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The 30 Best Fiction Books of the Last 30 Years - The L.A. Times
30
items These are the 30 best fiction books of the last 30 years according to The L.A. Times.
In Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell weaves six interconnected stories spanning centuries, from a 19th-century Pacific voyage to a distant, post-apocalyptic future, exploring how individual acts of kindness and cruelty ripple across time. Each narrative ne...
Cloud Atlas: A Novel: Mitchell, David
In Milkman, Anna Burns tells the story of an unnamed young woman navigating life in a divided, oppressive society, where rumors and intimidation threaten her safety and autonomy. As she becomes the target of unwanted attention from a powerful, shadow...
Milkman: A Novel: Burns, Anna
In Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri presents a collection of short stories that explore the emotional landscapes of Indian and Indian-American characters grappling with displacement, cultural tension, and fragile human connections. Through mome...
Interpreter of Maladies: Jhumpa Lahiri
In Mason & Dixon, Thomas Pynchon reimagines the lives of the famed British surveyors as they chart the boundary between American colonies, blending historical fact with fantastical invention. Through digressions, eccentric characters, and rich, o...
Mason & Dixon: A Novel - Pynchon, Thomas: Books
In Underworld, Don DeLillo traces the hidden currents of American life during the Cold War era, linking a famous home-run baseball from 1951 to a sprawling cast of characters over decades of cultural and political upheaval. Through a mosaic of memori...
Underworld: A Novel - DeLillo, Don: Books
In All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr tells the parallel stories of Marie-Laure, a blind French girl, and Werner, a German boy whose paths cross in occupied France during World War II. Through richly detailed prose, the novel explores how res...
All the Light We Cannot See: A Novel
In The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins follows Katniss Everdeen, a teenager forced to fight for survival in a brutal, government-mandated competition designed to control and intimidate the districts of a dystopian Panem. As Katniss becomes a reluctant ...
The Hunger Games: Collins, Suzanne: Books
In Bel Canto, Ann Patchett tells the story of a diverse group of hostages and their captors who form unexpected bonds after a botched kidnapping at a lavish South American birthday party for a visiting opera singer. As music, language, and shared hum...
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
In Stories of Your Life and Others, Ted Chiang presents a collection of speculative stories that blend science, philosophy, and emotion to explore the profound mysteries of human existence. Through imaginative premises—ranging from alien linguistics ...
Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang
In Pachinko, Min Jin Lee follows four generations of a Korean family living in Japan, tracing their struggles with discrimination, poverty, and identity across the tumultuous backdrop of the 20th century. Through perseverance, sacrifice, and resilien...
Pachinko: Min Jin Lee
In American Pastoral, Philip Roth chronicles the unraveling of Seymour "Swede" Levov’s seemingly perfect life as his daughter’s radical political actions shatter his idyllic vision of postwar American success. Through the disintegration of one family...
American Pastoral: American Trilogy 1
In The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen follows the dysfunctional Lambert family as its aging parents and their three adult children grapple with personal failures, shifting loyalties, and the slow unraveling of traditional family expectations. As they ...
The Corrections: Franzen, Jonathan
In Salvage the Bones, Jesmyn Ward tells the story of Esch and her struggling family in rural Mississippi as they prepare for the arrival of Hurricane Katrina. Through lyrical, unflinching prose, the novel captures the fierce bonds of love, survival, ...
Salvage the Bones: Ward, Jesmyn
In A Visit from the Goon Squad, Jennifer Egan crafts a kaleidoscopic portrait of interconnected characters whose lives orbit around the music industry, tracing their hopes, losses, and transformations across decades. Through shifting perspectives and...
A Visit from the Goon Squad: Pulitzer Prize Winner
In Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel reimagines the rise of Thomas Cromwell, the ambitious and pragmatic son of a blacksmith who becomes a powerful advisor to King Henry VIII during a time of political and religious upheaval. Through richly detailed prose and...
Wolf Hall: Mantel, Hilary
n Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin follows the decades-long creative partnership between Sam and Sadie, two brilliant friends who find fame and fulfillment—and heartbreak—through the world of video game design. Through love, loss...
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow: A novel
In The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Díaz chronicles the tragicomic story of Oscar, an overweight, lovelorn Dominican-American nerd, as he struggles against a family curse believed to haunt his lineage. Spanning generations and continents, ...
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
In Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver reimagines David Copperfield in modern-day Appalachia, following a boy born into poverty as he battles addiction, foster care, and systemic injustice while fighting to hold onto his spirit and dreams. Through v...
Demon Copperhead: Pulitzer Prize Winner
In Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro tells the haunting story of Kathy, Ruth, and Tommy, students at a seemingly idyllic English boarding school who slowly uncover the devastating truth about their purpose. Through quiet, elegiac prose, the novel explo...
Never Let Me Go: Ishiguro, Kazuo
In Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides traces the life of Calliope Stephanides, later Cal, as they uncover a family secret and navigate the complexities of identity, gender, and heritage. Spanning three generations and two continents, the novel blends epic ...
Middlesex: A Novel: Jeffrey Eugenides
In The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead reimagines the historical network of escape routes as a literal subterranean train, following Cora, an enslaved woman, on her harrowing journey toward freedom. As Cora travels from state to state, the nov...
The Underground Railroad: Whitehead
In The Sympathizer, Viet Thanh Nguyen tells the story of a nameless Vietnamese double agent, whose divided loyalties between his communist handlers and his South Vietnamese allies unravel amid the chaos following the fall of Saigon. Through sharp, da...
The Sympathizer: Nguyen, Viet Thanh
In Lincoln in the Bardo, George Saunders imagines President Abraham Lincoln grieving the death of his young son, Willie, whose spirit lingers in a liminal realm between life and death. Through a chorus of ghostly voices, the novel explores sorrow, re...
Lincoln in the Bardo: A Novel: Saunders, George
In My Brilliant Friend, Elena Ferrante traces the intense, complicated friendship between Elena and Lila, two girls growing up in a rough neighborhood in postwar Naples. As their lives diverge and intertwine, the novel captures the fierce ambitions, ...
My Brilliant Friend (Neapolitan Novels Book 1)
In The Sellout, Paul Beatty delivers a biting satire about a Black man in Los Angeles who attempts to restore his hometown’s faded identity by reinstating segregation and owning a slave, actions that land him before the Supreme Court. Through razor-s...
The Sellout: A Novel by Paul Beatty
In The Overstory, Richard Powers weaves together the lives of nine individuals whose relationships with trees shape their personal journeys and ultimately intertwine in a collective act of environmental resistance. Through sweeping, lyrical prose, th...
The Overstory: A Novel: Powers, Richard
In The Goldfinch, Donna Tartt follows Theo Decker, a boy who survives a terrorist attack at a museum and clings to a stolen painting that becomes a source of both beauty and burden throughout his tumultuous life. Spanning years and continents, the no...
The Goldfinch: A Novel by Donna Tartt
In The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, Michael Chabon chronicles the rise of two Jewish cousins in the golden age of comic books as they create a legendary superhero while grappling with personal dreams, wartime loss, and forbidden love. Ble...
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
In James, Percival Everett reimagines the story of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of Jim, the enslaved man, giving him a powerful voice and a rich inner life previously denied. Through sharp wit, deep empathy, and historical insi...
James: A Novel - Everett, Percival: Books
In 2666, Roberto Bolaño spins a sprawling, multi-part narrative centered around an elusive German author and the mysterious, ongoing murders of women in the Mexican border town of Santa Teresa. Through a haunting tapestry of interconnected stories, t...
2666: A Novel: Roberto Bolaño