Notable Books — Fiction

2011

• Nashville Chrome by Rick Bass
• Room: A Novel by Emma Donoghue
• A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
• Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin
• Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
• Next by James Hynes
• The Surrendered by Chang Rae Lee
• Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War by Karl Marlantes
• The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet: A Novel by David Mitchell.
• Skippy Dies by Paul Murray
• The Lotus Eaters by Tatjana Soli
• The Lonely Polygamist: A Novel by Brady Udall

2010

• The Convalescent Jessica Anthony
• The Year of the flood Margaret Atwood
• The Anthologist Nicholson Baker
• Await your reply Dan Chaon
• Little Bee Chris Cleave
• Spooner Pete Dexter
• Tinkers Paul Harding
• The Vagrants Yiyun Li
• Let the great world spin Colum McCann
• A Mercy Toni Morrison
• Generosity: An enhancement Richard Powers
• Brooklyn Colm Toibin

2009

• The Hakawati Rabih Alameddine
• The Wasted Vigil Nadeem Aslam
• Peace Richard Bausch
• City of Thieves: A Novel David Benioff
• The Plague of Doves Louise Erdrich
• Atmospheric Disturbances Rivka Galchen
• Unaccustomed Earth Jhumpa Lahiri
• Dangerous Laughter: Thirteen Stories Steven Millhauser
• Resistance Owen Sheers
• Olive Kitteridge Elizabeth Strout
• The Ginseng Hunter Jeff Talarigo

2008

• Away Amy Bloom
• Five Skies Ron Carlson
• The Yiddish Policemen’s Union Michael Chabon
• An Arsonist’s Guide to Writers’ Homes in New England Brock Clarke
• Finn: a novel John Clinch
• The Ministry of Special Cases Nathan Englander
• The Five-Forty-Five to Cannes Tess Uriza Holthe
• Mister Pip Lloyd Jones
• On Chesil Beach Ian McEwan
• Complete Stories David Malouf
• Out Stealing Horses Per Pettersen
• Cheating at Canasta William Trevor

2007

• Beautiful Dreamer Christopher Bigsby
• Madonnas of Leningrad Debra Dean
• The Inheritance of Loss Kiran Desai
• The Whistling Season Ivan Doig
• The Secret River Kate Grenville
• The Attack Yasmina Khadra, translated from the French by John Cullen
• The Girls Lori Lansens
• The Road Cormac McCarthy
• The People’s Act of Love James Meek
• Black Swan Green David Mitchell
• Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman Haruki Murakami
• Firmin: Adventures of a Metropolitan Lowlife Sam Savage

2006

• Midnight at the Dragon Café Judy Fong Bates
• Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close Jonathan Safran Foer
• Veronica Mary Gaitskill
• Hungry Tide Amitav Ghosh
• Never Let Me Go Kazuo Ishiguro
• Beasts of No Nation Uzodinma Iweala
• No Country for Old Men Cormac McCarthy
• Saturday Ian McEwan
• Kafka on the Shore Haruki Murakami, translator: Philip Gabriel
• Gilead Marilynne Robinson
• The Hummingbird’s Daughter Luis Alberto Urrea

2005

• The Lemon Table Julian Barnes
• The Half Brother Lars Saabye Christensen
• Birds without wings Louis de Bernières
• I Sailed with Magellan Stuart Dybek
• The Swallows of Kabul Yasmina Khadra
• The Madonna of Excelsior Zakes Mda
• Cloud Atlas David Mitchell
• Runaway Alice Munro
• Popular Music from Vittula Mikael Niemi
• The Plot Against America Philip Roth
• Old School Tobias Wolff

2004

• Brick Lane Monica Ali
• The Inquisitor’s Manual Antonio Lobo Antunes
• Any Human heart William Boyd
• Alva and Irva: The Twins who saved a city Edward Carey
• Brownsville: Stories Oscar Casares
• Curious incident of the dog in the night-time Mark Haddon
• >The Kite runner Khaled Hosseini
• The Known world Edward P. Jones
• The Fortress of Solitude Jonathan Lethem
• Love Toni Morrison
• Star of the sea Joseph O’Connor
• Drinking coffee elsewhere Z Z Packer
• The Cave Jose Saramago

2003

• The Book of illusions Paul Auster
• Carmelo Sandra Cisneros
• The Shell collector Anthony Doerr
• Miniatures Norah Labiner
• Lovely green eyes Arnost Lustig
• Atonement Ian McEwan
• That they may face the rising sun John McGahern (published in the U.S. as By the lake)
• In Revere, in those days Roland Merullo
• Family matters Rohinton Mistry
• Rouse Up, O Young Men of the New Age! Kenzaburo Oe
• The Russian Debutante’s handbook Gary Shteyngart
• God’s fool Mark Slouka

