Reading Challenge · Genre

Best Literary Fiction: The Modern Novel Canon

Literary fiction is the genre that takes the novel seriously — using language, structure, and character to say something true about the human experience. These are the best literary fiction novels of the past century: books that critics, writers, and serious readers return to when they want to understand what fiction can do. From Woolf's London to Ellison's America to Adichie's Lagos and New York, every title here belongs on any serious reader's shelf.