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Literature of the 20th century refers toworld literature produced during the 20th century (1901 to 2000).

The main periods in question are often grouped by scholars asModernist literature,Postmodern literature, flowering from roughly 1900 to 1940 and 1960 to 1990^[1] respectively, roughly usingWorld War II as a transition point. After 1960, the somewhat malleable term "contemporary literature" widely appears.

Although these terms (modern, contemporary and postmodern) are generally applicable to and stem from Western literary history, scholars often use them in reference toAsian,Latin American andAfrican literatures. Non-western writers, in particular inPostcolonial literature, have been at the forefront of literary evolution during the twentieth century.

Technological advances facilitated lower production cost for books, coupled with rising populations and literacy rates, which resulted in a significant rise in production of popular literature andtrivial literature, comparable to the similar developments in music. The division of "popular literature" and "high literature" in the 20th century is overlapped bygenres such asdetectives orscience fiction, despite being largely ignored by mainstreamliterary criticism for most of the century. These genres developed their own establishments and critical awards; these include theNebula Award (since 1965), theBritish Fantasy Award (since 1971) or theMythopoeic Awards (since 1971).

Towards the end of the 20th century,electronic literature grew in importance in light of the development ofhypertext and later theWorld Wide Web.

TheNobel Prize in Literature was awarded annually throughout the century (with the exception of 1914, 1918, 1935 and 1940–1943), the first laureate (1901) beingSully Prudhomme.The New York Times Best Seller list has been published since 1942.

Thebest-selling literary works of the 20th century are estimated to beThe Lord of the Rings (1954/55, 150 million copies),Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince, 1943, 140 million copies),Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (1997, 120 million copies) andAnd Then There Were None (1939, 115 million copies).The Lord of the Rings was also voted "book of the century" in various surveys.^[2][3][4][5]Perry Rhodan (1961 to present) proclaimed as the best-selling book series, with an estimated total of 1 billion copies sold.

TheFin de siècle movement of theBelle Époque persisted into the 20th century, but was brutally cut short with the outbreak of World War I (an effect depicted e.g. inThomas Mann'sThe Magic Mountain, published 1924). TheDada movement of 1916–1920 was at least in part a protest against thebourgeoisnationalist andcolonialist interests which many Dadaists believed were the root cause of the war; the movement heralded theSurrealism movement of the 1920s.

1900

• Lord Jim byJoseph Conrad (Poland, England)
• The Knights of the Cross byHenryk Sienkiewicz (Poland)

Genre fiction

• The Wonderful Wizard of Oz byL. Frank Baum (US)

1901

• Buddenbrooks byThomas Mann (Germany)
• The Inheritors byJoseph Conrad andFord Madox Ford (England)
• Kim byRudyard Kipling (India, England)

Genre fiction

• The Purple Cloud byM. P. Shiel (Montserrat, England)
• The First Men in the Moon byH. G. Wells (England)

1902

• Heart of Darkness byJoseph Conrad
• The Immoralist byAndré Gide (France)
• The Wings of the Dove byHenry James (US, England)
• The Grand Babylon Hotel byArnold Bennett (England)

Genre fiction

• The Hound of the Baskervilles byArthur Conan Doyle (Scotland)
• Just So Stories byRudyard Kipling

Plays

• Man and Superman byGeorge Bernard Shaw (Ireland)
• The Lower Depths byMaxim Gorky

1903

• Romance byJoseph Conrad andFord Madox Ford
• The Ambassadors byHenry James
• The Pit byFrank Norris (US)
• In Wonderland byKnut Hamsun (Norway)

Genre fiction

• The Call of the Wild byJack London (US)
• The Riddle of the Sands byErskine Childers (England, Ireland)

1904

• The Golden Bowl byHenry James
• Nostromo byJoseph Conrad
• The Napoleon of Notting Hill byG. K. Chesterton (England)
• The Peasants byWładysław Reymont (Poland)

Genre fiction

• The Food of the Gods byH. G. Wells
• The Sea-Wolf byJack London
• Green Mansions byWilliam Henry Hudson (Argentina, England)

Plays

• John Bull's Other Island byGeorge Bernard Shaw
• The Cherry Orchard byAnton Chekhov

1905

• Hadrian the Seventh byFrederick Rolfe akaBaron Corvo (England, Italy)
• Where Angels Fear to Tread byE. M. Forster (England)
• Kipps byH. G. Wells
• Songs of Life and Hope byRubén Darío (Nicaragua)
• The House of Mirth byEdith Wharton (US)
• The Club of Queer Trades byG. K. Chesterton

1906

• The Jungle byUpton Sinclair (US)
• The Confusions of Young Törless byRobert Musil (Austria)
• Mother byMaxim Gorky

Genre fiction

• Puck of Pook's Hill byRudyard Kipling
• Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens byJ. M. Barrie (Scotland)
• Time and the Gods byLord Dunsany (Ireland, England)
• White Fang byJack London

Plays

• The Aran Islands byJohn Millington Synge (Ireland)
• The Morality of Mrs. Dulska byGabriela Zapolska (Poland)

1907

• Bardidi bySarat Chandra Chattopadhyay (India)
• The Secret Agent byJoseph Conrad
• The Longest Journey byE. M. Forster

Genre fiction

• The Listener and Other Stories byAlgernon Blackwood (England) – containsThe Willows, one of the first 'cosmic horror' stories
• The Hill of Dreams byArthur Machen (England)

Plays

• The Playboy of the Western World byJohn Millington Synge

Poetry

• Cautionary Tales for Children byHilaire Belloc (France, England)

1908

• The Man Who Was Thursday byG. K. Chesterton
• A Room with a View byE. M. Forster
• The Iron Heel byJack London
• Hell byHenri Barbusse (France, Russia)
• The Magician bySomerset Maugham (England, France) – based on the author's meeting withAleister Crowley

Genre fiction

• The Wind in the Willows byKenneth Grahame (England)

Poetry

• Personae byEzra Pound (US, England, Italy) – one of the first examples of 'modernist' poetry

1909

• Martin Eden byJack London
• Sparrows: the story of an unprotected girl byHorace W C Newte
• Tono-Bungay byH. G. Wells
• Three Lives byGertrude Stein (US, France)

Poetry

• Exultations byEzra Pound
• Poems byWilliam Carlos Williams (US)

Plays

• The Blue Bird byMaurice Maeterlinck (Belgium)

1910

• Howards End byE. M. Forster
• The Card byArnold Bennett
• The History of Mr Polly byH. G. Wells

1911

• Zuleika Dobson byMax Beerbohm (England)
• In a German Pension byKatherine Mansfield (England) – short stories
• Under Western Eyes byJoseph Conrad
• The White Peacock byD. H. Lawrence (England)
• Jennie Gerhardt byTheodore Dreiser (US)
• In Desert and Wilderness byHenryk Sienkiewicz (Poland)

Genre fiction

• Peter and Wendy byJ. M. Barrie (Scotland)

1912

• The Trespasser byD. H. Lawrence
• Death in Venice byThomas Mann (Germany)

