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The Best Pulitzer Prize Winning Novels

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Updated October 1, 2024 79.6K views 62 items
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The best Pulitzer Prize winning novels have moved avid readers everywhere. Since its inception in 1917, this coveted award has recognized exceptional works that have left permanent impressions on literary culture. With an array of themes, styles, and narratives, prize-winning novels are milestones in storytelling.  

The Pulitzer Prize winning novels in this collection exemplify diverse facets of human experiences and emotions, transcending time and place to leave a lasting impact on generations of readers. Each book on this compilation weaves intricate plots, explores complex characters, and expresses intriguing ideas. 

For instance, Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird is an enduring classic that delves into racial injustice through the eyes of a young girl in America's Deep South. A fixture among Pulitzer Prize books, John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath chronicles the harrowing tale of a Depression-era family seeking solace in California amidst staggering adversity. Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence, another Pulitzer Prize winner, brilliantly captures New York society's conflicts during the Gilded Age with remarkable intricacy and incisive wit. 

As we recognize and appreciate the exceptional nature of Pulitzer Prize winning novels, we find that each entry offers a window into different worlds where the characters navigate complex emotional landscapes and gripping situations. The winning books become legacies for generations. In this collection, we pay tribute to their authors' brilliance as well as the transformative power of literature. 

Most divisive: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (2008)
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  • To Kill a Mockingbird (1961)
    1

    To Kill a Mockingbird (1961)

    Harper Lee
    1,012 votes
    To Kill a Mockingbird is a novel by Harper Lee published in 1960. It was immediately successful, winning the Pulitzer Prize, and has become a classic of modern American literature. The plot and characters are loosely based on the author's observations of her family and neighbors, as well as on an event that occurred near her hometown in 1936, when she was 10 years old. The novel is renowned for its warmth and humor, despite dealing with the serious issues of rape and racial inequality. The narrator's father, Atticus Finch, has served as a moral hero for many readers and as a model of integrity for lawyers. One critic explains the novel's impact by writing, "In the twentieth century, To Kill a Mockingbird is probably the most widely read book dealing with race in America, and its protagonist, Atticus Finch, the most enduring fictional image of racial heroism." As a Southern Gothic novel and a Bildungsroman, the primary themes of To Kill a Mockingbird involve racial injustice and the destruction of innocence. Scholars have noted that Lee also addresses issues of class, courage, compassion, and gender roles in the American Deep South.
    • First Published: 1960-07-11
    • Subjects: Monarch, Literary, Literature, Classics, Drama
    • Genres (Book): Fiction
    • Original Language: English Language
  • The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
    2

    The Grapes of Wrath (1940)

    John Steinbeck
    393 votes
    The Grapes of Wrath is an American realist novel written by John Steinbeck and published in 1939. The book won the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize for fiction, and it was cited prominently when Steinbeck was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1962.Set during the Great Depression, the novel focuses on the Joads, a poor family of tenant farmers driven from their Oklahoma home by drought, economic hardship, agricultural industry changes, and bank foreclosures forcing tenant farmers out of work. Due to their nearly hopeless situation, and in part because they are trapped in the Dust Bowl, the Joads set out for California. Along with thousands of other "Okies", they seek jobs, land, dignity, and a future. The Grapes of Wrath is frequently read in American high school and college literature classes due to its historical context and enduring legacy. A celebrated Hollywood film version, starring Henry Fonda and directed by John Ford, was released in 1940.
    • First Published: 1939
    • Subjects: California, Great Depression in the United States, Dust Bowl, Oklahoma
    • Genres (Book): Novel
    • Original Language: English Language
  • Lonesome Dove (1986)
    3

    Lonesome Dove (1986)

    Larry McMurtry
    540 votes
    Lonesome Dove is a 1985 Pulitzer Prize-winning western novel written by Larry McMurtry. It is the first published book of the Lonesome Dove series, but the third installment in the series chronologically. The story focuses on the relationship of several retired Texas Rangers and their adventures driving a cattle herd from Texas to Montana. McMurtry originally developed the tale in 1972 for a feature film entitled The Streets of Laredo, which would have been directed by Peter Bogdanovich and would have starred James Stewart as Augustus McCrae, John Wayne as W.F. Call, and Henry Fonda as Jake Spoon. But plans fell through when Wayne turned it down, leading Stewart to back out, and the project was eventually shelved. Ten years later McMurtry resurrected the screenplay as a full-length novel, which became a bestseller and won the 1986 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. After the novel won the Pulitzer Prize, the idea of turning the novel into film came up again. Both John Milius and John Huston each attempted to adapt the novel into a feature film before Suzanne De Passe and McMurtry decided to adapt the novel as a mini-series.
    • First Published: 1985
    • Genres (Book): Fiction, Novel
    • Original Language: English Language
  • The Color Purple (1983)
    4

    The Color Purple (1983)

    Alice Walker
    593 votes
    The Color Purple is a 1982 epistolary novel by American author Alice Walker which won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction. It was later adapted into a film and musical of the same name. Taking place mostly in rural Georgia, the story focuses on the life of African-American women in the southern United States in the 1930s, addressing numerous issues including their exceedingly low position in American social culture. The novel has been the frequent target of censors and appears on the American Library Association list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2000-2009 at number seventeen because of the sometimes explicit content, particularly in terms of violence.
    • First Published: 1982
    • Subjects: Feminism
    • Genres (Book): Fiction, Epistolary novel
    • Original Language: English Language
  • The Road (2007)
    5

    The Road (2007)

    Cormac McCarthy
    559 votes
    The Road is a 2006 novel by American writer Cormac McCarthy. It is a post-apocalyptic tale of a journey of a father and his young son over a period of several months, across a landscape blasted by an unspecified cataclysm that has destroyed most of civilization and, in the intervening years, almost all life on Earth. The novel was awarded the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction in 2006. The book was adapted to a film by the same name in 2009, directed by John Hillcoat.
    • First Published: 2006-09-26
    • Subjects: Survival skills, Literary, Adventure, United States of America
    • Genres (Book): Speculative fiction, Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, Fiction, Literary fiction, Science Fiction
    • Original Language: English Language
  • The Age of Innocence (1921)
    6

