Literary Fiction

Sandra Cisneros is an American novelist, poet and short story writer, born in Chicago on 20 December 1954. She is best known for her first novel, “The House on Mango Street” (1984), and the story collection “Woman Hollering Creek and Other Stories” (1991), and is regarded as a key figure in Chicano literature. Cisneros grew … Read more

Siri Hustvedt is an American novelist and essayist, born in Northfield, Minnesota, in 1955. She is the author of seven novels, including “What I Loved” (2003) and “The Blazing World” (2014), along with a book of poetry, several essay collections and other works of non-fiction. Her books have been translated into more than thirty languages. … Read more

Marilynne Robinson is an American novelist and essayist, born in Sandpoint, Idaho, on 26 November 1943. She is best known for her first novel, “Housekeeping” (1980), and for “Gilead” (2004), which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2005 and began a sequence of four linked novels set in a small Iowa town. Born Marilynne … Read more

Alice Hoffman is an American novelist, born in New York City on 16 March 1952 and raised on Long Island. She has written more than thirty novels, along with books for young adults and children, and is best known for “Practical Magic” (1995), which was filmed in 1998 with Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman. Many … Read more

Jeffrey Eugenides is an American novelist and short story writer, born in Detroit, Michigan, on 8 March 1960. He has published three novels, “The Virgin Suicides” (1993), “Middlesex” (2002) and “The Marriage Plot” (2011), and the story collection “Fresh Complaint” (2017). “Middlesex” won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2003. Eugenides is of Greek descent … Read more

Jay McInerney (born 1955) is an American novelist best known for “Bright Lights, Big City” (1984), a novel of 1980s New York told in the second person, and for a sequence of four novels about the marriage of Russell and Corrine Calloway. The last of them, “See You on the Other Side”, was published in … Read more

Isaac Bashevis Singer (1903-1991) was a Polish-born Jewish American writer who wrote in Yiddish and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1978. He is best known for short stories such as “Gimpel the Fool” and for novels including “The Family Moskat”, “The Magician of Lublin” and “Enemies, a Love Story”. Singer was born in … Read more

Tom Robbins (1932-2025) was an American novelist known for seriocomic novels such as “Even Cowgirls Get the Blues”, “Still Life with Woodpecker” and “Jitterbug Perfume”. He published eight novels between 1971 and 2003 and lived in La Conner, Washington, from 1970 until his death. Thomas Eugene Robbins was born in Blowing Rock, North Carolina, on … Read more

Jonathan Safran Foer (born 21 February 1977 in Washington, D.C.) is an American novelist known for “Everything Is Illuminated” (2002), “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” (2005) and “Here I Am” (2016). He has also written two non-fiction books about food and the environment, “Eating Animals” and “We Are the Weather”. Foer is the middle of … Read more

Sherman Alexie (born 7 October 1966 in Spokane, Washington) is a Spokane novelist, short story writer, poet and filmmaker who grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. He is best known for the semi-autobiographical young adult novel “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian”, which won the 2007 National Book Award for Young People’s … Read more

William T. Vollmann (born 28 July 1959 in Los Angeles) is an American novelist, journalist, war correspondent, short story writer and essayist. He won the 2005 National Book Award for Fiction for “Europe Central” and is the author of “Seven Dreams”, a cycle of novels about the settlement of North America. Vollmann attended high school … Read more

Richard Powers (born 18 June 1957 in Evanston, Illinois) is an American novelist whose books explore the effects of modern science and technology. He has published fourteen novels, winning the National Book Award for Fiction for “The Echo Maker” in 2006 and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for “The Overstory” in 2019. One of five … Read more

Edward Abbey (1927 to 1989) was an American novelist and essayist who wrote about the deserts of the American Southwest and argued for the protection of wilderness. His best-known books are the novel “The Monkey Wrench Gang” (1975) and the non-fiction work “Desert Solitaire” (1968). Abbey was born in Indiana, Pennsylvania, on 29 January 1927. … Read more

