 93 on this list. Circe

    Madeline Miller · 2019

  4. No. 94 on this list. All the Light We Cannot See

    Anthony Doerr · 2014

    Taught in schools: Singapore-Cambridge GCE O-Level Literature in English (2065)

  5. No. 95 on this list. 2666

    Roberto Bolaño · 2004

  6. No. 96 on this list. Hamnet

    Maggie O'Farrell · 2020

    Taught in schools: Leaving Certificate English – NCCA / State Examinations Commission (Ireland)

  7. No. 97 on this list. The Round House

    Louise Erdrich · 2012

  8. No. 98 on this list. Pas pleurer

    Lydie Salvayre · 2014

  9. No. 99 on this list. Half a Life

    V.S. Naipaul · 2001

  10. No. 100 on this list. Bring Up the Bodies

    Hilary Mantel · 2012

About this list

These 100 books are the highest-scoring eligible contemporary books currently in the catalogue. About 1,065 hours of reading in all. Difficulty runs from 56 to 70 out of 100 for the middle half of the list; the summit is 10:04 at 85.

This list is ranked by literary regard, with a consistent order for equal scores. Membership follows authors and co-authors, not translators or editors. A book is here when ReadingRate files it under Contemporary Literature as one of its primary reading domains, and only when its author’s lifetime places it in the period. Catalogue coverage and the historical canon both limit what this list can represent.

When we matched the Canons dataset to our catalogue in October 2026, our canonical-status scores rose with the number of school curricula, publisher series and lists in it that cite a work: the median score was 72 for books one such source cites, 84 at two, 88 at three, 92 at four and 93 at five or more. Prizes are left out of that count. Outside the state curricula, the dataset’s sources choose mostly from what has been translated into English or French, so it is a weaker check on other literatures. Source: Canons (Andrew Piper), CC BY 4.0

Questions people actually ask

What are the best contemporary books?
By literary regard, which weighs canonical status, critical standing and influence: The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel, The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman, James by Percival Everett and Happening by Annie Ernaux. ReadingRate ranks 100 such books, each with a difficulty score and a reading-time estimate.
Which contemporary books should I read first?
Start from difficulty, not from rank. The most approachable books on this list that still carry top literary regard are Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi (about 2.2 hours), The Great Enigma: New Collected Poems by Tomas Tranströmer and Runaway by Alice Munro.
What are the shortest of the best contemporary books?
Among the top 25, the shortest are The Great Enigma: New Collected Poems by Tomas Tranströmer (about 1.1 hours), Happening by Annie Ernaux (about 1.8 hours) and The Complete Maus by Art Spiegelman (about 2.8 hours), at an average pace of 250 words a minute adjusted for each book's difficulty.
Which of the best contemporary books are the established classics?
By canonical status, how firmly a book sits in curricula, anthologies and the canon: The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, The Overstory by Richard Powers, James by Percival Everett, The Great Enigma: New Collected Poems by Tomas Tranströmer and Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi.
How long would it take to read the top ten?
About 93 hours, at an average pace of 250 words a minute adjusted for each book's difficulty: 47 days at two hours a day. Set your own pace on the page and the list's reading times change to it.
How hard are contemporary books to read?
Most of this list sits between 56 and 70 on ReadingRate's 100-point difficulty scale, where 40 to 55 is moderate. The summit is 10:04 at 85. Every entry carries its own score, so a reader can pick a great book at a difficulty they will finish.
How is this list ranked?
On literary-regard data: how canonically established a work is, its critical standing, and its influence on later writing. It is not a readers’ poll, which is why recent bestsellers rarely appear. Membership follows authors and co-authors, not translators or editors. Lists by country, author, period, theme or difficulty keep to literature (fiction, poetry, drama and philosophy), their novels, poems and plays first and their philosophy after them; a list of a kind of book, such as memoir or criticism, keeps every book of that kind. Every list holds at most three works by one author. A book is here when ReadingRate files it under Contemporary Literature as one of its primary reading domains, and only when its author’s lifetime places it in the period.