Modern & Literary Fiction Books
Outline: A Novel by Rachel Cusk
Author of the Booker-longlisted novel Second PlaceOutline is a novel in ten conversations. Spare and lucid, it follows a novelist teaching a course...
View full detailsMilkman by Anna Burns
Blazing.' Daily Telegraph'Outstanding.' New Statesman'A triumph.' Guardian'Utterly compelling.' Irish Times'The best Booker winner in years.' Metro...
View full detailsLight Perpetual by Francis Spufford
**Longlisted for the Booker Prize 2021**** From the author of Golden Hill **'My god he can write.' Richard Osman'Glorious.' Evening Standard'Exhila...
View full detailsConversations with Friends by Sally Rooney
***READ THE NOVEL IN TIME FOR THE BBC THREE DRAMA, PREMIERING IN MAY 2022***'This book. This book. I read it in one day. I hear I'm not alone.' - S...
View full detailsGrief Is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter
A SUNDAY TIMES TOP 100 NOVEL OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURYWinner of the 2016 International Dylan Thomas Prize and the Sunday Times/Peter, Fraser + Du...
View full detailsThe Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro
*Kazuo Ishiguro's new novel Klara and the Sun is now available*The Romans have long since departed, and Britain is steadily declining into ruin. Th...
View full detailsMayflies by Andrew O'Hagan
Winner of the Christopher Isherwood PrizeShortlisted for the Portico PrizeA Guardian, Spectator, Sunday Times, Financial Times and Evening Standard...
View full detailsTokyo Redux by David Peace
A powerful, stirring read.' The Times'Typically brilliant . I loved it.' Adrian McKinty'The most stone-cold crime novel of 2021.' CrimeReadsTokyo, ...
View full detailsThe Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
A cult figure.' Guardian'A dark and brilliant achievement.' Ian McEwan'Shamelessly clever ... Exhilaratingly subversive and funny.' Independent'A m...
View full detailsMiss Benson's Beetle: An uplifting story of female friendship against the odds by Rachel Joyce
WINNER OF THE WILBUR SMITH ADVENTURE WRITING PRIZE | BEST PUBLISHED NOVELWOMAN & HOME BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR and A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER'Th...
View full detailsA God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson
WINNER OF THE 2015 COSTA NOVEL AWARD AND BESTSELLING LITERARY PAPERBACK OF THE YEAR'Atkinson's finest work, and confirmation that her genre-defying...
View full detailsLife After Life by Kate Atkinson
The PRIZE-WINNING BESTSELLER, now a major BBC1 DRAMA SERIES starring Thomasin McKenzie, Sian Clifford and James McArdle, directed by BAFTA award-wi...
View full detailsYou Exist Too Much by Zaina Arafat
Deeply compelling... sexy.' Roxane Gay'Takes you on a dizzying tour of love addiction, rehab, homophobia, betrayal, obsession and the aching need f...
View full detailsThe Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
THE SUNDAY TIMES TOP BESTSELLER#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERSHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZELONGLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE'An utterly mesmerising ...
View full detailsThe Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson
THE GLOBAL BESTSELLER Sitting quietly in his room in an old people's home, Allan Karlsson is waiting for a party he doesn't want to begin. His one-...
View full detailsThe Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction 2014 Aged thirteen, Theo Decker, son of a devoted mother and a reckless, largely absent father, survives a...
View full detailsEverything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
Amazon.com's no. 1 Book of the Year 2014 Lydia is the favourite child of Marilyn and James Lee; a girl who inherited her mother's bright blue eyes ...
View full detailsShantaram by Gregory David Roberts
A literary masterpiece . . . at once erudite and intimate, reflective and funny . . . it has the grit and pace of a thriller' Daily TelegraphA nove...
View full detailsSankofa by Chibundu Onuzo
A REESE WITHERSPOON BOOK CLUB PICK * A BBC 2 BETWEEN THE COVERS BOOK CLUB PICK * SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION FUTURES PRIZE * AN A...
View full detailsThe Ship of Brides by Jojo Moyes
The 2005 novel The Ship of Brides by Jojo Moyes, the bestselling author of Me Before You and two-time winner of the RNA Novel of the Year award. Au...
View full detailsNight Music by Jojo Moyes
A new edition of the 2008 novel Night Music by Jojo Moyes, the bestselling author of Me Before You and The Giver of StarsIsabel Delancey has always...
View full detailsSilver Bay by Jojo Moyes
The 2007 novel Silver Bay by Jojo Moyes, the bestselling author of Me Before You and two-time winner of the RNA Novel of the Year award. Liza McCul...