    The Age of Innocence (1921)

    Edith Wharton
    153 votes
    The Age of Innocence is Edith Wharton's twelfth novel, initially serialized in four parts in the Pictorial Review magazine in 1920, and later released by D. Appleton and Company as a book in New York and in London. It won the 1921 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, making it the first novel written by a woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and thus Wharton the first woman to win the prize. The story is set in upper-class New York City in the 1870s.
    • First Published: 1920
    • Subjects: Literary, Upper class, Marriage, Education, Literature
    • Genres (Book): Romance novel, Fiction, Novel
    • Original Language: English Language
  • All the King's Men
    7

    All the King's Men

    Robert Penn Warren
    134 votes
    All the King's Men is a novel by Robert Penn Warren first published in 1946. Its title is drawn from the nursery rhyme Humpty Dumpty. In 1947 Warren won the Pulitzer Prize for All the King's Men. It was adapted for film in 1949 and 2006; the 1949 version won the Academy Award for Best Picture. It is rated the 36th greatest novel of the 20th century by Modern Library, and it was chosen as one of TIME magazine's 100 best novels since 1923.
    • First Published: 1946
    • Subjects: Politician, Election, Political corruption
    • Genres (Book): Political fiction
    • Original Language: American English, English Language
  • All the Light We Cannot See (2015)
    8

    All the Light We Cannot See (2015)

    Anthony Doerr
    312 votes
  • Gone with the Wind (1937)
    9

    Gone with the Wind (1937)

    Margaret Mitchell
    289 votes
    Gone with the Wind is a novel written by Margaret Mitchell, first published in 1936. The story is set in Clayton County, Georgia, and Atlanta during the American Civil War and Reconstruction era. It depicts the experiences of Scarlett O'Hara, the spoiled daughter of a well-to-do plantation owner, who must use every means at her disposal to come out of the poverty she finds herself in after Sherman's March to the Sea. A historical novel, the story is a Bildungsroman or coming-of-age story, with the title taken from a poem written by Ernest Dowson. Gone with the Wind was popular with American readers from the onset and was the top American fiction bestseller in the year it was published and in 1937. As of 2014, a Harris poll found it to be the second favorite book of American readers, just behind the Bible. More than 30 million copies have been printed worldwide. Written from the perspective of the slaveholder, Gone with the Wind is Southern plantation fiction. Its portrayal of slavery and African Americans is controversial, as well as its use of a racial epithet and ethnic slurs.
    • First Published: 1936-06-30
    • Subjects: Women, Plantations in the American South, United States of America, American Civil War, History
    • Genres (Book): Historical fiction, Fiction, Novel
    • Original Language: English Language
  • The Old Man and the Sea (1953)
    10

    The Old Man and the Sea (1953)

    Ernest Hemingway
    606 votes
    The Old Man and the Sea is a novel written by the American author Ernest Hemingway in 1951 in Cuba, and published in 1952. It was the last major work of fiction to be produced by Hemingway and published in his lifetime. One of his most famous works, it centers upon Santiago, an aging fisherman who struggles with a giant marlin far out in the Gulf Stream. The Old Man and the Sea was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1953 and was cited by the Nobel Committee as contributing to the awarding of the Nobel Prize in Literature to Hemingway in 1954.
    • First Published: 1952
    • Subjects: Ocean, Fishing, Friendship, Cuba
    • Genres (Book): Children's literature, Fiction, Novella, Sea story
    • Original Language: English Language
  • The Caine Mutiny (1952)
    11

    The Caine Mutiny (1952)

    Herman Wouk
    289 votes
    The Caine Mutiny is a 1951 Pulitzer Prize–winning novel by Herman Wouk. The novel grew out of Wouk's personal experiences aboard a destroyer-minesweeper in the Pacific in World War II and deals with, among other things, the moral and ethical decisions made at sea by the captains of ships. The mutiny of the title is legalistic, not violent, and takes place during a historic typhoon in December 1944. The court-martial that results provides the dramatic climax to the plot. The Caine Mutiny reached the top of the New York Times best seller list on August 12, 1951, after 17 weeks on the list, replacing From Here to Eternity. It remained atop the list for 32 weeks until March 30, 1952, when it was replaced by My Cousin Rachel. It moved back to first place on May 25, 1952, and remained another 15 weeks, before being supplanted by The Silver Chalice, and last appeared on August 23, 1953, after 122 weeks on the list.
    • First Published: 1951
    • Subjects: Literature, Classics, Military, United States of America, World War II
    • Genres (Book): Novel
    • Original Language: English Language
  • The Killer Angels: A Novel of the Civil War (1975)
    12

    The Killer Angels: A Novel of the Civil War (1975)

    Michael Shaara
    270 votes
    The Killer Angels is a historical novel by Michael Shaara that was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1975. The book tells the story of the four days of the Battle of Gettysburg in the American Civil War: June 30, 1863, as the troops of both the Union and the Confederacy move into battle around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and July 1, July 2, and July 3, when the battle was fought. The story is character driven and told from the perspective of various protagonists. A film adaptation of the novel, titled Gettysburg, was released in 1993.
    • First Published: 1974
    • Subjects: Literary, Pennsylvania, Literature, Classics, Battle of Gettysburg
    • Genres (Book): War novel, Historical fiction, Fiction, Historical novel
    • Original Language: English Language
  • Beloved (1988)
    13

    Beloved (1988)