Genre fiction

• Riders of the Purple Sage byZane Grey (US)
• The Lost World byArthur Conan Doyle
• Tarzan of the Apes byEdgar Rice Burroughs (US)

Plays

• Pygmalion byGeorge Bernard Shaw

1913

• Petersburg byAndrei Bely (Russia)
• Swann's Way byMarcel Proust (France)
• Le Grand Meaulnes byAlain-Fournier (France)
• Sons and Lovers byD. H. Lawrence
• Chance byJoseph Conrad

Genre fiction

• A Prisoner in Fairyland byAlgernon Blackwood – adapted into a play, it later became theAndrew Lloyd Webber musicalStarlight Express
• The Mystery of Dr. Fu-Manchu by 'Sax Rohmer' (England)

Poetry

• Alcools byGuillaume Apollinaire (Poland, France) – dada poems
• Gitanjali byRabindranath Tagore

1914

• Dubliners byJames Joyce (Ireland, France, Italy) – short stories
• The Prussian Officer and Other Stories byD. H. Lawrence – short stories
• Der Untertan byHeinrich Mann
• The Vatican Cellars byAndré Gide
• Tender Buttons byGertrude Stein
• The Golem byGustav Meyrink (Austria)
• Mist byMiguel de Unamuno (Spain)
• Maurice byE. M. Forster – unpublished
• Sinister Street byCompton Mackenzie (Scotland, Greece)
• The Flying Inn byG. K. Chesterton
• The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists byRobert Noonan (UK)

Poetry

• North of Boston byRobert Frost (US)

1915

• The Good Soldier byFord Madox Ford
• The Rainbow byD. H. Lawrence
• The Metamorphosis byFranz Kafka
• Of Human Bondage bySomerset Maugham
• The Underdogs byMariano Azuela (Mexico)
• Victory byJoseph Conrad
• Pointed Roofs byDorothy Richardson
• The Voyage Out byVirginia Woolf (England)
• Vainglory byRonald Firbank (England)
• Rashōmon byRyūnosuke Akutagawa

Genre fiction

• The Thirty-Nine Steps byJohn Buchan (Scotland, Canada)

1916

• A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man byJames Joyce
• Women in Love byD. H. Lawrence – initially banned, published in 1920

Genre fiction

• Greenmantle byJohn Buchan

Poetry

• Salt-Water Poems and Ballads byJohn Masefield (England)
• Mountain Interval byRobert Frost

1917

• Under Fire byHenri Barbusse (France, Russia)
• Walpurgis Night byGustav Meyrink
• Growth of the Soil byKnut Hamsun
• The Shadow-Line byJoseph Conrad
• Caprice byRonald Firbank
• Devdas bySarat Chandra Chattopadhyay

Poetry

• Dulce et Decorum est andAnthem for Doomed Youth byWilfred Owen (England) – published posthumously
• Prufrock and Other Observations byT. S. Eliot (US, England)

Non-fiction

• The State and Revolution byVladimir Lenin

1918

• Tarr byWyndham Lewis (Canada, England)
• Man of Straw byHeinrich Mann (Germany)

Poetry

• Calligrammes byGuillaume Apollinaire – dada poetry

Non-fiction

• Eminent Victorians byLytton Strachey (England)
• Reflections of a Nonpolitical Man byThomas Mann (Germany)

The 1920s were a period of literary creativity, and works of several notable authors appeared during the period.D. H. Lawrence's novelLady Chatterley's Lover was a scandal at the time because of its explicit descriptions of sex. James Joyce's novel,Ulysses, published in 1922 in Paris, was one of the most important achievements of literary modernism.

1919

• Within a Budding Grove byMarcel Proust
• Night and Day byVirginia Woolf
• Winesburg, Ohio bySherwood Anderson (US) – the first 'lost generation' novel
• Valmouth byRonald Firbank
• Bazaar-e-Husn byPremchand (publ. in Hindi asSeva-sadan)

Genre fiction

• Dope bySax Rohmer – inspired by the true story of Limehouse dope-dealerBrilliant Chang
• Dope Darling byLeda Burke (David Garnett) (England)

1920

• We byYevgeny Zamyatin (Russia)
• Limbo byAldous Huxley (England) – short stories
• The Lost Girl byD. H. Lawrence
• This Side of Paradise byF. Scott Fitzgerald (US)
• The London Venture byMichael Arlen (Armenia, England)
• Storm of Steel byErnst Jünger (Germany)
• A Voyage to Arcturus byDavid Lindsay (Scotland)
• Main Street bySinclair Lewis (US)
• The Age of Innocence byEdith Wharton (US)

Plays

• Six Characters in Search of an Author byLuigi Pirandello (Italy)
• Beyond the Horizon andAnna Christie byEugene O'Neill – Pulitzer prize winner

1921

• The Guermantes Way byMarcel Proust
• Crome Yellow byAldous Huxley
• England, My England and Other Stories byD. H. Lawrence – short stories
• The Forsyte Saga byJohn Galsworthy (England) – pentalogy, first volume published in 1906
• My Life and Loves byFrank Harris (England, US) – four volumes of quasi-factual sex gossip, the fifth completed by Alex Trocchi

Plays

• Back to Methuselah byGeorge Bernard Shaw
• R.U.R. (Rossum's Universal Robots) byKarel Čapek – from which the term 'robot' was coined

1922

• Ulysses byJames Joyce
• Jacob's Room byVirginia Woolf
• Sodom and Gomorrah byMarcel Proust
• Croatian God Mars byMiroslav Krleža
• The Enormous Room byE. E. Cummings (US)
• Futility byWilliam Gerhardie (Russia, England)
• The Beautiful and Damned byF. Scott Fitzgerald
• Mortal Coils byAldous Huxley – short stories
• Aaron's Rod byD. H. Lawrence Kim
• The Garden Party byKatherine Mansfield – short stories
• Siddhartha byHermann Hesse (Germany, Switzerland)
• Peter Whiffle byCarl Van Vechten (US)
• Babbitt bySinclair Lewis
• Lady into Fox byDavid Garnett
• The True Story of Ah Q byLu Xun (China)

Poetry

• The Waste Land byT. S. Eliot

1923

• Confessions of Zeno byItalo Svevo (Italy)
• The Good Soldier Švejk byJaroslav Hašek (Czechoslovakia)
• The Captive byMarcel Proust
• Kangaroo byD. H. Lawrence
• Antic Hay byAldous Huxley
• Three Soldiers byJohn Dos Passos (US)
• The Great American Novel byWilliam Carlos Williams
• The Devil in the Flesh byRaymond Radiguet (France)
• Aelita byAlexey Tolstoy (Russia)

Plays

• The Shadow of a Gunman bySeán O'Casey (Ireland)

Poetry

• New Hampshire byRobert Frost
• The Duino Elegies byRainer Maria Rilke

1924

• The Magic Mountain byThomas Mann (Germany)
• In Our Time byErnest Hemingway (US) – short stories
• A Passage to India byE. M. Forster
• The Vortex byJosé Eustasio Rivera (Colombia)
• Little Mexican and Other Stories byAldous Huxley – short stories
• Bohemian Lights byRamón del Valle-Inclán (Spain)
• The Fox andThe Captain's Doll byD. H. Lawrence – short stories
• Miranda byAntoni Lange (Poland)
• Riddles and Conundrums for All Occasions

