The 75 Greatest Books of the 21st Century

A personal canon of the books that have changed how we understand the world

A global literary canon should reflect not merely the books that sold millions of copies or won prestigious awards, but those that expanded our understanding of human existence. The greatest books challenge our assumptions, illuminate unfamiliar lives, confront uncomfortable truths and reveal dimensions of the human condition that ordinary experience often leaves unexplored.

The twenty-first century has already produced an extraordinary body of literature. Novelists have reimagined history, poets have challenged the boundaries of language, memoirists have transformed private suffering into collective testimony, and scholars have questioned the foundations of our understanding of civilisation, science and nature.

The following selection brings together 75 remarkable books published since 2000. It includes novels, poetry, memoir, history, science and literary nonfiction from different countries and traditions. Some are celebrated award winners; others deserve recognition for their originality, philosophical depth or contribution to world literature.

This is necessarily a subjective selection, not a definitive ranking. Literary greatness cannot be measured by awards, sales…