    Toni Morrison
    396 votes
    Beloved is a 1987 novel by the American writer Toni Morrison. Set after the American Civil War, it is inspired by the story of an African-American slave, Sethe, who escaped slavery during 1856 in Kentucky by fleeing to Ohio, a free state. A posse arrived to retrieve her and her children under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, which gave slave owners the right to pursue slaves across state borders. Sethe killed her two-year-old daughter rather than allow her to be recaptured and taken back to Sweet Home, the Kentucky plantation from which Sethe recently fled. A woman presumed to be her daughter, called Beloved, returns years later to haunt Sethe's home at 124 Bluestone Road, Cincinnati, Ohio. The story opens with an introduction to the ghost: "124 was spiteful. Full of a baby's venom." The novel won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1988 and was a finalist for the 1987 National Book Award. It was adapted during 1998 into a movie of the same name starring Oprah Winfrey. A New York Times survey of writers and literary critics ranked it the best work of American fiction from 1981 to 2006.
    • First Published: 1987-01
    • Subjects: Literary, Ohio, 19th century, Slavery, Spanish Language
    • Genres (Book): Speculative fiction, Children's literature, Historical fiction, Fiction, Novel
    • Original Language: English Language
  • The Goldfinch
    14

    The Goldfinch

    Donna Tartt
    246 votes
    The Goldfinch is the third novel from Donna Tartt, her first in 11 years. In February 2013, the New York Observer announced that Tartt's long-awaited third novel, titled The Goldfinch, was set for publication on October 22, 2013 after originally being slated for publication in September 2008. The book was selected as one of the 10 Best Books of 2013 by the editors of the New York Times Book Review.
    • First Published: Oct 22 2013
  • The Shipping News (1994)
    15

    The Shipping News (1994)

    E. Annie Proulx
    349 votes
    The Shipping News is a novel by American author E. Annie Proulx, published by Charles Scribner's Sons in 1993. It won both the Pulitzer Prize and the U.S. National Book Award, as well as other awards. It was adapted as a film of the same name, released in 2001.
    • First Published: 1993
    • Subjects: Tragedy, Death, Love, Newfoundland
    • Genres (Book): Novel
    • Original Language: English Language
  • The Hours (1999)
    16

    The Hours (1999)

    Michael Cunningham
    282 votes
    The Hours is a 1998 novel written by Michael Cunningham. It won the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the 1999 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction, and was later made into an Oscar-winning 2002 movie of the same name starring Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep and Julianne Moore.
    • First Published: 1998
    • Subjects: Women
    • Genres (Book): Drama, Parallel novel, Novel
    • Original Language: English Language
  • Empire Falls (2002)
    17

    Empire Falls (2002)

    Richard Russo
    246 votes
    Empire Falls is a 2001 novel written by Richard Russo. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2002, and follows the story of Miles Roby in a fictional, small blue-collar town in Maine and the people, places, and the past surrounding him, as manager of the Empire Grill diner.
    • First Published: 2001-05-08
    • Subjects: Working class, Adventure, Fathers and Daughters, Maine
    • Genres (Book): Fiction, Novel
    • Original Language: English Language
  • The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (2001)
    18

    The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (2001)

    Michael Chabon
    362 votes
    The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay is a 2000 novel by Jewish American author Michael Chabon that won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2001. The novel follows the lives of two Jewish cousins before, during, and after World War II. They are a Czech artist named Joe Kavalier and a Brooklyn-born writer named Sam Clay. In the novel, Kavalier and Clay become major figures in the comics industry from its nascency into its "Golden Age." Kavalier & Clay was published to "nearly unanimous praise" and became a New York Times Best Seller, receiving nominations for the 2000 National Book Critics Circle Award and PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. In 2006, Bret Easton Ellis declared the novel "one of the three great books of my generation", and in 2007, The New York Review of Books called the novel Chabon's magnum opus. The novel's publication was followed by several companion projects, including two short stories published by Chabon that consist of material apparently written for the novel but not included: "The Return of the Amazing Cavalieri" in McSweeney's Quarterly Concern, and "Breakfast in the Wreck" in The Virginia Quarterly Review.
    • First Published: 2000-09-19
    • Subjects: Literary
    • Genres (Book): Speculative fiction, Historical fiction, Fiction
    • Original Language: English Language
  • A Confederacy of Dunces (1981)
    19

    A Confederacy of Dunces (1981)

    John Kennedy Toole
    435 votes
    A Confederacy of Dunces is a picaresque novel by American novelist John Kennedy Toole which appeared in 1980, eleven years after Toole's suicide. Published through the efforts of writer Walker Percy and Toole's mother, the book became first a cult classic, then a mainstream success; it earned Toole a posthumous Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1981, and is now considered a canonical work of modern literature of the Southern United States. The book's title refers to an epigraph from Jonathan Swift's essay, Thoughts on Various Subjects, Moral and Diverting: "When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him." Its central character, Ignatius J. Reilly, is an educated, but slothful 30-year-old man living with his mother in the Uptown neighborhood of early-1960s New Orleans who, in his quest for employment, has various adventures with colorful French Quarter characters. Toole wrote the novel in 1963 during his last few months in Puerto Rico.
    • First Published: 1980
    • Subjects: Popular literature, Literary, Classics, French Quarter, New Orleans
    • Genres (Book): Tragicomedy, Fiction, Comedy
    • Original Language: English Language
  • Middlesex (2003)
    20

    Middlesex (2003)

    Jeffrey Eugenides
    360 votes
    Middlesex is a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Jeffrey Eugenides published in 2002. The book is a bestseller, with more than three million copies sold by May 2011. Its characters and events are loosely based on aspects of Eugenides' life and observations of his Greek heritage. It is not an autobiography; unlike the protagonist, Eugenides is not intersex. The author decided to write Middlesex after he read the 1980 memoir Herculine Barbin and was unsatisfied with its discussion of intersex anatomy and emotions. Primarily a Bildungsroman and family saga, the novel chronicles the impact of a mutated gene on three generations of a Greek family, causing momentous changes in the protagonist's life. According to scholars, the novel's main themes are nature versus nurture, rebirth, and the differing experiences of polar opposites—such as those found between men and women. It discusses the pursuit of the American Dream and explores gender identity. The novel contains many allusions to Greek mythology, including creatures such as the Minotaur, half-man and half-bull, and the Chimera, a monster composed of various animal parts.
    • First Published: 2002-10-07
    • Subjects: Literary
    • Genres (Book): Transgender and transsexual fiction, Fiction, Novel
    • Original Language: English Language
  • The Yearling (1939)
    21