Genre fiction

• The Murder of Roger Ackroyd byAgatha Christie (England)

Plays

• Juno and the Paycock bySeán O'Casey
• The Vortex byNoël Coward (England)

1925

• Mrs Dalloway byVirginia Woolf
• The Trial byFranz Kafka (Czechoslovakia) – posthumous, first English translation in 1930
• The Great Gatsby byF. Scott Fitzgerald – often described as the epitome of the "Jazz Age" in American literature
• The Green Hat byMichael Arlen – perhaps the epitome of the jazz age in British literature
• Paris Peasant byLouis Aragon (France)
• Albertine disparue byMarcel Proust
• Manhattan Transfer byJohn Dos Passos
• In the American Grain byWilliam Carlos Williams
• The Desert of Love byFrançois Mauriac (France)
• Gentlemen Prefer Blondes byAnita Loos (US)
• Those Barren Leaves byAldous Huxley
• St Mawr byD. H. Lawrence – short stories
• The Making of Americans byGertrude Stein
• Heart of a Dog byMikhail Bulgakov (Russia / Soviet Union)
• The Artamonov Business byMaxim Gorky (Russia / Soviet Union)

Genre fiction

• Beau Geste byP. C. Wren (England)

Poetry

• The Hollow Men byT. S. Eliot

Non-fiction

• The Old Straight Track byAlfred Watkins (England) – introducing ley lines

1926

• The Castle byFranz Kafka – posthumous, first English translation in 1932
• The Counterfeiters byAndré Gide
• The Sun Also Rises akaFiesta byErnest Hemingway
• Moravagine byBlaise Cendrars (France)
• Don Segundo Sombra byRicardo Güiraldes (Argentina)
• Nigger Heaven byCarl Van Vechten
• Two or Three Graces and Other Stories byAldous Huxley – short stories
• The Plumed Serpent byD. H. Lawrence
• The Call of Cthulhu byH. P. Lovecraft

Genre fiction

• Winnie-the-Pooh byA. A. Milne (England)

Poetry

• A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle by 'Hugh MacDiarmid' (Scotland)

Plays

• The Plough and the Stars bySeán O'Casey
• Raktakarabi byRabindranath Tagore

Non-fiction

• Seven Pillars of Wisdom byT. E. Lawrence (England, Arabia)

1927

• To the Lighthouse byVirginia Woolf
• Time Regained byMarcel Proust
• Steppenwolf byHermann Hesse
• Men Without Women byErnest Hemingway – short stories
• Vestal Fire byCompton Mackenzie
• Dusty Answer byRosamond Lehmann (England)
• Elmer Gantry bySinclair Lewis
• The Rocking-Horse Winner byD. H. Lawrence – short stories

Poetry

• Jhôra Palok byJibanananda Das (India)

Plays

• The Silver Tassie bySeán O'Casey (Ireland)

1928

• Berlin Alexanderplatz byAlfred Döblin (Germany)
• Nadja byAndré Breton (France)
• Story of the Eye byGeorges Bataille (France)
• Parade's End byFord Madox Ford – war tetralogy, first volume in 1926
• Gypsy Ballads byFederico García Lorca
• Point Counter Point byAldous Huxley
• Lady Chatterley's Lover byD. H. Lawrence – banned until 1963
• Decline and Fall byEvelyn Waugh (England)
• Amerika byFranz Kafka – posthumous, first English translation in 1938
• All Quiet on the Western Front byErich Maria Remarque (Germany) – recounts the horrors of World War I and also the deep detachment from German civilian life felt by many men returning from the front
• Chevengur byAndrei Platonov (Soviet Russia, excerpts)
• The City byValerian Pidmohylny (Soviet Ukraine)

Plays

• Strange Interlude byEugene O'Neill (US) – Pulitzer prize winner
• Messrs. Glembay byMiroslav Krleža

1929

• Les Enfants Terribles byJean Cocteau (France)
• A Farewell to Arms byErnest Hemingway (US)
• Look Homeward, Angel byThomas Wolfe
• Death of a Hero byRichard Aldington (England)
• The Sound and the Fury byWilliam Faulkner (US)
• Doña Bárbara byRómulo Gallegos (Venezuela)
• Mario and the Magician byThomas Mann (Germany)
• The Escaped Cock byD. H. Lawrence (England)
• The Defence byVladimir Nabokov (Russia, France)
• Wolf Solent byJohn Cowper Powys (England)
• The Good Companions byJ. B. Priestley (England)

Non-fiction

• Good-Bye to All That byRobert Graves (England)
• A Room of One's Own byVirginia Woolf (England)

Genre fiction

• Red Harvest byDashiell Hammett (US) – the first hard-boiled American detective novel
• Yogayog byRabindranath Tagore (India) – original fiction in Bengali

1930

• Vile Bodies byEvelyn Waugh
• The Apes of God byWyndham Lewis
• Brief Candles byAldous Huxley – short stories
• As I Lay Dying byWilliam Faulkner
• Narcissus and Goldmund byHermann Hesse
• Angel Pavement byJ. B. Priestley
• The Virgin and the Gypsy andLove Among the Haystacks byD. H. Lawrence – short stories

Genre fiction

• Last and First Men byOlaf Stapledon (England)
• The Maltese Falcon byDashiell Hammett (US)

Poetry

• Whoroscope bySamuel Beckett (Ireland, France)

Plays

• Private Lives byNoël Coward

Non-fiction

• Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man bySiegfried Sassoon (England) – 2 volumes, 1st in 1929

1931

• The Good Earth byPearl S. Buck
• The Waves byVirginia Woolf
• Night Flight byAntoine de Saint-Exupéry (France)

Genre fiction

• The Glass Key byDashiell Hammett
• At the Mountains of Madness byH. P. Lovecraft

Plays

• Mourning Becomes Electra byEugene O'Neill
• Cavalcade byNoël Coward

Non-fiction

• Axel's Castle byEdmund Wilson (US)
• Music at Night byAldous Huxley

1932

• The Return of Philip Latinowicz byMiroslav Krleža
• Journey to the End of Night byLouis-Ferdinand Céline (France)
• Brave New World byAldous Huxley (England)
• The Memorial byChristopher Isherwood (England)
• Laughter in the Dark byVladimir Nabokov (Russia, France)
• Light in August byWilliam Faulkner
• A Glastonbury Romance byJohn Cowper Powys
• Stamboul Train byGraham Greene (England)
• Black Mischief byEvelyn Waugh
• Radetzky March byJoseph Roth (Austria)
• Jew Boy bySimon Blumenfeld (England)

Poetry

• The Orators byW. H. Auden (England)

1933

• Man's Fate byAndré Malraux (France)
• Love on the Dole byWalter Greenwood (England)
• Miss Lonelyhearts byNathanael West (US)
• The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas byGertrude Stein
• Cat Country byLao She (China)

Genre fiction

• Lost Horizon byJames Hilton (England)
• Murder Must Advertise byDorothy L. Sayers (England)
• The Oppermanns byLion Feuchtwanger

