The New York Times currently has a feature where they asked famous people to list the fictions or poetry which they think are the best of the 21^st century. I decided that I couldn’t resist and that this was something I’d want to try, but I wouldn’t go so far as saying “Best”, since there are so many books that I have missed. Who hasn’t missed reading some great novels? Instead here are some of my favorites of the 21^st century so far.

Some of these novels I read before I started my site in 2009. If I do have a review on my site, you can reach it by clicking on the cover image or the title.

‘Gilead’ by Marilynne Robinson (2004) – Who would have expected a deeply religious novel to have such an impact in the 21^st century? But here it is.

‘The Known World’ by Edward P. Jones (2003) – By focusing on a black slave owner, Edward P. Jones avoids turning this re-creation of the days of slavery into a morality play of good and evil. There is no one preaching in this novel. The matter-of-fact tone of this narrative only intensifies the reader’s reaction to the events in the story. I’m still waiting for Jones’ next, since he hasn’t published a fiction since 2006.

‘Fates and Furies’ by Lauren Groff (2015) – Here is a writer who manages to put Greek myth and Shakespeare into a modern marriage story. There is a manic energy and an inventiveness here that puts this novel above most.

‘The Sympathizer’ by Viet Thanh Nguyen (2015) – Here is a poignant yet witty novel that observes the Vietnam War from the viewpoint of the Vietnamese, a perspective most of us people from the United States have not encountered before. ‘The Sympathizer’ is like a fine Graham Greene novel which is told from the perspective of a Vietnamese rather than that of a white colonialist.

‘The Long Take’ by Robin Robertson (2018) – This atmospheric and expressive poem of a novel that captures the crazed free spirit of Los Angeles just after World War II when the movie makers were filming the classic crime noir movies.

‘My Brilliant Friend’ by Elena Ferrante (2012) – Ferrante brings to life almost every member of the seven families who live in this tight little neighborhood in Naples, Italy in the 1950s.  The writing in this novel is colorful, moving, and a joy to read. After you read ‘My Brilliant Friend’, you will probably want to read all four of her Naples Quartet series.

‘The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay’ by Michael Chabon (2000) – An often humorous, always fascinating, novel, about the Golden Age of Comic Books.

‘The Old Romantic’ by Louise Dean (2010) – For those who like their comedy dark. This novel is a wicked joy with the meanest and sharpest dialogue around. I’ve been waiting 14 years for Dean to write another novel.

‘The Burning’ by Megha Majumdar (2020)– ‘A Burning’ is a vivid powerful novel which focuses on one of the major crises in our world today, racial hatred. Here is a world-changing novel about the Muslim/Hindu situation in India today.

‘Trust’ by Hernan Diaz (2022) – A rich person can buy the past he or she wants even if it is counter to the facts, if we let them. One of the features which make ‘Trust’ an outstanding novel is the smooth and effective way that Hernan Diaz handles four different sources so that we readers wind up with a full picture.

‘The Past’ by Tessa Hadley (2015) – Here is a superior family reunion novel that takes place in their old childhood home in the English countryside. The story in ‘The Past’ flows smoothly along just like the stream that flows past their old house. However at one distant point the stream goes over a rocky cliff and becomes a waterfall. The people in the novel too have their turbulences. The reader gets the strong impression that the characters here are just as subject to the laws of nature as everything else.

‘All for Nothing’ by Walter Kempowski (2006) – This is a powerful work of art that captures, in authentic detail and with compassion, the evacuation nightmare for the German people of the last days of World War II. There is a musical quality to the individual sentences which makes them a pleasure to read, in spite of or because of the frightfulness of the events which are occurring.

Happy Reading!