View full detailsGhosts by Dolly Alderton
A 21ST CENTURY LOVE STORY AND TOP 10 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 'Utter BRILLIANCE . . . I absolutely LOVED it!' Marian Keyes, bestselling author of GR...
View full detailsTranscendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi
SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION 2021**From the bestselling author of Homegoing**______________________________________________As a ch...
View full detailsAgent Running in the Field by John le Carre
The British spy thriller at its unputdownable best' ObserverSELECTED FOR BBC 2 BETWEEN THE COVERS________________________________Nat, a veteran of ...
View full detailsGirl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
THE SUNDAY TIMES 1# BESTSELLER & BOOKER PRIZE WINNERBRITISH BOOK AWARDS AUTHOR & FICTION BOOK OF THE YEAR 2020 'The most absorbing book I r...
View full details10 Minutes 38 Seconds in this Strange World by Elif Shafak
SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2019 'Expect vibrant, vivid and eye-opening descriptions of Middle Eastern life propelled by a tender storyline, a...
View full detailsHomegoing by Yaa Gyasi
A BBC Top 100 Novels that Shaped Our WorldEffia and Esi: two sisters with two very different destinies. One sold into slavery; one a slave trader's...
View full detailsSpring: 'A dazzling hymn to hope' Observer by Ali Smith
SUNDAY TIMES NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER A once-in-a-generation series, Ali Smith's Seasonal Quartet is a tour-de-force about love, time, art, politics, ...
View full detailsAutumn by Ali Smith
SUNDAY TIMES TOP TEN BESTSELLERSHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE 2017A once-in-a-generation series, Ali Smith's Seasonal quartet is a tour-de-force ...
View full detailsAnybody Out There by Marian Keyes
Discover the warm, witty and compelling story of a woman trying to get her life back on track, from the No. 1 bestselling author of Grown Ups'Seari...
View full detailsRachel's Holiday by Marian Keyes
A MUST-READ FOR FANS OLD AND NEW, THIS STUNNING 25TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION IS THE PERFECT WAY TO REDISCOVER THE 1.5 MILLION COPY, NO. 1 BESTSELLING P...
View full detailsThe Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born and what my lousy childhood was like, and how...
View full detailsBerlin Game by Len Deighton
Masterly ... dazzlingly intelligent and subtle' Sunday Times'Deighton's best novel to date - sharp, witty and sour, like Raymond Chandler adapted t...
View full detailsUnsettled Ground by Claire Fuller
WINNER OF THE COSTA NOVEL AWARD 2021SHORTLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE 2021'Her strongest yet... a powerful, beautiful novel that shows us our land ...
View full detailsOne Day I Shall Astonish the World by Nina Stibbe
From the prize-winning author of Reasons to be Cheerful comes a story about the ebb and flow of female friendship over half a lifetime'A true gift ...
View full detailsOpen Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson
WINNER OF THE COSTA FIRST NOVEL AWARD AND A NO.1 BESTSELLER IN THE TIMES'A tender and touching love story, beautifully told' Observer 'Hands-down t...
View full detailsAgain, Rachel by Marian Keyes
THE BOOK THAT EVERYONE IS TALKING ABOUT . . . THE NO. 1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER'Again, Rachel is fabulous. Beautifully written, pure 5-star Keyes -...
View full detailsTrio by William Boyd
An elating read' Sunday TimesA producer. A novelist. An actress. It is summer in 1968, the year of the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Rob...
View full detailsMy Name Is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout
A #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERLONGLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE & THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTIONAn exquisite story of mothers and daughters fr...
View full detailsMr Loverman by Bernardine Evaristo
Treat a loved one to this joyful, big-hearted read from Booker Prize-winning novelist Bernardine Evaristo... '[Mr Loverman is] Brokeback Mountain w...
View full detailsGrimm Tales: For Young and Old by Philip Pullman
In this beautiful book of classic fairy tales, award-winning author Philip Pullman has chosen his fifty favourite stories from the Brothers Grimm a...
View full detailsWe Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
Her greatest book ... at once whimsical and harrowing, a miniaturist's charmingly detailed fantasy sketched inside a mausoleum ... the deeper we si...
View full detailsThe Lonely Londoners by Sam Selvon
Both devastating and funny, The Lonely Londoners is an unforgettable account of immigrant experience - and one of the great twentieth-century Londo...
View full detailsNineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
One of the BBC's '100 Novels that Shaped the World''Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past'Hidden aw...
View full detailsOf Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Drifters in search of work, George and his childlike friend Lennie, have nothing in the world except the clothes on their back - and a dream that o...
View full detailsWide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
One of the BBC's '100 Novels That Shaped Our World''Rhys took one of the works of genius of the 19th Century and turned it inside-out to create one...