Non-fiction

• Down and Out in Paris and London byGeorge Orwell (England)
• Texts and Pretexts byAldous Huxley
• In Praise of Shadows byJun'ichirō Tanizaki

1934

• Tropic of Cancer byHenry Miller (US) – a groundbreaking obscenity case before theU.S. Supreme Court in 1961 allowed its publication there
• Call It Sleep byHenry Roth (Austria, US)
• Tender Is the Night byF. Scott Fitzgerald
• Threepenny Novel byBertolt Brecht (Germany)
• Despair byVladimir Nabokov
• It's a Battlefield byGraham Greene
• A Handful of Dust byEvelyn Waugh
• 20,000 Streets Under the Sky byPatrick Hamilton (England)
• Voyage in the Dark byJean Rhys (Dominica, France, England)
• Appointment in Samarra byJohn O'Hara (US)
• A Scots Quair byLewis Grassic Gibbon (Scotland) – trilogy, first volume published in 1932
• Novel with Cocaine akaCocain Romance byM. Ageyev (France)

Genre fiction

• The Postman Always Rings Twice byJames M. Cain (US)

Poetry

• 18 Poems byDylan Thomas (Wales)

Non-fiction

• Burmese Days byGeorge Orwell
• Death in the Afternoon byErnest Hemingway

1935

• Mr Norris Changes Trains byChristopher Isherwood
• Eyeless in Gaza byAldous Huxley
• Auto-da-Fe byElias Canetti (Bulgaria, Germany)
• A Clergyman's Daughter byGeorge Orwell
• England Made Me byGraham Greene
• A House in Paris byElizabeth Bowen (Ireland)
• Tortilla Flat byJohn Steinbeck (US)
• Studs Lonigan byJames T. Farrell (US) – trilogy, first volume published in 1932

Genre fiction

• Little House on the Prairie byLaura Ingalls Wilder (US)

Poetry

• Collected Poems byCecil Day-Lewis (Northern Ireland)

Plays

• Waiting for Lefty byClifford Odets (US)

1936

• Death on the Installment Plan byLouis-Ferdinand Céline
• Black Spring byHenry Miller
• U.S.A. byJohn Dos Passos
• Mephisto byKlaus Mann (Germany, US)
• Absalom, Absalom! byWilliam Faulkner
• Keep the Aspidistra Flying byGeorge Orwell
• Confession of a Murderer byJoseph Roth
• Invitation to a Beheading byVladimir Nabokov
• The Wessex Novels byJohn Cowper Powys (England) – tetralogy, 1st vol published in 1927
• Godaan byPremchand

Poetry

• Ballads of Petrica Kerempuh byMiroslav Krleža
• Dhushor Pandulipi byJibanananda Das (India)

Genre fiction

• Jamaica Inn byDaphne du Maurier (England)
• Gone with the Wind byMargaret Mitchell (US)
• A Gun for Sale byGraham Greene

1937

• To Have and Have Not byErnest Hemingway
• The Years byVirginia Woolf
• Of Mice and Men byJohn Steinbeck
• Lions and Shadows byChristopher Isherwood
• The Black Book byLawrence Durrell (UK, Egypt)
• Ferdydurke byWitold Gombrowicz (Poland)
• Revenge for Love byWyndham Lewis
• White Mule byWilliam Carlos Williams
• Wide Boys Never Work byRobert Westerby (England, US)
• Rickshaw Boy byLao She (China)
• The Life of Klim Samgin byMaxim Gorky – posthumous, tetralogy, first three volumes published in 1927–1931

Genre fiction

• Star Maker byOlaf Stapledon
• Night and the City byGerald Kersh (England, US)
• The Face on the Cutting-Room Floor byCameron McCabe (Ernest Bornemann) (Germany, England)
• The Hobbit byJ. R. R. Tolkien (England)

Non-fiction

• The Road to Wigan Pier byGeorge Orwell
• How Green Was My Valley byRichard Llewellyn (Wales)

1938

• Nausea byJean-Paul Sartre (France)
• Murphy bySamuel Beckett
• Tropic of Capricorn byHenry Miller
• Man's Hope byAndré Malraux
• The Death of the Heart byElizabeth Bowen
• Brighton Rock byGraham Greene
• Scoop byEvelyn Waugh
• The Gift byVladimir Nabokov

Genre fiction

• Brighton Rock byGraham Greene
• Rebecca byDaphne du Maurier

Non-fiction

• Journey to a War byW. H. Auden andChristopher Isherwood
• Homage to Catalonia byGeorge Orwell
• Enemies of Promise byCyril Connolly (England)

1939

• The Grapes of Wrath byJohn Steinbeck
• Finnegans Wake byJames Joyce
• The Banquet in Blitva byMiroslav Krleža
• At Swim-Two-Birds byFlann O'Brien (Ireland)
• Goodbye to Berlin byChristopher Isherwood
• After Many a Summer byAldous Huxley
• Coming Up for Air byGeorge Orwell
• On the Marble Cliffs byErnst Jünger
• Good Morning, Midnight byJean Rhys
• The Day of the Locust byNathanael West
• The Legend of the Holy Drinker byJoseph Roth
• Lotte in Weimar byThomas Mann
• The Confidential Agent byGraham Greene
• Mister Johnson byJoyce Cary (Ireland)
• Wind, Sand and Stars byAntoine de Saint-Exupéry
• Pal Joey byJohn O'Hara

Genre fiction

• The Big Sleep byRaymond Chandler (US)
• Rogue Male byGeoffrey Household (England)
• The Mask of Dimitrios byEric Ambler
• And Then There Were None byAgatha Christie

Poetry

• Autumn Journal byLouis MacNeice (N Ireland)
• The Map of Love byDylan Thomas

Plays

• This Happy Breed byNoël Coward

1940

• Native Son byRichard Wright (US, France)
• Darkness at Noon byArthur Koestler (Hungary, England)
• The Master and Margarita byMikhail Bulgakov – published in English 1966
• For Whom the Bell Tolls byErnest Hemingway
• The Power and the Glory byGraham Greene
• The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter byCarson McCullers (US)
• Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog byDylan Thomas
• Owen Glendower byJohn Cowper Powys
• You Can't Go Home Again byThomas Wolfe
• And Quiet Flows the Don byMikhail Sholokhov (Russia) – two volumes, first published in 1934
• The feeling of the world byCarlos Drummond de Andrade (Brazil)

Genre fiction

• Journey into Fear byEric Ambler (England)
• Farewell, My Lovely byRaymond Chandler

Plays

• The Iceman Cometh byEugene O'Neill

Non-fiction

• To the Finland Station byEdmund Wilson

1941

• Hangover Square byPatrick Hamilton
• Reflections in a Golden Eye byCarson McCullers
• The Third Policeman byFlann O'Brien

Genre fiction

• Mildred Pierce byJames M. Cain

Non-fiction

• Grey Eminence byAldous Huxley

1942

• The Stranger byAlbert Camus (Algeria, France)
• Our Lady of the Flowers byJean Genet (France)
• Flight to Arras byAntoine de Saint-Exupéry