    The Yearling (1939)

    Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
    107 votes
    The Yearling is the 1938 novel written by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. It was published in March 1938. It was the main selection of the Book of the Month Club in April 1938. It was the number one best seller for twenty-three consecutive weeks in 1938. As well as being the best-selling novel in America in 1938, it was the seventh-best in 1939. It sold over 250,000 copies in 1938. It has been translated into Spanish, Chinese, French, Japanese, German, Italian, Russian and twenty-two other languages. It won the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel in 1939. Rawlings's editor was Maxwell Perkins, who also worked with F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and other literary luminaries. She had submitted several projects to Perkins for his review, and he rejected them all. He instructed her to write about what she knew from her own life, and the result of her taking his advice was The Yearling.
    • First Published: 1938
    • Subjects: Literature, Young adult, Classics, Florida, United States of America
    • Genres (Book): Children's literature, Historical fiction, Fiction, Young adult literature, Reference
    • Original Language: English Language
  • The Underground Railroad (2017)
    22

    The Underground Railroad (2017)

    Colson Whitehead
    125 votes
  • Angle of Repose (1972)
    23

    Angle of Repose (1972)

    Wallace Stegner
    191 votes
    Angle of Repose is a 1971 novel by Wallace Stegner about a wheelchair-using historian, Lyman Ward, who has lost connection with his son and living family and decides to write about his frontier-era grandparents. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1972. The novel is directly based on the letters of Mary Hallock Foote, later published as A Victorian Gentlewoman in the Far West. Stegner's use of substantial passages from Foote's actual letters as the correspondence of his fictional character Susan Burling Ward was and remains controversial among some scholars. The controversy is somewhat tempered since Stegner had received permission to use Foote's writings, implying as much in the book's acknowledgements page. In 1998, the Modern Library ranked Angle of Repose #82 on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century.
    • First Published: 1971
    • Subjects: California, Adultery
    • Genres (Book): Novel
    • Original Language: English Language
  • The Executioner's Song (1980)
    24

    The Executioner's Song (1980)

    Norman Mailer
    210 votes
    The Executioner's Song is a Pulitzer Prize-winning book by Norman Mailer that depicts the events surrounding the execution of Gary Gilmore by the state of Utah for murder. It was also a finalist for the 1980 National Book Award. The title of the book may be a play on "The Lord High Executioner's Song" from Gilbert and Sullivan's The Mikado. "The Executioner's Song" is also the title of one of Mailer's earlier poems, published in Fuck You magazine in September 1964 and reprinted in Cannibals and Christians. Notable not only for its portrayal of Gilmore and the anguish surrounding the murders he committed, the book also took a central position in the national debate over the revival of capital punishment by the Supreme Court as Gilmore was the first person in the United States executed since the re-instatement of the death penalty in 1976.
    • First Published: 1979
    • Genres (Book): Novel
    • Original Language: English Language
  • Olive Kitteridge (2009)
    25

    Olive Kitteridge (2009)

    Elizabeth Strout
    264 votes
    Olive Kitteridge is a book by Elizabeth Strout.
    • First Published: 2008-03-25
    • Subjects: Maine
    • Genres (Book): Fiction, Novel
    • Original Language: English Language
  • Tales of the South Pacific (1948)
    26

    Tales of the South Pacific (1948)

    James A. Michener
    190 votes
    Tales of the South Pacific is a Pulitzer Prize-winning book, which is a collection of sequentially related short stories about World War II, written by James A. Michener in 1946 and published in 1947. The stories were based on observations and anecdotes he collected while stationed as a lieutenant commander in the US Navy on the island of Espiritu Santo in the New Hebrides Islands.
    • First Published: 1947-01-28
    • Genres (Book): Short story
    • Original Language: English Language
  • American Pastoral (1998)
    27

    American Pastoral (1998)

    Philip Roth
    221 votes
    American Pastoral is a Philip Roth novel published in 1997 concerning Seymour "Swede" Levov, a successful Jewish American businessman and former high school star athlete from Newark, New Jersey. Levov's happy and conventional upper middle class life is ruined by the domestic social and political turmoil of the 1960s during the presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson, which in the novel is described as a manifestation of the "indigenous American berserk." The novel won the Pulitzer Prize in 1998 and was included in Time's "All-TIME 100 Greatest Novels." The film rights to it were later optioned by Paramount Pictures. In 2006, it was one of the runners-up in the "What is the Greatest Work of American Fiction in the Last 25 Years?" contest held by the New York Times Book Review. The framing device in American Pastoral is a 45th high school reunion attended by frequent Roth alter ego Nathan Zuckerman, who is the narrator. At the reunion, in 1995, Zuckerman meets former classmate Jerry Levov who describes to him the tragic derailment of the life of his recently deceased older brother, Seymour "Swede" Levov, who succumbed to metastatic prostate cancer at age 68.
    • First Published: 1997-05-12
    • Subjects: Literary, Family, United States of America, History
    • Genres (Book): Fiction, Novel
    • Original Language: English Language
  • The Stories of John Cheever
    28

    The Stories of John Cheever

    John Cheever
    82 votes
    The Stories of John Cheever is a 1978 short story collection by American author John Cheever. It contains some of his most famous stories, including "The Enormous Radio," "Goodbye, My Brother," "The Country Husband," "The Five-Forty-Eight" and "The Swimmer." It won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1979 and its first paperback edition won a 1981 National Book Award.
    • First Published: 1978
    • Subjects: Literary, Literature, Classics, United States of America, 20th century
    • Genres (Book): Anthology, Fiction, Short story
    • Original Language: English Language
  • A Thousand Acres (1992)
    29