Jim Harrison (1937 to 2016) was an American novelist, poet and essayist, best known for the novella collection “Legends of the Fall” and the novel “Dalva”. He published more than three dozen books, including twelve novels and twenty-four novellas, and much of his fiction is set in thinly populated country: Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, the Sand … Read more

Tobias Wolff is an American short story writer, memoirist and novelist, best known for the memoirs “This Boy’s Life” and “In Pharaoh’s Army”. He has also published four collections of stories, the novel “Old School” and the novella “The Barracks Thief”, and received the National Medal of Arts from President Barack Obama in 2015. Wolff … Read more

Eudora Welty (1909 to 2001) was an American short story writer, novelist and photographer who wrote about the American South. She published five novels and more than forty short stories, won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1973 for “The Optimist’s Daughter”, and was the first living author to have her work published by the … Read more

John Cheever (1912 to 1982) was an American short story writer and novelist whose fiction is set largely in Manhattan, the Westchester suburbs and old New England villages. His collection “The Stories of John Cheever” (1978) won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and his first novel, “The Wapshot Chronicle” (1957), won the National Book Award. … Read more

John Kennedy Toole (1937 to 1969) was an American novelist from New Orleans whose comic novel “A Confederacy of Dunces” was published in 1980, eleven years after his death, and won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1981. His only other novel, “The Neon Bible”, written when he was 16, followed in 1989. Toole was … Read more

Christopher Isherwood (1904 to 1986) was an English-born novelist, playwright and diarist who became an American citizen in 1946. He is best known for “Goodbye to Berlin” (1939), the semi-autobiographical novel that became the musical “Cabaret”, and for “A Single Man” (1964). Isherwood was born on his family’s estate in Cheshire. His father, a professional … Read more

Mark Z. Danielewski (born in New York City on 5 March 1966) is an American novelist best known for his debut, “House of Leaves” (2000), a horror novel built around a house that is bigger on the inside than the outside. His books are known for their unconventional typography and page layout, a style he … Read more

Erica Jong (born Erica Mann in New York City on 26 March 1942) is an American novelist and poet. She is best known for her first novel, “Fear of Flying” (1973), whose frank treatment of a woman’s sexual desires made it controversial on publication and gave it a prominent place in second-wave feminism. She was … Read more

Lionel Shriver (born Margaret Ann Shriver in Gastonia, North Carolina, on 18 May 1957) is an American novelist and journalist. She is best known for “We Need to Talk About Kevin”, which won the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2005 and was filmed in 2011 with Tilda Swinton and Ezra Miller. Her father was a … Read more

Denis Johnson (born 1949, died 2017) was an American novelist, short story writer and poet, best known for the story collection “Jesus’ Son” (1992), the Vietnam War novel “Tree of Smoke” (2007), which won the National Book Award for Fiction, and the novella “Train Dreams”. Johnson was born in Munich, West Germany, on 1 July … Read more

Paul Theroux is an American novelist and travel writer, born in Medford, Massachusetts, on 10 April 1941. He is best known for the railway travelogue “The Great Railway Bazaar” (1975) and for the novel “The Mosquito Coast” (1981), which won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and was adapted as a 1986 film and a … Read more

Anaïs Nin (born 1903, died 1977) was a French-born American diarist, novelist and writer of short stories and erotica. She kept a journal from the age of eleven until her death, and the published volumes of that diary, together with the erotic collections “Delta of Venus” and “Little Birds”, are the books she is best … Read more

Pat Conroy (1945 to 2016) was an American novelist and memoirist, regarded as a leading figure of late 20th-century Southern literature. His novels “The Great Santini”, “The Lords of Discipline” and “The Prince of Tides” drew on his own family and schooling, and all three were made into films. Conroy was born in Atlanta, Georgia, … Read more

Amy Tan is an American novelist, born on 19 February 1952 in Oakland, California, to Chinese immigrant parents. She is best known for her first book, “The Joy Luck Club” (1989), about four Chinese American mother and daughter pairs, which was filmed in 1993. She has since published five further novels, two children’s books, two … Read more