Plays

• The Flies byJean-Paul Sartre

1943

• Arrival and Departure byArthur Koestler
• The Ministry of Fear byGraham Greene
• The Human Comedy byWilliam Saroyan
• The Man Without Qualities byRobert Musil (Austria) – trilogy, first volume published 1930

Genre fiction

• Double Indemnity byJames M. Cain
• The Little Prince byAntoine de Saint-Exupéry (France)

Poetry

• Selected Poems byKeith Douglas (England)

Non-fiction

• Being and Nothingness byJean-Paul Sartre
• The Myth of Sisyphus byAlbert Camus

1944

• The Horse's Mouth byJoyce Cary
• Ficciones byJorge Luis Borges (Argentina) – short stories
• The Razor's Edge bySomerset Maugham
• Time Must Have a Stop byAldous Huxley

Plays

• The Glass Menagerie byTennessee Williams (US)

1945

• Black Boy byRichard Wright (author)
• Animal Farm byGeorge Orwell
• Watt bySamuel Beckett – published in 1953
• Brideshead Revisited byEvelyn Waugh
• Black Boy byRichard Wright
• Lark Rise to Candleford byFlora Thompson (England) – trilogy, first volume in 1939

Genre fiction

• If He Hollers Let Him Go byChester Himes (US, France)
• The Space Trilogy byC. S. Lewis (N Ireland) – first volume published in 1938

1946

• Cry, the Beloved Country byAlan Paton (South Africa)
• The Miracle of the Rose byJean Genet
• El Señor Presidente byMiguel Ángel Asturias (Guatemala)
• Froth on the Daydream byBoris Vian (France)
• The Member of the Wedding byCarson McCullers

Poetry

• Deaths and Entrances byDylan Thomas

Plays

• The Winslow Boy byTerence Rattigan (England)

Non-fiction

• Alamein to Zem Zem byKeith Douglas
• Memoirs of Hecate County byEdmund Wilson
• This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen byTadeusz Borowski (Poland)

1947

• The Plague byAlbert Camus
• Under the Volcano byMalcolm Lowry (England, Canada)
• Bend Sinister byVladimir Nabokov
• The Victim bySaul Bellow (Canada, US)
• The Conformist byAlberto Moravia (Italy)
• The Middle of the Journey byLionel Trilling (US)
• Slaves of Solitude byPatrick Hamilton
• Of Love and Hunger byJulian MacLaren-Ross (England)
• Funeral Rites byJean Genet
• Snow Country byYasunari Kawabata

Plays

• A Streetcar Named Desire byTennessee Williams

Non-fiction

• The Diary of a Young Girl byAnne Frank (Netherlands)

1948

• The Naked and the Dead byNorman Mailer (US)
• Confessions of a Mask by 'Yukio Mishima' (Japan)
• The Heart of the Matter byGraham Greene
• El Túnel byErnesto Sabato (Argentina)
• The City and the Pillar byGore Vidal (US)
• Ape and Essence byAldous Huxley
• Ashes and Diamonds byJerzy Andrzejewski (Poland)
• Querelle of Brest byJean Genet

Genre fiction

• No Orchids for Miss Blandish byJames Hadley Chase (England)

Plays

• The Browning Version byTerence Rattigan

Non-fiction

• The Second Sex bySimone de Beauvoir (France — early feminist study)
• The Kon-Tiki Expedition byThor Heyerdahl (Norway)

1949

• Nineteen Eighty-Four byGeorge Orwell
• The Roads to Freedom byJean-Paul Sartre – trilogy, first volume published 1945
• The Thief's Journal byJean Genet
• The Man with the Golden Arm byNelson Algren (US)
• The Train Was on Time byHeinrich Böll (Germany)
• The Aleph byJorge Luis Borges
• The Kingdom of this World byAlejo Carpentier (Mexico)
• The Heat of the Day byElizabeth Bowen

Genre fiction

• The Trouble with Harry byJack Trevor Story (England)
• The Mating Season byP. G. Wodehouse

Plays

• Death of a Salesman byArthur Miller (US)

The intermediatepostwar period separating "Modernism" from "Postmodernism" (1950s literature) is thefloruit of thebeat generation and the classical science fiction ofIsaac Asimov,Arthur C. Clarke andRobert A. Heinlein. This period also saw the publication of Samuel Beckett's trilogy of novels,Molloy,Malone Dies, andThe Unnameable, which enacted the dissolution of the self-identical human subject and inspired later novelists such asThomas Bernhard,John Banville, andDavid Markson. The first works ofelectronic literature were written in the 1950s.

1950

• Scenes from Provincial Life byWilliam Cooper (England) – the first of the British 1950s 'kitchen sink' novels
• Canto General byPablo Neruda

Plays

• The Bald Soprano byEugène Ionesco (Romania, France)

Genre fiction

• A Town Like Alice byNevil Shute (England, Australia)
• Strangers On a Train byPatricia Highsmith (US)

Non-fiction

• The Authoritarian Personality byTheodor Adorno (Germany, US)

1951

• Molloy bySamuel Beckett (Ireland, France)
• Malone Dies bySamuel Beckett (Ireland, France)
• The Catcher in the Rye byJ. D. Salinger (US)
• The Hive byCamilo José Cela (Spain)
• Porius (A Romance of the Dark Ages) byJohn Cowper Powys (England)
• The Grass Harp byTruman Capote (US)
• Memoirs of Hadrian byMarguerite Yourcenar (France)
• The Opposing Shore byJulien Gracq (France)

Plays

• The Lesson byEugène Ionesco (Romania, France)

Non-fiction

• The Rebel byAlbert Camus (France)

1952

• Invisible Man byRalph Ellison (US)
• Wise Blood byFlannery O'Connor (US)
• Go byJohn Clellon Holmes (US) – the firstBeat novel
• The Natural byBernard Malamud (US)
• The Old Man and the Sea byErnest Hemingway
• East of Eden byJohn Steinbeck
• Love Letter Generator byChristopher Strachey

Genre fiction

• The Tiger in the Smoke byMargery Allingham (England)
• The Killer Inside Me byJim Thompson (US)

Plays

• The Chairs byEugène Ionesco (Romania, France)

1953

• The Unnameable bySamuel Beckett (Ireland, France)
• Junkie andQueer byWilliam S. Burroughs (US)
• Go Tell It On the Mountain byJames Baldwin (US, France)
• The Outsider byRichard Wright
• The Adventures of Augie March bySaul Bellow
• The Captive Mind byCzesław Miłosz (Poland)
• Hurry on Down byJohn Wain (England) – the first 'angry young man' novel

Genre fiction

• Casino Royale byIan Fleming (England,Jamaica) – first James Bond novel
• The Long Goodbye byRaymond Chandler
• Childhood's End byArthur C. Clarke (England,Sri Lanka)
• Foundation byIsaac Asimov (US) – trilogy, first volume published in 1951
• Prelude to a Certain Midnight byGerald Kersh

Plays

• Waiting for Godot bySamuel Beckett

1954

• Lord of the Flies byWilliam Golding (England)
• Lucky Jim byKingsley Amis (England) – the most famous 'angry young man' novel
• Under the Net byIris Murdoch (England)
• Bonjour Tristesse byFrançoise Sagan (France)