    A Thousand Acres (1992)

    Jane Smiley
    191 votes
    A Thousand Acres is a 1991 novel by American author Jane Smiley. It won the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction in 1991 and was adapted to a 1997 film of the same name. The novel is a modernized retelling of Shakespeare's King Lear and is set on a thousand acre farm in Iowa that is owned by a family of a father and his three daughters. It is told through the point of view of the oldest daughter, Ginny.
    • First Published: 1991-10-23
    • Subjects: Literary
    • Genres (Book): Children's literature, Fiction, Novel
    • Original Language: English Language
  • Gilead (2005)
    30

    Gilead (2005)

    Marilynne Robinson
    199 votes
    Gilead is a novel written by Marilynne Robinson that was published in 2004. It is her second novel, following Housekeeping, which was published in 1980. Gilead won the 2005 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, as well as the National Book Critics Circle Award. Gilead is an epistolary novel that is the fictional autobiography of the Reverend John Ames, an elderly congregationalist pastor in the small, secluded town of Gilead, Iowa, who knows that he is dying of a heart condition. At the beginning of the book, the date is established as 1957, and Ames explains that he is writing an account of his life for his seven-year-old son, who will have few memories of him.
    • First Published: 2004-11-04
    • Subjects: Kansas, Clergy, Iowa
    • Genres (Book): Fiction, Novel
    • Original Language: English Language
  • Interpreter of Maladies (2000)
    31

    Interpreter of Maladies (2000)

    Jhumpa Lahiri
    212 votes
    Interpreter of Maladies is a book collection of nine short stories by Indian American author Jhumpa Lahiri published in 1999. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award in the year 2000 and has sold over 15 million copies worldwide. It was also chosen as The New Yorker's Best Debut of the Year and is on Oprah Winfrey's Top Ten Book List. The stories are about the lives of Indians and Indian Americans who are caught between the culture they have inherited and the "New World."
    • First Published: 1999
    • Subjects: Literary, Indian American, Self-help, Culture of India
    • Genres (Book): Anthology, Fiction, Short story
    • Original Language: English Language
  • The Confessions of Nat Turner (1968)
    32

    The Confessions of Nat Turner (1968)

    William Styron
    141 votes
    The Confessions of Nat Turner is a 1967 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by U.S. writer William Styron. Presented as a first-person narrative by historical figure Nat Turner, the novel concerns the slave revolt in Virginia in 1831. It is based on The Confessions of Nat Turner: The Leader of the Late Insurrection in Southampton, Virginia, a first-hand account of Turner's confessions published by a local lawyer, Thomas Ruffin Gray, in 1831. Time Magazine included the novel in its TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005.
    • First Published: 1967
    • Subjects: Nat Turner's slave rebellion, Slavery, Nat Turner
    • Genres (Book): Fiction, Novel
    • Original Language: English Language
  • A Visit from the Goon Squad (2011)
    33

    A Visit from the Goon Squad (2011)

    Jennifer Egan
    224 votes
    A Visit from the Goon Squad is a work of fiction by American author Jennifer Egan. It won the 2010 National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction, and the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Most of the stories in A Visit from the Goon Squad concern Bennie Salazar, an aging rock music executive; his old assistant, Sasha; and their various friends and associates. The book follows a large cast of mostly self-destructive characters as they grow older and life sends them in directions they did not intend to go in. The stories shift back and forth in time, moving from the late sixties to the present and into the near future. Many of the stories take place in or around New York City, although some are set in California, Italy and Kenya.
    • First Published: 2010
    • Original Language: English Language
  • Ironweed (1984)
    34

    Ironweed (1984)

    William Kennedy
    163 votes
    Ironweed is a 1983 novel by William Kennedy. It received the 1984 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and is the third book in Kennedy's Albany Cycle. It placed at number ninety-two on the Modern Library list of the 100 Best Novels written in English in the 20th Century and is also included in the Western Canon of the critic Harold Bloom.
    • First Published: 1983
    • Subjects: Literary, Family
    • Genres (Book): Mystery, Fiction
    • Original Language: English Language
  • The Reivers (1963)
    35

    The Reivers (1963)

    William Faulkner
    143 votes
    The Reivers, published in 1962, is the last novel by the American author William Faulkner. The bestselling novel was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1963. Faulkner previously won this award for his book A Fable, making him one of only three authors to be awarded it more than once. Unlike many of his earlier works, it is a straightforward narration and eschews the complicated literary techniques of his more well known works. It is a picaresque novel, and as such may seem uncharacteristically lighthearted given its subject matter. For these reasons, The Reivers is often ignored by Faulkner scholars or dismissed as a lesser work. He previously had referred to writing a "Golden Book of Yoknapatawpha County" with which he would finish his literary career. It is likely that The Reivers was meant to be this "Golden Book". The Reivers was adapted into a 1969 film directed by Mark Rydell and starring Steve McQueen as Boon Hogganbeck.
    • First Published: 1962
    • Subjects: Horse racing, Literary, Mississippi, Literature, Classics
    • Genres (Book): Fiction, Novel
    • Original Language: English Language
  • Andersonville (1956)
    36

    Andersonville (1956)

    MacKinlay Kantor
    149 votes
    Andersonville is a novel by MacKinlay Kantor concerning the Confederate prisoner of war camp, Andersonville prison, during the American Civil War. The novel was originally published in 1955, and won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction the following year.
    • First Published: 1955
    • Subjects: Education, United States of America, American Civil War, History
    • Genres (Book): Children's literature, Fiction, Historical novel
    • Original Language: English Language
  • The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (2008)
    37