View full detailsBreakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote
Immortalised by Audrey Hepburn's sparkling performance in the 1961 film of the same name, Breakfast at Tiffany's is Truman Capote's timeless portra...
View full detailsCreative, formula-bending, genre-defying, character-focused, and most importantly, a literary exploration of the human condition—contemporary & modern literary fiction is arguably the most experimental genre within literature.
The landscape of literary fiction is constantly being revolutionised by literary fiction authors; that are known to constantly push the boundaries of genre fiction and blur the lines of distinction between literary fiction and other genres of literature.
Given the creative ambiguity of contemporary literary fiction; the genre witnesses a dazzling lineup of highly acclaimed debuts and fresh progressive voices each year. From trailblazing memoirs to the cultural history of humanity—no other genre captures the exactness of our collective life experience more creatively than literary fiction.
The list of bestselling literary fiction is an exciting mix of very distinct literary techniques and contrasting voices. Precisely why, we at Books2Door bring you and a carefully curated collection of the best literary fiction books of all time whilst also helping you gain an acute understanding of what qualifies as modern & literary fiction.
Formula-bending, genre-defying, and experimental
Modern and Contemporary Literary Fiction or experimental fiction is possibly the literature’s most rebellious genre. It doesn’t follow any literary formulas, nor does it adhere to any rules. In that, literary fiction authors are free to build an unpredictable narrative. Anything can transpire; exciting or unnerving. In literary fiction, any established literary theme can be turned on its head. For instance, literary fiction authors have challenged the good-triumphs-over-evil theme; so common otherwise in genre fiction books.
George Orwell’s social satire Nineteen Eighty-Four is one example. A book best categorised as dystopian literature; (remember the recently trending hashtag #makeorwellfictionagain ?) Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four not only challenged the good vs evil theme but also blurred the lines of distinction between genre fiction and classic literary fiction.
Employees creative storytelling
Considering literary fiction doesn’t adhere to any rules of genre or sub-genre; every literary fiction author is free to be creative and create his own rules. This makes the storyline an adventure, that can take its readers by surprise.
Devoid of any rules, the literary fiction writer is free to break convention and employ his creativity. This practice has birthed some extraordinary literary works. For example, Audrey Niffenegger’s The Time Traveler’s Wife where Niffenegger’s uses dual narrators from the first person point of view, in the present tense.
Thought-provoking and introspective
Like we said earlier, no other genre captures the exactness of the human condition and our collective life experience more creatively than literary fiction. Whilst most genres are designed to entertain the readers, literary fiction is meant to do more than that. Literary fiction seeks to make sense of the world. It is meant to be thought-provoking, and introspective and is meant to push the reader to think critically of the human condition.
Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, for instance, explores the mind of a depressed, anxious, and neurotic young woman. Whilst the book has a coming-of-age plot line; it is the inner dialogue of this character that truly makes it a memorable book. This strong character study is what makes literary fiction a character-focused and introspective genre.
Explores the human condition
Stories in literary fiction do not shy away from dealing with difficult subjects and the realities of the human condition with artistic honesty. Literary fiction, therefore, is not always designed to help the reader escape. It can make the reader uncomfortable and push them to think about issues.
Literary fiction however is not non-fiction; so it doesn’t just report the truth. Instead, it relies on creative techniques and artsy symbolism to convey a deeper meaning. Literary fiction relies on metaphors and creative storytelling to convey meaningful messages. As a result, the takeaway from these stories is more than just the story, the takeaway is the experience, the message, and at times the characters.
Literary fiction is character-driven
Whilst genre fiction is focused on the story, plotlines, and on being an engaging read; literary fiction is more stressed on the characters or on conveying a meaningful message or idea. At times, it is focused on both. The characters in literary fiction can have layers, the depth of a character's actions and psyche are explored to forward the plot. Literary fiction doesn’t just show a character’s story, it shows how their actions and circumstances change the character.
Literary fiction can be as absurd and ambiguous as life itself
Literary fiction is experimental in nature much like absurd art, which means it doesn’t have to have a happy ending or an ending at all. Art movements like absurdism, dadaism and surrealism, are all, artsy cousins of experimental prose.
Literary fiction gives writers the liberty to let a story end abruptly or for the entire plot to be absurd. Stories in this genre don’t necessarily have to resolve but they have to have meaning. The meaning however is left to the reader’s interpretation.
Literary fiction is good for the reader
Because literary fiction pushes boundaries, employs a unique perspective, searches for meaning, and is designed for intellectual and emotional stimulus--it is much like the art you see hanging in galleries and the movies that bring meaningful conversations alive. Just like artsy movies and art itself, the creative genius of literary fiction is largely open to criticism. Some of the best contemporary literary fiction books have won critical acclaim and awards but missed out on winning the masses.
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