Louise Erdrich is an American novelist, poet and children’s author, born on 7 June 1954 in Little Falls, Minnesota, and an enrolled citizen of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians of North Dakota. Most of her fiction is set on and around a fictional Ojibwe reservation in North Dakota. She won the National Book … Read more

Joseph Heller (1923 to 1999) was an American novelist best known for “Catch-22” (1961), a satire on war and bureaucracy whose title became a standard term for a dilemma with no easy way out. He wrote seven novels, along with plays, screenplays, short stories and two volumes of autobiography. Heller was born on 1 May … Read more

Michael Chabon (born 24 May 1963 in Washington, D.C.) is an American novelist, short story writer and screenwriter. He won the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for “The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay”, and the Hugo and Nebula awards for his alternate history detective novel “The Yiddish Policemen’s Union”. Chabon’s parents divorced when he … Read more

Alice Sebold (born 6 September 1963 in Madison, Wisconsin) is an American author known for the novels “The Lovely Bones” and “The Almost Moon” and for the memoir “Lucky”. “The Lovely Bones” stayed on the New York Times Best Seller list for more than a year and was filmed by Peter Jackson in 2009. Sebold … Read more

Saul Bellow (1915 to 2005) was a Canadian-born American novelist whose books include “The Adventures of Augie March”, “Herzog” and “Humboldt’s Gift”. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature and the Pulitzer Prize in 1976 and is the only writer to have won the National Book Award for Fiction three times. He was born Solomon … Read more

Jonathan Franzen is an American novelist and essayist, born in 1959. “The Corrections” (2001) won the National Book Award, “Freedom” followed in 2010, and his sixth novel, “Crossroads” (2021), is the first volume of a planned trilogy. Franzen was born in Western Springs, Illinois, and grew up in Webster Groves, a suburb of St. Louis. … Read more

Ottessa Moshfegh is an American novelist and screenwriter, born in Boston in 1981. Her first novel, “Eileen” (2015), won the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, and she has since published “My Year of Rest and Relaxation”, “Death in Her Hands” and “Lapvona”. Moshfegh was raised in Boston by a … Read more

Elizabeth Strout is an American novelist, born in Portland, Maine, in 1956, much of whose fiction is set in her home state. She won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for “Olive Kitteridge” and is also known for her series of novels about Lucy Barton. Strout grew up in small towns in Maine and in … Read more

Jhumpa Lahiri is an author of short stories, novels and essays who writes in both English and Italian. Her first book, the story collection “Interpreter of Maladies” (1999), won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2000, and her first novel, “The Namesake” (2003), was made into a film directed by Mira Nair. She was born … Read more

Dave Eggers (born 12 March 1970 in Boston) is an American writer, editor and publisher whose books include the memoir “A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius”, the novels “What Is the What” and “The Circle”, and the Newbery Medal winner “The Eyes and the Impossible”. He founded the independent publisher McSweeney’s and co-founded the youth … Read more

Colson Whitehead (born 6 November 1969 in New York City) is an American novelist and one of only four writers to have won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction twice, for “The Underground Railroad” and “The Nickel Boys”. He has published ten novels and two books of non-fiction. Whitehead grew up in Manhattan, attended Trinity School … Read more

John Updike (1932 to 2009) was an American novelist, short-story writer, poet and critic, best known for the Rabbit novels about Harry “Rabbit” Angstrom. He published more than 20 novels and more than a dozen story collections, and is one of only four writers to have won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once. … Read more

Don DeLillo is an American novelist, born in New York City on 20 November 1936, who has also written short stories, plays and essays. He is the author of “White Noise”, which won the National Book Award, along with “Libra”, “Mao II” and “Underworld”. His subjects include consumerism, nuclear war, television, terrorism, sport and the … Read more

George Saunders (born 2 December 1958) is an American writer best known for his short stories and for the novel “Lincoln in the Bardo” (2017), which won the Booker Prize. His story collections include “CivilWarLand in Bad Decline” (1996), “Pastoralia” (2000) and “Tenth of December” (2013). Saunders was born in Amarillo, Texas, and grew up … Read more

