Literary Prize
ALA Notable Books Winners
This prize has shaped the literary landscape of its category by drawing attention to works of quality and originality. Its history of recognition reflects the evolution of taste, form, and cultural conversation within the field.
107 winners ranked
Top Countries
Top Genres
All Winners
#1
literary-fiction
The God of Small Things
Arundhati Roy· 1997
★Nobel Prize in Literature★Booker Prize
Editorial Score100/100
#2
literary-fiction
The Tin Drum
Günter Grass· 1999
★Nobel Prize in Literature
Editorial Score98/100
#3
literary-fiction
The Kite Runner
Khaled Hosseini· 2003
★Nobel Prize in Literature
Editorial Score88/100
#4
literary-fiction
The Corrections
Jonathan Franzen· 2002
★National Book Award
Editorial Score88/100
#5
literary-fiction
Disgrace
J.M. Coetzee· 1999
★Booker Prize
Editorial Score83/100
#6
literary-fiction
The Stranger
Albert Camus· 1957
★Nobel Prize in Literature
Editorial Score79/100
#7
literary-fiction
The Magic Mountain
Thomas Mann· 1929
★Nobel Prize in Literature
Editorial Score75/100
#8
literary-fiction
Steppenwolf
Hermann Hesse· 1946
★Nobel Prize in Literature
Editorial Score74/100
#9
mystery-thriller
The Name of the Rose
Umberto Eco· 1983
★Edgar Award
Editorial Score60/100
#10
adventure
The Count of Monte Cristo
Alexandre Dumas· 1844
Times Literary SupplementALA Notable Books
Editorial Score47/100
#11
literary-fiction
Wise Children
Angela Carter· 1991
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score47/100
#12
literary-fiction
Germinal
Émile Zola· 1885
Times Literary SupplementALA Notable Books
Editorial Score46/100
#13
politics-society
The Shock Doctrine
Naomi Klein· 2007
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score45/100
#14
politics-society
The Wretched of the Earth
Frantz Fanon· 1961
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score43/100
#15
historical-fiction
Homegoing
Yaa Gyasi· 2016
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score42/100
#16
biography-memoir
There Was a Country
Chinua Achebe· 2012
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score42/100
#17
literary-fiction
Conversation in the Cathedral
Mario Vargas Llosa· 1969
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score42/100
#18
literary-fiction
The Passion
Jeanette Winterson· 1987
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score42/100
#19
literary-fiction
Purple Hibiscus
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie· 2003
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score41/100
#20
literary-fiction
2666
Roberto Bolaño· 2004
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score41/100
#21
mystery-thriller
Fingersmith
Sarah Waters· 2002
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score41/100
#22
literary-fiction
The Feast of the Goat
Mario Vargas Llosa· 2000
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score41/100
#23
literary-fiction
The Savage Detectives
Roberto Bolaño· 1998
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score41/100
#24
literary-fiction
Of Love and Other Demons
Gabriel García Márquez· 1994
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score41/100
#25
literary-fiction
The Castle
Franz Kafka· 1926
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score41/100
#26
literary-fiction
If on a winter's night a traveler
Italo Calvino· 1979
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score41/100
#27
politics-society
Orientalism
Edward Said· 1978
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score41/100
#28
literary-fiction
Americanah
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie· 2013
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score40/100
#29
history
Guns, Germs, and Steel
Jared Diamond· 1997
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score40/100
#30
literary-fiction
Eva Luna
Isabel Allende· 1987
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score40/100
#31
literary-fiction
The Glass Bead Game
Hermann Hesse· 1943
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score40/100
#32
literary-fiction
Demian
Hermann Hesse· 1919
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score40/100
#33
historical-fiction
All Quiet on the Western Front
Erich Maria Remarque· 1929
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score40/100
#34
literary-fiction
Invisible Cities
Italo Calvino· 1972
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score40/100
#35
literary-fiction
Cosmicomics
Italo Calvino· 1965
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score40/100
#36
literary-fiction
Small World
David Lodge· 1984
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score40/100
#37
science-nature
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
Thomas S. Kuhn· 1962
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score40/100
#38
philosophy
A Room of One's Own
Virginia Woolf· 1929
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score40/100
#39
art-design
The Story of Art
E.H. Gombrich· 1950
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score40/100
#40
literary-fiction
By Night in Chile
Roberto Bolaño· 2000
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score39/100
#41
literary-fiction
The Bell Jar
Sylvia Plath· 1963
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score39/100
#42
biography-memoir
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Maya Angelou· 1969
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score39/100
#43
literary-fiction
Arrow of God
Chinua Achebe· 1964
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score39/100
#44
literary-fiction
Pedro Páramo
Juan Rulfo· 1955
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score39/100
#45
literary-fiction
The Metamorphosis
Franz Kafka· 1915
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score39/100
#46
literary-fiction
Molloy
Samuel Beckett· 1951
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score39/100
#47
literary-fiction
The Outsider
Albert Camus· 1942
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score39/100
#48
literary-fiction
In the Penal Colony
Franz Kafka· 1919
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score39/100
#49
mystery-thriller
The Long Goodbye
Raymond Chandler· 1953
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score39/100
#50
philosophy
The Second Sex
Simone de Beauvoir· 1949
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score39/100
#51
literary-fiction
Freedom
Jonathan Franzen· 2010
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score38/100
#52
literary-fiction
Atonement
Ian McEwan· 2001
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score38/100
#53
literary-fiction
Saturday
Ian McEwan· 2005
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score38/100
#54