    The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (2008)

    Junot Díaz
    253 votes
    The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is a best-selling novel written by Dominican author Junot Díaz. Although a work of fiction, the novel is set in New Jersey where Díaz was raised and deals explicitly with his ancestral homeland's experience under dictator Rafael Trujillo. It received highly positive reviews from critics and went on to win numerous prestigious awards in 2008, such as the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
    • First Published: 2007-09-06
    • Subjects: Curse, Family
    • Genres (Book): Fiction, Novel
    • Original Language: English Language, Spanish Language
  • Breathing Lessons (1989)
    38

    Breathing Lessons (1989)

    Anne Tyler
    151 votes
    Breathing Lessons is a 1988 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by American author Anne Tyler. It is her eleventh novel.
    • First Published: 1988
    • Subjects: Novel
    • Genres (Book): Children's literature, Fiction, Novel
    • Original Language: English Language
  • The Sympathizer (2016)
    39

    The Sympathizer (2016)

    Viet Thanh Nguyen
    54 votes
  • A Death in the Family (1958)
    40

    A Death in the Family (1958)

    James Agee
    133 votes
    A Death in the Family is an autobiographical novel by author James Agee, set in Knoxville, Tennessee. He began writing it in 1948, but it was not quite complete when he died in 1955. It was edited and released posthumously in 1957 by editor David McDowell. Agee's widow and children were left with little money after Agee's death and McDowell wanted to help them by publishing the work. Agee won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1958 for the novel. The novel was included on Time's 2005 list of the 100 best English-language novels written since 1923.
    • First Published: 1957
    • Subjects: Literature, Classics
    • Genres (Book): Autobiographical novel, Fiction, Novel
    • Original Language: English Language
  • One of Ours
    41

    One of Ours

    Willa Cather
    58 votes
    One of Ours is a novel by Willa Cather that won the 1923 Pulitzer Prize for the Novel. It tells the story of the life of Claude Wheeler, a Nebraska native around the turn of the 20th century. The son of a successful farmer and an intensely pious mother, he is guaranteed a comfortable livelihood. Nevertheless, Wheeler views himself as a victim of his father's success and his own inexplicable malaise.
    • First Published: 1923
    • Subjects: Literary, Nebraska, Literature, Classics
    • Genres (Book): Fiction
    • Original Language: English Language
  • The Stone Diaries (1995)
    42

    The Stone Diaries (1995)

    Carol Shields
    131 votes
    The Stone Diaries is a 1993 award-winning novel by Carol Shields. It is the fictional autobiography of Daisy Goodwill Flett, a seemingly ordinary woman whose life is marked by death and loss from the beginning, when her mother dies during childbirth. Through marriage and motherhood, Daisy struggles to find contentment, never truly understanding her life's true purpose. The book's title may have been inspired by Pat Lowther's poetry collection A Stone Diary. Lowther's murder in 1975 was the inspiration for Shields' earlier novel Swann: A Mystery. Part of the setting for the book is the historic Vinegar Hill neighborhood of Bloomington, Indiana.
    • First Published: 1993
    • Genres (Book): Fiction, Novel
    • Original Language: English Language
  • Less (2018)
    43

    Less (2018)

    Andrew Sean Greer
    87 votes
    • First Published: 2017
    • Genres (Book): Fiction, Satire, Humor
  • The Overstory (2019)
    44

    The Overstory (2019)

    Richard Powers
    71 votes
  • Advise and Consent: A Novel of Washington Politics (1960)
    45

    Advise and Consent: A Novel of Washington Politics (1960)

    Allen Drury
    142 votes
    Advise and Consent is a 1959 political novel by Allen Drury that explores the United States Senate confirmation of controversial Secretary of State nominee Robert Leffingwell, who is a former member of the Communist Party. The novel spent 102 weeks on The New York Times Best Seller list, won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1960 and was adapted into a successful 1962 film starring Henry Fonda. It was followed by Drury's A Shade of Difference in 1962, and four additional sequels.
    • First Published: 1959-07-11
    • Subjects: Cold War, Politics of the United States, United States of America, Congress
    • Genres (Book): Fiction, Novel, Political fiction
    • Original Language: English Language
  • The Fixer (1967)
    46

    The Fixer (1967)

    Bernard Malamud
    128 votes
    The Fixer is a novel by Bernard Malamud published in 1966 by Farrar, Straus & Giroux. It won the U.S. National Book Award for Fiction and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. The Fixer provides a fictionalized version of the Beilis case. Menahem Mendel Beilis was a Jew unjustly imprisoned in Tsarist Russia. The "Beilis trial" of 1913 caused an international uproar and Russia backed down in the face of world indignation. The book was adapted into a 1968 film of the same name starring Alan Bates who received an Oscar nomination.
    • First Published: 1966
    • Subjects: Literary, Ukraine, Literature, Classics
    • Genres (Book): Children's literature, Fiction
    • Original Language: English Language
  • March (2006)
    47

    March (2006)

    Geraldine Brooks
    144 votes
    March is a novel by Geraldine Brooks. It is a novel that retells Louisa May Alcott's novel Little Women from the point of view of Alcott's protagonists' absent father. Brooks has inserted the novel into the classic tale, revealing the events surrounding March's absence during the American Civil War in 1862. The novel won the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for fiction.
    • First Published: 2005
    • Subjects: Fathers and Daughters, Slavery, United States of America, History
    • Genres (Book): Fiction, Novel
    • Original Language: English Language
  • The Optimist's Daughter (1973)
    48

    The Optimist's Daughter (1973)