2002

• True history of the Kelly Gang Peter Carey
• Among the missing Dan Chaon
• Samuel Johnson is indignant: stories Lydia Davis
• Erasure: a novel Percival Everett
• The Corrections Jonathan Franzen
• The Pick up Nadine Gordimer
• Island: the complete stories Alistair MacLeod
• Bucking the tiger Bruce Olds
• Austerlitz W G Sebald
• The Death of Vishnu Manil Suri
• Crooked river burning Mark Winegardner

2001

• The Blind Assassin Margaret Atwood
• Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay Michael Chabon
• Disgrace J M Coetzee
• Being Dead Jim Crace
• Last Samurai Helen DeWitt
• Delinquent Virgin Laura Kalpakian
• Truth and Bright Water Thomas King
• English Passengers Matthew Kneale
• Living to Tell Antonya Nelson
• Anil’s Ghost Michael Ondaatje
• Scar Vegas Tom Paine
• White Teeth Zadie Smith
• The Quick and the Dead Joy Williams

2000

• Master Georgie Beryl Bainbridge
• The Hours Michael Cunningham
• The Country life Rachel Cusk
• A Star called Henry Roddy Doyle
• House of sand and fog Andre Dubus
• For the relief of unbearable urges Nathan Englander
• Waiting Ha Jin
• The Colony of unrequited dreams Wayne Johnston
• A Dangerous friend Ward Just
• A Gesture life Chang-rae Lee
• Motherless Brooklyn Jonathan Letham
• Henry of Atlantic City Frederick Reuss

1999

• Triage Scott Anderson
• Flanders Patricia Anthony
• The Voyage of the Narwhal Andrea Barrett
• Collection fictions Jorge Luis Borges
• The Coast of good intentions Michael Byers
• The Farming of bones Edwidge Danticat
• About a boy Nick Hornby
• Charming Billy Alice McDermott
• Birds of America Lorrie Moore
• I married a communist Philip Roth
• Beach boy Ardashir Vakil

1998

• Yo! Julia Alvarez
• Alias Grace Margaret Atwood
• The Jade peony Wayson Choy
• Reading in the dark Seamus Deane
• Cold Mountain Charles Frazier
• Aguero sisters Cristina Garcia
• The Wind-up bird chronicle Haruki Murakami
• The Wishbones Tom Perrotta
• News of the Spirit Lee Smith
• The Far Euphrates Aryeh Lev Stollman
• Blu’s hanging Lois-Ann Yamanaka

1997

• Behind the scenes at the museum Kate Atkinson
• Ship Fever: Stories Andrea Barrett
• Drown Junot Diaz
• The Woman who walked into doors Roddy Doyle
• Middle Son Deborah Iida
• A Fine balance Rohinton Mistry
• Asking for love and other stories Roxana Robinson
• Funny boy Shyam Selvadurai
• Last orders Graham Swift
• After rain William Trevor
• The Night in question: stories Tobias Wolff

1996

• The First man Albert Camus
• The Point: stories Charles D’Ambrosio
• The Paperboy Pete Dexter
• The Unconsoled Kazuo Ishiguro
• Native speaker Chang-Rae Lee
• All the days and nights William Maxwell
• Snow angels Stewart O’Nan
• The Body is water Julie Schumacher
• Eveless Eden Marianne Wiggins

1995

• In the time of the butterflies Julia Alvarez
• The Birthday boys Beryl Bainbridge
• Souls raised from the dead Doris Betts
• The End of vandalism Tom Drury
• Scar tissue Michael Ignatieff
• Ancestral truths Sara Maitland
• Open secrets Alice Munro
• The Bird artist Howard Norman
• In the lake of the woods Tim O’Brien
• The Collected stories Grace Paley
• The Grass dancer Susan Power
• The Cage Audrey Schulman

1994

• In Troubled waters Beverly Coyle
• The Virgin suicides Jeffrey Eugenides
• A Lesson before dying Ernest Gaines
• The Pugilist at rest Thom Jones
• Judge on trial Ivan Klima
• Here’s your hat, what’s your hurry? Elizabeth McCracken
• Remembering Babylon David Malouf
• Wolf whistle Lewis Nordan
• The Shipping news E Annie Proulx
• Nobody’s fool Richard Russo
• Montana, 1948 Larry Watson

1993

• Leviathan Paul Auster
• Before and after Rosellen Brown
• A Good scent from a strange mountain Robert Olen Butler
• The Brothers K David James Duncan
• Turtle moon Alice Hoffman
• Let the dead bury their dead and other stories Randall Kenan
• All the pretty horses Cormac McCarthy
• Billie Dyer and other stories William Maxwell
• Small spaces between emergencies Alison Moore
• Jazz Toni Morrison
• Bailey’s Cafe Gloria Naylor
• The English patient Michael Ondaatje
• A Thousand acres Jane Smiley