literary-fiction
The Reader
Bernhard Schlink· 1995
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score38/100
#55
historical-fiction
Tipping the Velvet
Sarah Waters· 1998
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score38/100
#56
short-stories
Interpreter of Maladies
Jhumpa Lahiri· 1999
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score38/100
#57
literary-fiction
Things Fall Apart
Chinua Achebe· 1958
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score38/100
#58
literary-fiction
Season of Migration to the North
Tayeb Salih· 1966
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score38/100
#59
literary-fiction
The Cairo Trilogy
Naguib Mahfouz· 1957
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score38/100
#60
literary-fiction
Palace Walk
Naguib Mahfouz· 1956
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score38/100
#61
literary-fiction
The Tin Flute
Gabrielle Roy· 1945
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score38/100
#62
literary-fiction
The Diviners
Margaret Laurence· 1974
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score38/100
#63
literary-fiction
The Time of the Hero
Mario Vargas Llosa· 1963
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score38/100
#64
literary-fiction
Nausea
Jean-Paul Sartre· 1938
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score38/100
#65
literary-fiction
The Child in Time
Ian McEwan· 1987
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score38/100
#66
literary-fiction
Changing Places
David Lodge· 1975
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score38/100
#67
literary-fiction
Nights at the Circus
Angela Carter· 1984
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score38/100
#68
mystery-thriller
The Big Clock
Kenneth Fearing· 1946
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score38/100
#69
art-design
Ways of Seeing
John Berger· 1972
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score38/100
#70
literary-fiction
On Beauty
Zadie Smith· 2005
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score37/100
#71
literary-fiction
White Teeth
Zadie Smith· 2000
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score37/100
#72
historical-fiction
The General in His Labyrinth
Gabriel García Márquez· 1989
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score37/100
#73
mystery-thriller
Foucault's Pendulum
Umberto Eco· 1988
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score37/100
#74
mystery-thriller
Ripley Under Ground
Patricia Highsmith· 1970
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score37/100
#75
classic-literature
An Inspector Calls
J.B. Priestley· 1945
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score37/100
#76
literary-fiction
NW
Zadie Smith· 2012
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score36/100
#77
literary-fiction
London Fields
Martin Amis· 1989
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score36/100
#78
mystery-thriller
Get Shorty
Elmore Leonard· 1990
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score36/100
#79
literary-fiction
Buddenbrooks
Thomas Mann· 1901
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score36/100
#80
classic-literature
Waiting for Godot
Samuel Beckett· 1953
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score36/100
#81
literary-fiction
The Fall
Albert Camus· 1956
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score36/100
#82
literary-fiction
Money
Martin Amis· 1984
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score36/100
#83
literary-fiction
The Namesake
Jhumpa Lahiri· 2003
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score35/100
#84
politics-society
No Logo
Naomi Klein· 1999
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score35/100
#85
literary-fiction
Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
Jeanette Winterson· 1985
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score35/100
#86
politics-society
The Feminine Mystique
Betty Friedan· 1963
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score35/100
#87
literary-fiction
The Information
Martin Amis· 1995
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score34/100
#88
literary-fiction
Death in Venice
Thomas Mann· 1912
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score34/100
#89
literary-fiction
Enduring Love
Ian McEwan· 1997
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score33/100
#90
literary-fiction
Austerlitz
W.G. Sebald· 2001
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score32/100
#91
literary-fiction
The Stone Angel
Margaret Laurence· 1964
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score32/100
#92
literary-fiction
The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz
Mordecai Richler· 1959
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score30/100
#93
art-design
The Shock of the New
Robert Hughes· 1980
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score30/100
#94
mystery-thriller
Out of Sight
Elmore Leonard· 1996
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score27/100
#95
literary-fiction
The Rachel Papers
Martin Amis· 1973
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score27/100
#96
mystery-thriller
A Judgement in Stone
Ruth Rendell· 1977
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score25/100
#97
literary-fiction
The Rings of Saturn
W.G. Sebald· 1995
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score12/100
#98
literary-fiction
The Emigrants
W.G. Sebald· 1992
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score11/100
#99
mystery-thriller
The Big Lebowski
Elmore Leonard· 1991
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score11/100
#100
literary-fiction
Petals of Blood
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o· 1977
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score10/100
#101
literary-fiction
A Grain of Wheat
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o· 1967
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score10/100
#102
literary-fiction
Weep Not, Child
Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o· 1964
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score10/100
#103
literary-fiction
Waiting for the Barbarians
J.M. Coetzee· 1980
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score10/100
#104
literary-fiction
In the Heart of the Country
J.M. Coetzee· 1977
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score10/100
#105
literary-fiction
The Plumed Serpent
D.H. Lawrence· 1926
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score10/100
#106
classic-literature
No Exit
Jean-Paul Sartre· 1944
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score10/100
#107
literary-fiction
Nice Work
David Lodge· 1988
ALA Notable Books
Editorial Score10/100