    Eudora Welty
    111 votes
    The Optimist's Daughter is a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winning 1972 short novel by Eudora Welty. It concerns a woman named Laurel, who travels to New Orleans to take care of her father, Judge McKelva, after he has surgery for a detached retina. He fails to recover from the surgery, though, surrenders to his age, and dies slowly as Laurel reads to him from Dickens. Her father's second wife Fay, who is younger than Laurel, is a shrewish outsider from Texas. Her shrill response to the Judge's illness appears to accelerate his demise. Laurel and Fay are thrown together when they return the Judge to his home town of Mount Salus, Mississippi, where he will be buried. There, Laurel is immersed in the enveloping good neighborliness of the friends and family she knew before marrying and moving away to Chicago. Fay, though, has always been unwelcome and takes off for a long weekend, leaving Laurel in the big house full of memories. Laurel encounters her mother's memory, her father's life after he lost his first wife, and the complex emotions surrounding her loss and the wave of memories in which she swims.
    • First Published: 1972
    • Genres (Book): Novel
    • Original Language: English Language
  • Rabbit at Rest (1991)
    49

    Rabbit at Rest (1991)

    John Updike
    169 votes
    Rabbit at Rest is a 1990 novel by John Updike. It is the fourth and final novel in a series beginning with Rabbit, Run; Rabbit Redux; and Rabbit is Rich. There is also a related 2001 novella, Rabbit Remembered. The novel won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1991, the second "Rabbit" novel to garner the award.
    • First Published: 1990
    • Subjects: Literary
    • Genres (Book): Fiction, Novel
    • Original Language: English Language
  • The Known World (2004)
    50

    The Known World (2004)

    Edward P. Jones
    130 votes
    The Known World is a 2003 historical novel by Edward P. Jones. Set in antebellum Virginia, it examines the issues regarding the ownership of black slaves by both white and black Americans. The book was published to widespread acclaim from literary critics, with much praise directed at its story and Jones' prose.
    • First Published: 2003-09
    • Subjects: Literary, Slavery, Virginia
    • Genres (Book): Speculative fiction, Fiction, Novel, Historical novel, History
    • Original Language: English Language
  • The Way West (1950)
    51

    The Way West (1950)

    Alfred Bertram Guthrie, Jr.
    101 votes
    The Way West is a 1949 western novel by A. B. Guthrie, Jr.. The novel won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1950. The book became the basis for a film starring Kirk Douglas, Robert Mitchum, and Richard Widmark. The novel is one in the sequence of six by A. B. Guthrie, Jr. dealing with the Oregon Trail and the development of Montana from 1830, the time of the mountain men, to "the cattle empire of the 1880s to the near present.". The publication sequence started with The Big Sky, then proceeded to The Way West, These Thousand Hills, Arfive, The Last Valley, and Fair Land, Fair Land. The first three books of the six in the chronological sequence —The Big Sky, The Way West, and Fair Land, Fair Land—are in themselves a complete trilogy, starting in 1830 with Boone Caudill leaving Kentucky to become a mountain man and ending with the death of Caudill and later the death of Dick Summers in the 1870s. For Wallace Stegner The Big Sky is "the best" of the six novels in Guthrie's sequence. As popular and highly regarded as had been The Big Sky, The Way West was the novel in the sequence to be formally honored with the Pulitzer Prize for fiction.
    • First Published: 1949
    • Genres (Book): Western, Western fiction
    • Original Language: English Language
  • Rabbit Is Rich (1982)
    52

    Rabbit Is Rich (1982)

    John Updike
    148 votes
    Rabbit Is Rich is a 1981 novel by John Updike. It is the third novel of the four-part series which begins with Rabbit, Run and Rabbit Redux, and concludes with Rabbit At Rest. There is also a related 2001 novella, Rabbit Remembered. Rabbit Is Rich was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction in 1982, as well as the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction in 1981. The first-edition hardcover dust jacket for the novel was designed by the author, and is significantly different from the common horizontal-stripe designs used on the other three Rabbit novels. Later printings, including trade paperbacks, feature the trademark stripe motif with stock images of a set of car keys or an image of a late-1970s Japanese automobile.
    • First Published: 1981-09-12
    • Subjects: Literary
    • Genres (Book): Children's literature, Fiction, Novel
    • Original Language: English Language
  • Independence Day (1996)
    53

    Independence Day (1996)

    Richard Ford
    115 votes
    Independence Day is a 1995 novel by Richard Ford and the sequel to Ford's 1986 novel The Sportswriter. This novel is the second in what is now a four part series. It was followed by The Lay of the Land and Let Me Be Frank with You. Independence Day won the Pulitzer Prize and PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction in 1996, becoming the first novel ever to win both awards in a single year. The novel follows Frank Bascombe, a New Jersey real estate agent, through the titular holiday weekend as he visits his ex-wife, his troubled son, his current lover, the tenants of one of his properties, and some clients of his who have been having trouble finding the perfect house. It focuses in particular on a car trip with his son to the Basketball and Baseball halls of fame. It was well-reviewed, with Michiko Kakutani writing in The New York Times that "Mr. Ford has galvanized his reputation as one of his generation's most eloquent voices." Similar in form and common themes to John Updike's Rabbit novels, Independence Day is a pastoral meditation on a man reaching middle age and assessing his place in life and the greater world.
    • First Published: 1995-06-13
    • Subjects: New Jersey
    • Genres (Book): Fiction, Novel
    • Original Language: English Language
  • Humboldt's Gift (1976)
    54

    Humboldt's Gift (1976)

    Saul Bellow
    127 votes
    Humboldt's Gift is a 1975 novel by Saul Bellow. It won the 1976 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and contributed to Bellow's winning the Nobel Prize in Literature the same year.
    • First Published: 1975
    • Original Language: English Language
  • The Town (1951)
    55

    The Town (1951)

    Conrad Richter
    114 votes
    The Town is a novel written by American author Conrad Richter. It is the third installment of his trilogy The Awakening Land. The Trees and The Fields were the earlier portions of the series. The Town was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1951. In September 1966, his publisher Alfred A. Knopf reissued the trilogy for the first time as a single hardcover volume. According to the edition notice of this all-in-one version—which lists the original publication dates of the three books -- The Town was first published on 24 April 1950.
    • Subjects: Literary, Ohio
    • Genres (Book): Fiction, Novel
    • Original Language: English Language
  • The Keepers of the House (1965)
    56