Genre fiction

• Fahrenheit 451 byRay Bradbury (US)
• Story of O byPauline Réage (France)

Plays

• Under Milk Wood byDylan Thomas
• The Quare Fellow byBrendan Behan (Ireland)

Non-fiction

• The Doors of Perception byAldous Huxley

1955

• Lolita byVladimir Nabokov
• One byDavid Karp (US)
• The Quiet American byGraham Greene
• The Bread of Those Early Years byHeinrich Böll
• The Tree of Man byPatrick White (Australia)
• The Inheritors byWilliam Golding
• Pedro Páramo byJuan Rulfo (Mexico)
• The Voyeur byAlain Robbe-Grillet (France)
• The Genius and the Goddess byAldous Huxley
• The Deer Park byNorman Mailer
• The Recognitions byWilliam Gaddis (US)
• Memed, My Hawk byYaşar Kemal (Turkey)

Genre fiction

• The Lord of the Rings byJ. R. R. Tolkien, first volume in 1954
• The Talented Mr. Ripley byPatricia Highsmith

Plays

• Cat on a Hot Tin Roof byTennessee Williams
• Bus Stop byWilliam Inge (US)

Poetry

• The Less Deceived byPhilip Larkin (England)

1956

• The Fall byAlbert Camus
• The Devil to Pay in the Backlands byJoão Guimarães Rosa
• Giovanni's Room byJames Baldwin
• The Lonely Londoners bySamuel Selvon (Trinidad, England)
• A Walk on the Wild Side byNelson Algren

Genre fiction

• The Chronicles of Narnia byC. S. Lewis (N Ireland) – seven volumes, first in 1950
• Peyton Place byGrace Metalious
• The Hundred and One Dalmatians byDodie Smith (England)

Plays

• Look Back In Anger byJohn Osborne (England) – the first 'angry young man' play

Poetry

• Howl and Other Poems byAllen Ginsberg (US)

Non-fiction

• Heaven and Hell byAldous Huxley

1957

• On the Road byJack Kerouac (Canada, US)
• Young Adam byAlexander Trocchi (Scotland)
• Room at the Top byJohn Braine (England)
• Doctor Zhivago byBoris Pasternak (Russia)
• Voss byPatrick White
• The Assistant byBernard Malamud
• Second Thoughts byMichel Butor (France)
• Pnin byVladimir Nabokov
• Cairo Trilogy byNaguib Mahfouz (Egypt)
• Gimpel the Fool byIsaac Bashevis Singer (Poland, US) – short stories, originally published in Yiddish years earlier
• Atlas Shrugged byAyn Rand (US)

Genre fiction

• On the Beach byNevil Shute

Plays

• The Room andThe Birthday Party byHarold Pinter (England)
• Endgame bySamuel Beckett
• The Entertainer byJohn Osborne
• Orpheus Descending byTennessee Williams
• The Visit byFriedrich Dürrenmatt (Switzerland)

Poetry

• Calling Out to Yeti byWisława Szymborska (Poland)

1958

• If This Is a Man byPrimo Levi (Italy)
• Breakfast At Tiffany's byTruman Capote
• The Dharma Bums byJack Kerouac
• Saturday Night and Sunday Morning byAlan Sillitoe (England)
• A Taste of Honey byShelagh Delaney (England)
• Things Fall Apart byChinua Achebe (Nigeria)
• The Bell byIris Murdoch
• Fowlers End byGerald Kersh
• Our Man in Havana byGraham Greene
• Candy byTerry Southern (US)

Genre fiction

• Exodus byLeon Uris (US)
• Zimiamvian Trilogy byE. R. Eddison (England) – first volume in 1935
• Molesworth byGeoffrey Willans (England) andRonald Searle (England, France) – tetralogy, first book in 1954

Plays

• Krapp's Last Tape bySamuel Beckett
• Suddenly, Last Summer byTennessee Williams

Non-fiction

• The Theatre and Its Double byAntonin Artaud (France)
• Borstal Boy byBrendan Behan

1959

• A Raisin in the Sun byLorraine Hansberry (United States of America)
• The Tin Drum byGünter Grass (Germany)
• Naked Lunch byWilliam S. Burroughs
• The Last of the Just byAndré Schwarz-Bart (France)
• Goodbye, Columbus byPhilip Roth (US)
• Zazie in the Metro byRaymond Queneau (France)
• In the Labyrinth byAlain Robbe-Grillet
• The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner byAlan Sillitoe
• Billy Liar byKeith Waterhouse (England)
• The Long Day Wanes byAnthony Burgess (England) – trilogy, first volume published in 1956
• The Magic Christian byTerry Southern

Genre fiction

• The Gormenghast Trilogy byMervyn Peake (England) – first volume in 1946
• The Getaway byJim Thompson

Plays

• The Dumb Waiter andThe Caretaker byHarold Pinter
• Rhinoceros byEugène Ionesco

1960

• To Kill a Mockingbird byHarper Lee (US)
• The London Trilogy byColin MacInnes (England) – first volume,Absolute Beginners, published in 1957
• Cain's Book byAlexander Trocchi (UK, France, US)
• This Sporting Life byDavid Storey (UK)
• A Burnt-Out Case byGraham Greene
• Hiroshima Mon Amour byMarguerite Duras (France)
• The Ballad of Peckham Rye byMuriel Spark (Scotland)
• The Rosy Crucifixion byHenry Miller (US) – trilogy, first volume published 1949
• The Sot-Weed Factor byJohn Barth (US)
• The Magician of Lublin byIsaac Bashevis Singer

Non-fiction and Quasi-fiction

• The Morning of the Magicians byLouis Pauwels andJacques Bergier (France) – the 1960s obsession with the occult starts here. Published in English 1963
• A Canticle for Leibowitz byWalter M. Miller Jr. (US)

1961

• Catch-22 byJoseph Heller (US)
• A House for Mr Biswas byV. S. Naipaul (Trinidad, England)
• Riders in the Chariot byPatrick White
• The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie byMuriel Spark
• A Severed Head byIris Murdoch
• Sword of Honour byEvelyn Waugh – trilogy, first volume published in 1952
• Revolutionary Road byRichard Yates (US)
• Hear Us O Lord from Heaven Thy Dwelling Place byMalcolm Lowry – posthumous

Genre fiction

• Solaris byStanisław Lem (Poland)
• Stranger in a Strange Land byRobert A. Heinlein (US)
• The Man in the High Castle byPhilip K. Dick (US)

1962

• One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich byAleksandr Solzhenitsyn (Russia)
• A Clockwork Orange andThe Wanting Seed byAnthony Burgess (England)
• Pale Fire byVladimir Nabokov
• Island byAldous Huxley
• The Time of the Hero byMario Vargas Llosa (Peru)
• The Golden Notebook byDoris Lessing (Zimbabwe, England)
• The Death of Artemio Cruz byCarlos Fuentes (Mexico)
• The Alexandria Quartet byLawrence Durrell – first volume published 1957
• Big Sur byJack Kerouac – the last of the Lost Generation at the end of the Beat Generation