Tom Wolfe (1930 to 2018) was an American journalist and novelist associated with New Journalism, the style of reporting developed in the 1960s and 1970s that borrowed the techniques of fiction. He is known for the non-fiction books “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test” and “The Right Stuff” and for his first novel, "The Bonfire of … Read more

John Irving (born 1942) is an American and Canadian novelist and screenwriter, best known for “The World According to Garp”, “The Cider House Rules” and “A Prayer for Owen Meany”. He has written sixteen novels, and he won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay in 2000 for the film of “The Cider House Rules”. … Read more

Alice Walker is an American novelist, short story writer and poet, born in Eatonton, Georgia, in 1944. Her novel “The Color Purple” (1982) won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award in 1983, making her the first African-American woman to win the Pulitzer for fiction. She has also published story collections, essays, … Read more

Ann Patchett is an American novelist, born in Los Angeles in 1963 and raised in Nashville, Tennessee, whose fourth novel, “Bel Canto” (2001), won the PEN/Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize. She has published ten novels, among them “State of Wonder”, “Commonwealth”, “The Dutch House” and “Tom Lake”, along with memoirs, essays and picture books. … Read more

Isabel Allende is a Chilean-American novelist, born in Lima, Peru, in 1942, who writes in Spanish and is best known for her first novel, “The House of the Spirits” (1982). Her fiction often draws on her own life and on historical events, puts women at the centre and sometimes uses elements of magical realism. Her … Read more

Joyce Carol Oates (born 16 June 1938) is an American writer who has published nearly 60 novels since the 1960s, along with many volumes of short stories, novellas, plays, poetry and non-fiction. She won the National Book Award for “them” (1969), and four of her books have been finalists for the Pulitzer Prize. Oates was … Read more

Philip Roth (1933 to 2018) was an American novelist and short-story writer whose fiction, often set in his birthplace of Newark, New Jersey, is known for its autobiographical character and its explorations of Jewish and American identity. He won the Pulitzer Prize for “American Pastoral” and the National Book Award twice. Roth was born in … Read more

Norman Mailer (1923 to 2007) was an American novelist and journalist whose first novel, “The Naked and the Dead”, made him famous at 25. He won the Pulitzer Prize twice, for “The Armies of the Night” and for “The Executioner’s Song”. Mailer was born in Long Branch, New Jersey, on 31 January 1923 and grew … Read more

Charles Bukowski (1920 to 1994) was a German-American poet, novelist and short story writer whose work is rooted in Los Angeles, the city where he spent most of his life. He wrote six novels, hundreds of short stories and thousands of poems about the lives of poor Americans, drinking, relationships with women, the act of … Read more

Joan Didion (born 5 December 1934 in Sacramento, California; died 23 December 2021 in New York City) was an American writer and journalist, regarded as one of the pioneers of New Journalism. She wrote five novels, among them “Play It as It Lays”, and non-fiction that runs from the essay collection “Slouching Towards Bethlehem” to … Read more

Toni Morrison (born Chloe Ardelia Wofford in Lorain, Ohio, on 18 February 1931; died 5 August 2019) was an American novelist and editor who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993. Her eleven novels, which include “The Bluest Eye”, “Song of Solomon” and the Pulitzer Prize winner “Beloved”, deal with Black American life and … Read more

Bret Easton Ellis (born 7 March 1964 in Los Angeles) is an American novelist and screenwriter best known for “Less Than Zero” (1985) and “American Psycho” (1991). His fiction is satirical, describes extreme behaviour in a flat, affectless style, and often carries characters over from one book to the next. Ellis grew up in Sherman … Read more

James Baldwin (1924 to 1987) was an American novelist, essayist and playwright whose work deals with race, sexuality and class in mid-twentieth-century America. He is best known for the novels “Go Tell It on the Mountain” (1953) and “Giovanni’s Room” (1956) and for the essay collections “Notes of a Native Son” and "The Fire Next … Read more

Truman Capote (1924 to 1984) was an American novelist, short story writer and screenwriter, best known for the novella “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” (1958) and the true crime book “In Cold Blood”. He is regarded as one of the founders of New Journalism, and his work and life have been the subject of more than 20 … Read more