    The Keepers of the House (1965)

    Shirley Ann Grau
    92 votes
    The Keepers of the House is a 1964 novel by Shirley Ann Grau set in rural Alabama and covering seven generations of the Howland family that lived in the same house and built a community around themselves. As such, it is a metaphor for the long-established families of the Deep South of the United States, their encounter with changing values and norms, and the hypocrisy of racism. In 1965, The Keepers of the House was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
    • Subjects: Literary, Mississippi, Literature, Classics
    • Genres (Book): Fiction, Novel
    • Original Language: English Language
  • A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain (1993)
    57

    A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain (1993)

    Robert Olen Butler
    105 votes
    A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain is a 1992 collection of short stories by Robert Olen Butler. It received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1993. Each story in the collection is narrated by a different Vietnamese immigrant living in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The stories are largely character-driven, with cultural differences between Vietnam and the United States as an important theme. Many of the stories were first published in journals such as The Hudson Review, The Southern Review, and The Virginia Quarterly Review. The collection was re-released in 2001 with two additional stories, "Salem" and "Missing".
    • First Published: 1992-03-15
    • Subjects: Louisiana, Vietnam War
    • Genres (Book): Fiction
    • Original Language: English Language
  • Tinkers (2010)
    58

    Tinkers (2010)

    Paul Harding
    137 votes
    Tinkers is the first novel by American author Paul Harding. The novel tells the stories of George Washington Crosby, an elderly clock repairman, and of his father, Howard. On his deathbed, George remembers his father, who was a tinker selling household goods from a donkey-drawn cart and who struggled with epilepsy. The novel was published by Bellevue Literary Press, a sister organization of the Bellevue Literary Review. Tinkers won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and other awards and honors. The Pulitzer board called the novel "a powerful celebration of life in which a New England father and son, through suffering and joy, transcend their imprisoning lives and offer new ways of perceiving the world and mortality."
    • First Published: 2009-01
    • Genres (Book): Fiction, Novel
    • Original Language: English Language
  • A Fable (1955)
    59

    A Fable (1955)

    William Faulkner
    111 votes
    A Fable is a 1954 novel written by the American author William Faulkner. He spent more than a decade and tremendous effort on it, and considered it his masterpiece when it was completed. It won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, but critical reviews were mixed and it is considered one of Faulkner's lesser works. Historically, it can be seen as a precursor to Joseph Heller's Catch-22. The book takes place in France during World War I and stretches through the course of one week. Corporal Stephan, who represents Jesus, orders 3,000 troops to disobey orders to attack in the brutally repetitive trench warfare. In return, the Germans do not attack, and the war stops when soldiers realize that it takes two sides to fight a war. The Generalissimo, who represents leaders who use war to gain power, invites his German counterpart to discuss how to restart the war. He then arrests and executes Stephan. Before Stephan's execution, the Generalissimo tries to convince the corporal that war can never be stopped because it is the essence of human nature.
    • First Published: 1954
    • Subjects: Literary, Literature, Classics
    • Genres (Book): Speculative fiction, Fiction, Novel
    • Original Language: English Language
  • The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love (1990)
    60

    The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love (1990)

    Oscar Hijuelos
    119 votes
    The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love is a 1989 novel by Oscar Hijuelos. It is about the lives of two Cuban brothers and musicians, Cesar and Nestor Castillo, who immigrate to the United States and settle in New York City in the early 1950s. The novel won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1990, being the first novel by a United States-born Hispanic to do so. It was the basis for a 1992 motion picture, The Mambo Kings, as well as a musical in 2005. The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love was published in 1989, and soon became a huge international bestseller. It tells the story of Cesar Castillo, an aged musician who once had a small amount of fame when he and his brother appeared on an episode of I Love Lucy in the 1950s. The book chronicles Cesar’s last hours as he sits in a seedy hotel room, drinking and listening to recordings made by his band, the Mambo Kings.
    • First Published: 1989-08-21
    • Subjects: Literary, Classics
    • Genres (Book): Fiction
    • Original Language: English Language
  • House Made of Dawn (1969)
    61

    House Made of Dawn (1969)

    N. Scott Momaday
    119 votes
    House Made of Dawn is a novel by N. Scott Momaday, widely credited as leading the way for the breakthrough of Native American literature into the mainstream. It was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1969, and has also been noted for its significance in Native American Anthropology.
    • First Published: 1968
    • Subjects: Literature, Classics
    • Genres (Book): Children's literature, Historical fiction, Fiction, Novel
    • Original Language: English Language
  • Guard of Honor (1949)
    62

    Guard of Honor (1949)

    James Gould Cozzens
    100 votes
    Guard of Honor is a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by James Gould Cozzens published during 1948. The novel is set during World War II, with most of the action occurring on or near a fictional Army Air Forces base in central Florida. The action occurs during a period of approximately 48 hours. The novel is chapterless in form, using three progressively longer parts entitled "Thursday", "Friday" and "Saturday". From dates on various memoranda quoted, the story takes place on September 2, 3, and 4, 1943. Before entering the USAAF during 1943, Cozzens had already published 10 novels; his duties included writing speeches and articles for Henry H. Arnold, commanding general of the USAAF. Cozzens worked in the USAAF Office of Information Services, a liaison and "information clearinghouse" between the military and the civilian press. One of the functions of his office was in controlling news, and it became Cozzens’ job to defuse situations potentially embarrassing to Arnold. One such incident occurred during April 1945: African-American officers protested the segregation of officer club facilities in what became known as the Freeman Field Mutiny.
    • First Published: 1948
    • Subjects: Classics, World War II
    • Genres (Book): Fiction, Novel
    • Original Language: English Language