Genre fiction

• The IPCRESS File byLen Deighton (England) – first of the Harry Palmer novels

Non-fiction

• Silent Spring byRachel Carson (US) – the first major popular study on the deterioration of the environment

1963

• V. byThomas Pynchon (US)
• The Bell Jar bySylvia Plath (US, England)
• Hopscotch byJulio Cortázar (Argentina)
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest byKen Kesey (US)
• The Collector byJohn Fowles (England)
• The Lowlife byAlexander Baron (England)
• Cat's Cradle byKurt Vonnegut (US)

Genre fiction

• Planet of the Apes byPierre Boulle (France)
• The Spy Who Came in from the Cold byJohn le Carré (England)
• The Grifters byJim Thompson

Non-fiction

• The Truce byPrimo Levi

1964

• Herzog bySaul Bellow
• A Single Man byChristopher Isherwood
• Last Exit to Brooklyn byHubert Selby (US)
• The Spire byWilliam Golding (England)
• Nothing Like the Sun byAnthony Burgess
• Atmaprakash bySunil Gangopadhyay (India)

Genre fiction

• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory byRoald Dahl (UK)
• The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch byPhilip K. Dick (US)
• Little Big Man byThomas Berger (US)

Non-fiction

• Understanding Media byMarshall McLuhan (Canada)

1965

• The Magus byJohn Fowles
• The Interpreters byWole Soyinka (Nigeria)
• Cosmicomics byItalo Calvino (Italy)
• The Painted Bird byJerzy Kosinski (Poland, US)
• Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush byHunter Davies (England) – the kitchen sink novel mutates into the swinging 1960s novel

Genre fiction

• The Cyberiad byStanisław Lem

Plays

• Marat/Sade byPeter Weiss (Germany, Sweden)
• Tango bySławomir Mrożek (Poland)

Poetry

• Briggflatts byBasil Bunting

Non-fiction and Quasi-fiction

• The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby byTom Wolfe (US)
• The Autobiography of Malcolm X byAlex Haley (US)

1966

• A Man of the People byChinua Achebe (Nigeria)
• Alfie byBill Naughton (England)
• The Comedians byGraham Greene
• Wide Sargasso Sea byJean Rhys
• Tremor of Intent byAnthony Burgess

Genre fiction

• Pavane byKeith Roberts (England)
• The Anti-Death League byKingsley Amis

Non-fiction and Quasi-fiction

• In Cold Blood byTruman Capote
• Hell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs byHunter S. Thompson (US)
• Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me byRichard Fariña (US)

1967

• One Hundred Years of Solitude byGabriel García Márquez (Colombia)
• The Crying of Lot 49 byThomas Pynchon
• The Vendor of Sweets byR. K. Narayan (India)
• Poor Cow byNell Dunn (England)
• A Grain of Wheat byNgũgĩ wa Thiong'o

Non-fiction

• In the First Circle byAleksandr Solzhenitsyn
• The Medium is the Message byMarshall McLuhan andQuentin Fiore

1968

• Cocksure byMordecai Richler (Canada)
• Couples byJohn Updike (US)
• The Public Image byMuriel Spark
• Lunar Caustic byMalcolm Lowry – posthumous
• The Abyss byMarguerite Yourcenar

Non-fiction and quasi-fiction

• Cancer Ward byAleksandr Solzhenitsyn
• The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test byTom Wolfe
• The Armies of the Night andMiami and the Siege of Chicago byNorman Mailer
• Bomb Culture byJeff Nuttall (England)
• Slouching Towards Bethlehem byJoan Didion (US)
• The Teachings of Don Juan byCarlos Castaneda (US)

1969

• Portnoy's Complaint byPhilip Roth
• The French Lieutenant's Woman byJohn Fowles
• A Void byGeorges Perec (France)
• Passacaille byRobert Pinget (France)
• Dark as the Grave wherein my Friend is Laid byMalcolm Lowry – posthumous

Genre fiction

• Barefoot in the Head byBrian Aldiss
• The Final Programme byMichael Moorcock (England, US)
• Slaughterhouse-Five byKurt Vonnegut (US)
• The Godfather byMario Puzo (US)

Non-fiction and Quasi-fiction

• Papillon byHenri Charrière (France)
• The View Over Atlantis byJohn Michell (England)

1970

• Play It as It Lays byJoan Didion
• Mr. Sammler's Planet bySaul Bellow
• Being There byJerzy Kosiński
• October Ferry to Gabriola byMalcolm Lowry – posthumous
• Aranyer Din Ratri bySunil Gangopadhyay

Genre fiction

• The Hot Rock byDonald E. Westlake (US)
• Deliverance byJames Dickey (US)

Non-fiction and Quasi-fiction

• The Female Eunuch byGermaine Greer (Australia, England)
• Groupie byJenny Fabian (England)
• Playpower byRichard Neville (Australia, England)
• Revolt into Style byGeorge Melly (England)
• Soledad Brother byGeorge Jackson (US) – prison letters
• Soul on Ice byEldridge Cleaver (US)

1971

• In a Free State byV. S. Naipaul (Trinidad, England)
• M/F byAnthony Burgess
• Our Gang byPhilip Roth
• The Dice Man byLuke Rhinehart (US)
• Another Roadside Attraction byTom Robbins (US)

Genre fiction

• The Day of the Jackal byFrederick Forsyth (England)

Non-fiction and Quasi-fiction

• The Happy Hooker byXaviera Hollander (Indonesia, Netherlands)
• Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas byHunter S. Thompson

1972

• The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman byAngela Carter (England)
• Invisible Cities byItalo Calvino
• G byJohn Berger (England, France)
• The Good for Nothing byOğuz Atay (Turkey)

Genre fiction

• The Friends of Eddie Coyle byGeorge V. Higgins (US)
• Jonathan Livingston Seagull byRichard Bach (US)
• The Odessa File byFrederick Forsyth

Poetry

• Crossing the Water andWinter Trees bySylvia Plath

1973

• Gravity's Rainbow byThomas Pynchon
• Crash byJ. G. Ballard (England)
• Season of Anomy byWole Soyinka (Nigeria)
• Life Is Elsewhere byMilan Kundera (Czechoslovakia, France)
• Sweet Dreams byMichael Frayn (England)
• Fear of Flying byErica Jong (US)
• The Great American Novel byPhilip Roth

Genre fiction

• Frankenstein Unbound byBrian Aldiss

1974

• If Beale Street Could Talk byJames Baldwin (US)
• The Conservationist byNadine Gordimer (South Africa)
• The Fan Man byWilliam Kotzwinkle (US)
• The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum byHeinrich Böll
• I, the Supreme byAugusto Roa Bastos (Paraguay)
• Napoleon Symphony byAnthony Burgess
• Myra Breckinridge andMyron byGore Vidal – first of pair published in 1968

Genre fiction

• Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy byJohn le Carré
• Fletch byGregory Mcdonald (US)

Genre fiction

• Jaws byPeter Benchley (US)

Non-fiction and Quasi-fiction

• All the President's Men byBob Woodward andCarl Bernstein (US)