David Foster Wallace (1962 to 2008) was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist, best known for his second novel, “Infinite Jest” (1996). He published two novels and three story collections in his lifetime, alongside essay collections such as “A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again”, and his unfinished novel “The Pale King” … Read more

Cormac McCarthy (1933 to 2023) was an American novelist who wrote twelve novels, along with plays and screenplays, in the Southern Gothic, Western and post-apocalyptic genres. He is best known for “Blood Meridian”, the Border Trilogy, “No Country for Old Men” and “The Road”, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2007. He was … Read more

Donna Tartt (born 23 December 1963) is an American novelist who has published three novels, roughly one a decade: “The Secret History” (1992), “The Little Friend” (2002) and “The Goldfinch” (2013). “The Goldfinch” won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2014. Tartt was born in Greenwood, Mississippi, and raised in the nearby town of Grenada. … Read more

Ian McEwan (born 21 June 1948) is a British novelist and screenwriter whose books include “Atonement”, “Enduring Love” and “On Chesil Beach”. He won the Booker Prize in 1998 for “Amsterdam” and has been nominated for it six times. McEwan was born in Aldershot, Hampshire, the son of an army officer, and spent much of … Read more

Maggie O’Farrell (born 1972) is an Irish-British novelist best known for “Hamnet”, her 2020 novel about the death of William Shakespeare’s son, which won the Women’s Prize for Fiction and the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction. She has published ten novels, a memoir and three picture books for children. O’Farrell was born in … Read more

Khaled Hosseini is an Afghan-American novelist and former physician, born in Kabul on 4 March 1965, best known for “The Kite Runner” (2003) and “A Thousand Splendid Suns” (2007). All of his novels are set at least partly in Afghanistan and have Afghan protagonists. Hosseini was the eldest of five children. His father worked for … Read more

Sir Kazuo Ishiguro (born 8 November 1954) is a Japanese-born British novelist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2017. He is best known for “The Remains of the Day”, which won the Booker Prize in 1989, and “Never Let Me Go”. Ishiguro was born in Nagasaki and moved to Guildford, Surrey, in … Read more

Sally Rooney is an Irish novelist, born in Castlebar, County Mayo, on 20 February 1991. She is the author of four novels: “Conversations with Friends” (2017), “Normal People” (2018), “Beautiful World, Where Are You” (2021) and “Intermezzo” (2024). The first two were adapted for television by BBC Three and Hulu. Rooney studied English at Trinity … Read more

Kate Atkinson is an English novelist, born in York on 20 December 1951, who writes literary and historical fiction alongside the Jackson Brodie detective novels. Her debut, “Behind the Scenes at the Museum”, won the Whitbread Book of the Year award in 1995, and both “Life After Life” and “A God in Ruins” won the … Read more

Haruki Murakami is a Japanese novelist, born in Kyoto on 12 January 1949, whose books include “Norwegian Wood”, “The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle”, “Kafka on the Shore” and “1Q84”. His work has been translated into 50 languages and is often described as magical realism. Murakami was raised in Nishinomiya, Ashiya and Kobe, the only child of … Read more

Elena Ferrante is the pseudonym of an Italian novelist best known for the four Neapolitan Novels, which begin with “My Brilliant Friend”. She writes in Italian, and has kept her identity secret since her first novel was published in 1992. Very little is known about her. She has said in interviews that she was born … Read more

We’ve compiled a comprehensive list of Jonathan Lethem’s books, arranged by their publication dates. With this guide, you can effortlessly trace the evolution of his literary career and discover your next favorite read. Publication Order of Standalone Novels Gun, With Occasional Music (1994) Amnesia Moon (1995) As She Climbed Across the Table (1997) Girl in … Read more

Publication Order of Fyodor Dostoyevsky Standalone Novels The Double (1846) Poor Folk / Poor People (1846) The Landlady (1847) White Nights (1848) Uncle’s Dream (1859) The Insulted and Injured / Humiliated and Insulted (1861) The House of the Dead / Notes from a Dead House (1862) Notes from the Underground (1864) Crime and Punishment (1866) … Read more