Literary Fiction Books
Character-driven novels that prize prose, interiority, and ambiguity over plot mechanics.
266 books
Thriller
11/22/63
Dystopian
1Q84
Romance
28 Summers
Literary Fiction
A Certain Hunger
Comedy
A Confederacy of Dunces
A Confederacy of Dunces
Non-Fiction
A Fine Balance
Non-Fiction
A Grain of Wheat
Memoir
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
A Lesson Before Dying
Literary Fiction
A Long Way Down
Literary Fiction
A Month in the Country
Non-Fiction
A Scanner Darkly
A Separate Peace
Romance
A Suitable Boy
Literary Fiction
A Visit from the Goon Squad
A Wild Sheep Chase
After Dark
Contemporary Fiction
Agnes Grey
Crime
All American Boys
Fantasy
All Our Wrong Todays
Literary Fiction
All the Colors of the Dark
Romance
All the Pretty Horses
Horror
American Psycho
An American Marriage
Literary Fiction
An Artist of the Floating World
Historical Fiction
An Iliad
Mystery
An Instance of the Fingerpost
Fantasy
An Unkindness of Ghosts
Non-Fiction
Ancillary Justice
Anna Karenina
Annabel
Anything Is Possible
Literary Fiction
Arrow of God
Non-Fiction
Babel
Bag of Bones
Historical Fiction
Beautiful Ruins
Beauty
Beautyland
Romance
Before the Coffee Gets Cold
Romance
Bel Canto
Historical Fiction
Beowulf
Big Swiss
Comedy
Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk
Literary Fiction
Bleak House
Non-Fiction
Blindsight
Bliss Montage
Blue Sisters
Literary Fiction
Bones and All
Brick Lane
Fantasy
Brida
Mystery
Broken Harbor
Literary Fiction
Butcher's Crossing
Thriller
By a Thread
By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept
Contemporary Fiction
Case Histories
Contemporary Fiction
Caucasia
Comedy
Choke
Thriller
City on Fire
Mystery
Clockers
Comedy
Closing Time
Non-Fiction
Cloud Cuckoo Land
Fantasy
Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage
Horror
Come Closer
Literary Fiction
Come and Get It
Historical Fiction
Commonwealth
Literary Fiction
Conversations with Friends
Cosmicomics
Romance
Cranford
Crime and Punishment
Non-Fiction
Cry, the Beloved Country
Literary Fiction
Cutting for Stone
Contemporary Fiction
David Copperfield
Dead Souls
Young Adult
Dear Martin
Demian
Literary Fiction
Dept. of Speculation
Historical Fiction
Dictionary of the Khazars
Comedy
Disorientation
Mystery
Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line
Literary Fiction
Doctor Zhivago
Horror
Dolores Claiborne
Non-Fiction
Earth Abides
Literary Fiction
East of Eden
Thriller
Eileen
Non-Fiction
Einstein's Dreams
Romance
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine
Non-Fiction
Every Day Is for the Thief
Contemporary Fiction
Everyone in This Room Will Someday Be Dead
Literary Fiction
Everything I Never Told You
Contemporary Fiction
Everything Is Illuminated
Literary Fiction
Exciting Times
Literary Fiction
Exit West
Non-Fiction
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Literary Fiction
Fates and Furies
Non-Fiction
Ficciones
Foster
Foucault's Pendulum
Crime
Franny and Zooey
Freshwater
Historical Fiction
Fugitive Pieces
Non-Fiction
Giovanni's Room
Non-Fiction
Girl, Woman, Other
Go Tell It on the Mountain
Happenstance
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
Contemporary Fiction
Hello Beautiful
Fantasy
Her Body and Other Parties
Romance
Honey
Horror
House of Leaves
Literary Fiction
How Much of These Hills Is Gold
How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents
Non-Fiction
How to Stop Time
Mystery
I Am the Messenger
Immortality
Infinite Jest
Invisible Monsters
Historical Fiction
Jazz
Memoir
Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982
Fantasy
Lavinia
Literary Fiction
Leave the World Behind
Less Than Zero
Literary Fiction
Lincoln in the Bardo
Thriller
Long Bright River
Young Adult
Long Way Down
Love in the Time of Cholera
Luster
Historical Fiction
Machines Like Me
Romance
Madame Bovary
Romance
Major Pettigrew's Last Stand
Literary Fiction
Margo's Got Money Troubles
Matrix
Contemporary Fiction
Middlemarch
Literary Fiction
Midnight's Children
Literary Fiction
Milkman
Moby Dick
Monkey Bridge
Non-Fiction
Mother Night
Thriller
Motherless Brooklyn
Contemporary Fiction
Mrs Dalloway
Romance
Mrs. Hemingway
Non-Fiction
Mumbo Jumbo
Literary Fiction
My Brilliant Friend
Literary Fiction
My Name Is Lucy Barton
Young Adult
NW
Narcissus and Goldmund
Literary Fiction
Native Son
Nausea
Nervous Conditions
Literary Fiction
News of the World
Literary Fiction
Nightbitch
Literary Fiction
Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids
Literary Fiction
No Longer Human
Comedy
No One Is Talking About This
North Woods
Non-Fiction
Notes from Underground
Literary Fiction
Notes on a Scandal
Literary Fiction
Nothing to See Here
Romance
Of Love and Other Demons
Fantasy
Of Mice and Men
Oh William!