Poetry

• Mr. Cogito byZbigniew Herbert (Poland)

1975

• Humboldt's Gift bySaul Bellow
• The Deptford Trilogy byRobertson Davies – first volume published 1970
• Dead Babies byMartin Amis (England)
• The Autumn of the Patriarch byGabriel García Márquez
• The History Man byMalcolm Bradbury (England)
• The Periodic Table byPrimo Levi – short stories

Genre fiction

• Watership Down byRichard Adams (England)
• The Choirboys byJoseph Wambaugh (US)
• Shōgun byJames Clavell (England, US)
• 'Salem's Lot byStephen King (US)

1976

• Ragtime byEL Doctorow (US)

Genre fiction

• Interview with the Vampire byAnne Rice (US)

Non-fiction and quasi-fiction

• Roots byAlex Haley
• Another Day of Life byRyszard Kapuściński (Poland)

Poetry

• Christmas O Shiter Sanet Guchho (ক্রিসমাস ও শীতের সনেটগুচ্ছ) byJoy Goswami (West Bengal, India)

Drama

• Death and the King's Horseman byWole Soyinka

1977

• The Engineer of Human Souls byJosef Škvorecký (Czechoslovakia)
• Song of Solomon byToni Morrison (US)

1978

• Success byMartin Amis
• The Sea, the Sea byIris Murdoch
• Lanark: A Life in Four Books byAlasdair Gray (Scotland)
• Life A User's Manual byGeorges Perec
• The Book of Laughter and Forgetting byMilan Kundera
• Jake's Thing byKingsley Amis
• The World According to Garp byJohn Irving (US)
• 1985 byAnthony Burgess
• Horatio Stubbs byBrian Aldiss – trilogy, first volume published in 1970

Non-fiction and Quasi-fiction

• The Emperor byRyszard Kapuściński

Genre fiction

• Rumpole of the Bailey byJohn Mortimer (England)

1979

• A Bend in the River byV. S. Naipaul
• The Unlimited Dream Company byJ. G. Ballard
• Sophie's Choice byWilliam Styron (US)

Non-fiction and Quasi-fiction

• The White Album byJoan Didion
• The Right Stuff byTom Wolfe (US)

1980

• The Name of the Rose byUmberto Eco
• Pascali's Island byBarry Unsworth (England)
• Earthly Powers byAnthony Burgess

1981

• Midnight's Children bySalman Rushdie (India, UK)
• The Comfort of Strangers byIan McEwan (England)
• The White Hotel byD. M. Thomas (England)
• Chronicle of a Death Foretold byGabriel García Márquez
• What We Talk About When We Talk About Love byRaymond Carver (US) – short stories

Genre fiction

• The Red Dragon byThomas Harris (US)
• Gorky Park byMartin Cruz Smith (England, Russia)

Non-fiction

• Conversations with an Executioner byKazimierz Moczarski (Poland)

1982

• Schindler's Ark byThomas Keneally (Australia)
• An Ice-Cream War byWilliam Boyd (Ghana, Scotland)
• The Color Purple byAlice Walker (US)
• A Wild Sheep Chase byHaruki Murakami

Genre fiction

• Prizzi's Honor byRichard Condon
• Limes Inferior byJanusz A. Zajdel (Poland)

1983

• Waterland byGraham Swift (England)
• Shame bySalman Rushdie
• Erev byEli Schechtman (USSR, Israel)

Genre fiction

• The Colour of Magic byTerry Pratchett (England) – first book of theDiscworld series

1984

• Money byMartin Amis
• Bright Lights, Big City byJay McInerney (US)
• The Unbearable Lightness of Being byMilan Kundera
• Flaubert's Parrot byJulian Barnes (England)
• Nights at the Circus byAngela Carter
• Enderby byAnthony Burgess – tetralogy, first volume published in 1963
• The Witches of Eastwick byJohn Updike

Non-fiction

• Empire of the Sun byJ. G. Ballard

1985

• Sei Somoy bySunil Gangopadhyay (India)
• White Noise byDon DeLillo (US)
• Less than Zero byBret Easton Ellis (US)
• Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit byJeanette Winterson (England)
• The Accidental Tourist byAnne Tyler (US)
• Hawksmoor byPeter Ackroyd (England)
• Illywhacker byPeter Carey (Australia)
• The Kingdom of the Wicked byAnthony Burgess

Genre fiction

• L.A. Quartet byJames Ellroy (US) – tetralogy, first volume published 1984
• The Handmaid's Tale byMargaret Atwood – (US)

1986

• Slaves of New York byTama Janowitz (US)
• The Old Devils byKingsley Amis
• An Artist of the Floating World byKazuo Ishiguro (Japan, UK)

Non-fiction

• Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature byNgũgĩ wa Thiong'o

1987

• The Satanic Verses bySalman Rushdie
• The Bonfire of the Vanities byTom Wolfe
• Anthills of the Savannah byChinua Achebe
• The Alchemist byPaulo Coelho (Brasil)

Genre fiction

• Presumed Innocent byScott Turow (US)

1988

• Mother London byMichael Moorcock
• Libra byDon DeLillo
• Oscar and Lucinda byPeter Carey (Australia)
• Love in the Time of Cholera byGabriel García Márquez

Genre fiction

• Sprawl byWilliam Gibson (Canada, US) – trilogy, first volume published 1984

1989

• London Fields byMartin Amis
• Foucault's Pendulum byUmberto Eco
• The Remains of the Day byKazuo Ishiguro
• To the Ends of the Earth byWilliam Golding – trilogy, first volume published 1980
• Ghumiyecho, Jhaupata? (ঘুমিয়েছো, ঝাউপাতা?) byJoy Goswami
• The Book of Evidence byJohn Banville (Ireland)
• The Trick of It byMichael Frayn

• The English Patient byMichael Ondaatje
• Slam poetry

1990

• The New York Trilogy byPaul Auster (US) – first volume published 1985
• The Black Book byOrhan Pamuk (Turkey)
• Restoration byRose Tremain (England)
• Possession byA. S. Byatt (England)
• The Buddha of Suburbia byHanif Kureishi (England)
• Dirty Weekend byHelen Zahavi (England)

Genre fiction

• Devil in a Blue Dress byWalter Mosley (US)
• Good Omens byNeil Gaiman andTerry Pratchett

1991

• Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture byDouglas Coupland (Canada)

1992

• The Secret History byDonna Tartt (USA)

1993

• A Suitable Boy byVikram Seth (India)

1994

• Blood of Elves byAndrzej Sapkowski (Poland)

1995

• The Moor's Last Sigh bySalman Rushdie (UK)

1996

• Infinite Jest byDavid Foster Wallace (US)
• Prathama Alo bySunil Gangopadhyay (India)

1997

• Underworld byDon DeLillo (US)
• American Pastoral byPhilip Roth
• Nightmare byZlatko Topčić
• Into Thin Air byJon Krakauer

Genre fiction

• Northern Lights byPhilip Pullman (UK) – first inHis Dark Materials trilogy
• Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone byJ. K. Rowling (UK) – first in series

1998

• About a Boy (novel) byNick Hornby

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