Discover the 10 best books of the 21st century, according to the New York Times

The New York Times has compiled a list of 100 best books published since 2000 to try to compile the best releases of this century.

In collaboration with The Upshot, the newspaper sent a survey to 503 fiction and nonfiction writers, poets, critics and book lovers asking each to list the 10 best books of the 21st century.

Among the participants who answered the survey are: Stephen King, Sarah Jessica Parker, Bonnie Garmus, Claudia Rankine, James Patterson, Sarah MacLean, Min Jin Lee, Jenna Bush Hage, among others. And you can see how each one voted here .

At the top of the list — and appearing twice more throughout — is the writer Elena Ferrante, with the first book of the Neapolitan Tetralogy, “My Brilliant Friend”.

Also featured are writers recognized for the Nobel Prize in Literature, such as Jon Fosse (with “Septology”), Svetlana Alexievich (with “Secondhand Time”) and Kazuo Ishiguro (with “Never Let Me Go”).

Check how many you have already read or intend to read.

Discover the 10 best books of the 21st century

10. “Gilead” by Marilynne Robinson

Winner of the 2005 Pulitzer Prize, the book is set in the fictional town of Gilead, Iowa, in the United States, where the Boughton and Ames families live. The novel is narrated by John Ames, the minister of a small town congregation, who has found personal fulfillment through his family and his profession, and decides to write an account of his life to leave to his son.

• Title: “Gilead”
• Author: Marilynne Robinson
• Publishing company: New Life Editions
• Number of pages: 320
• Year of publication in Brazil: 2016

9. “Never Let Me Go” by Kazuo Ishiguro

Winner of the 2017 Nobel Prize for Literature, the story follows Kathy H., a 31-year-old woman raised at the English boarding school Hailsham. As she recalls her childhood, we discover that the boarding school and its students are part of a secret that is much more sinister than it might seem at first glance — they are all clones, created for the purpose of serving as “spare parts”.

• Title: “Never leave me”
• Author: Kazuo Ishiguro
• Publishing company: Company of Letters
• Number of pages: 344
• Year of publication in Brazil: 2016

8. “Austerlitz” by W.G. Sebald

The book tells the story of Professor Jacques Austerlitz, who was exploring Liverpool Street railway station in London, collecting material for his research, when he is overcome by an uncomfortable feeling of having lived a life that was not his and decides to reconstruct his own memory.

• Title: “Austerlitz”
• Author: W.G. Sebald
• Publishing company: Company of Letters
• Number of pages: 288
• Year of publication in Brazil: 2008

7. “The Underground Railroad: The Paths to Freedom”, by Colson Whitehead

Cora is enslaved on a cotton farm in Georgia, United States, and dreams of her freedom. Until Caesar, a young slave, tells her about the underground railroad that crosses the country and could take them to the free states, where slavery has already been abolished. Together, the two decide to brave the dangerous path in search of freedom.

• Title: “The Underground Railroad: The Paths to Freedom”
• Author: Colson Whitehead
• Publishing company: Harper Collins
• Number of pages: 320
• Year of publication in Brazil: 2017

6. “2666”, by Roberto Bolaño

Released a year after the author’s death, this is considered Bolaño’s best novel. The book is divided into five parts and follows characters who are drawn to the fictional Mexican city of Santa Teresa for different reasons: a group of literary critics in search of a reclusive German writer, a professor with existential questions, and a sports journalist who ends up investigating crimes committed against women.

• Title: “2666”
• Author: Roberto Bolaño
• Publishing company: Company of Letters
• Number of pages: 856
• Year of publication in Brazil: 2010

5. “The Corrections” by Jonathan Franzen

The book narrates the generational and religious conflicts of a typical American family at the end of the 20th century. Alfred and Enid Lambert, now in their 70s, enter into an inevitable conflict with their three children, who went to live in the metropolis to escape their parents’ small town, but found neither success nor happiness.

• Title: “The Corrections”
• Author: Jonathan Franzen
• Publishing company: Company of Letters
• Number of pages: 632
• Year of publication in Brazil: 2011

4. “The Known World” by Edward P. Jones

The book is about a former slave named Henry Townsend who becomes the owner of his own plantation (and his own slaves). Portraying the customs, politics, and moods of an era, Townsend witnesses as the world he and others knew begins to crumble beneath his feet.

• Title: “The known world”
• Author: Edward P. Jones
• Publishing company: Jose Olympio
• Number of pages: 406
• Year of publication in Brazil: 2009

3. “Wolf Hall” by Hilary Mantel

The protagonist of the book is Thomas Cromwell, the chief advisor to King Henry VIII of England, who, despite being little known, had a huge impact on English history. Mantel fills in the gaps in historical facts with her imagination, tracing the narrative of Cromwell’s rise to power.

• Title: “Wolf Hall”
• Author: Hilary Mantel
• Publishing company: Still
• Number of pages: 544
• Year of publication in Brazil: 2020

2. “The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration,” by Isabel Wilkerson

From 1915 to 1970, nearly six million black citizens and their families migrated from the southern states of the United States to the northern states in search of a better life. The author draws parallels between this and other great migrations throughout human history, with data and accounts of how this journey changed people and the country.

The book does not have a Portuguese edition.

• Title: “The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration”
• Author: Isabel Wilkerson
• Publishing company: Vintage Books
• Number of pages: 622
• Year of publication in the USA: 2011

1. “My Brilliant Friend” by Elena Ferrante

First up is the first book in the Neapolitan Tetralogy, which tells the story of two friends over the course of their 60 years of life. In this volume, Elena Greco narrates her memories with her friend Raffaella Cerullo from childhood to the age of 16 in the city of Naples, Italy. More than the complex and intense dynamics between the two friends, Ferrante also constructs a portrait of the transformations in Italy during the post-war period.

• Title: “The brilliant friend”
• Author: Elena Ferrante
• Publishing company: Blue Library
• Number of pages: 336
• Year of publication in Brazil: 2015

check out Here is the complete list of the 100 best books of the 21st century.

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