Olive Kitteridge
Literary Fiction
Oliver Twist
Contemporary Fiction
On Beauty
Non-Fiction
On the Beach
Non-Fiction
Oona Out of Order
Literary Fiction
Open Water
Literary Fiction
Pale Fire
Literary Fiction
Passing
Fantasy
Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl
Pedro Paramo
Non-Fiction
People of the Book
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
Pretend I'm Dead
Literary Fiction
The Remains of the Day
Non-Fiction
The Round House
Literary Fiction
The Satanic Verses
Literary Fiction
The Secret History
Non-Fiction
The Secret River
Literary Fiction
The Sellout
The Shadow King
Literary Fiction
The Shadow of the Wind
Historical Fiction
The Silence of the Girls
The Siren
Romance
The Siren
Historical Fiction
The Song of Achilles
Non-Fiction
The Sorrow of War
Historical Fiction
The Sparrow
Fantasy
The Starless Sea
The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
Non-Fiction
The Story of the New Name
The Storyteller
Literary Fiction
The Stranger
Philosophy
The Stranger in the Lifeboat
Horror
The Sundial
Literary Fiction
The Sympathizer
The Tale of Genji
Mystery
The Talented Mr. Ripley
Fantasy
The Ten Thousand Doors of January
Dystopian
The Testaments
Literary Fiction
The Things They Carried
The Thirteenth Tale
Science Fiction
The Three-Body Problem
Romance
The Time Traveler's Wife
Literary Fiction
The Trial
Romance
The Turn of the Screw
Non-Fiction
The Twelve Tribes of Hattie
Literary Fiction
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Non-Fiction
The Underground Railroad
Fantasy
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
Literary Fiction
The Vanishing Half
Literary Fiction
The Vegetarian
Literary Fiction
The Virgin Suicides
Literary Fiction
The Wasp Factory
Dystopian
The Water Cure
Fantasy
The Water Dancer
Contemporary Fiction
The Wedding People
Mystery
The White Tiger
Literary Fiction
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
Contemporary Fiction
The Wishing Game
The Witch of Portobello
The Woman in the Dunes
Comedy
The World According to Garp
Memoir
The Year of Magical Thinking
Non-Fiction
The Year of the Flood
Literary Fiction
The Yiddish Policemen's Union
Literary Fiction
Their Eyes Were Watching God
Literary Fiction
Things Fall Apart
Literary Fiction
This Tender Land
This Time Tomorrow
Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay
Tigana
Fantasy
Till We Have Faces
Literary Fiction
To Kill a Mockingbird
Tom Lake
Literary Fiction
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
Tracks
Literary Fiction
Trainspotting
Literary Fiction
Transcendent Kingdom
Literary Fiction
Trust
Thriller
Under the Skin
Underworld
Non-Fiction
Utopia Avenue
Non-Fiction
VALIS
Veronika Decides to Die
Horror
We Have Always Lived in the Castle
Mystery
We Have Always Lived in the Castle
Thriller
We Need to Talk About Kevin
Young Adult
We Were Liars
Literary Fiction
We Were the Universe
Literary Fiction
Where the Crawdads Sing
Contemporary Fiction
Where the Forest Meets the Stars
White Noise
Fantasy
White Oleander
Literary Fiction
White Teeth
Historical Fiction
Wide Sargasso Sea
Non-Fiction
Wild Seed
Young Adult
Wintergirls
Historical Fiction
Wolf Hall
Comedy
Wonder Boys
Literary Fiction
Wuthering Heights
Non-Fiction
Year of Wonders
Contemporary Fiction
Yellowface
Literary Fiction
Young Mungo
Historical Fiction
Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald
Memoir