The New York Times, known worldwide for its bestseller book list, has released its picks for the 100 best books of the 21st century.
Although no Australian titles made the cut, there are shoutouts to authors from countries such as Canada, Britain, Jamaica and Chile.
Pop culture hits such as Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko, David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas, Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch, and Ian McEwan’s Atonement earned the respective writers a spot on the list each.
But less mainstream writers were the big winners, as multiple titles made the cut from writers such as Elena Ferrante, Alice Munro, Philip Roth, Zadie Smith, George Saunders, Edward P Jones and Jesmyn Ward.
NY Times book critic Dwight Garner said a few writers, such as Karl Ove Knausgaard and JK Rowling, were “squeezed out” because votes were split among several of their works.
The final 100 books were based on votes from 503 writers, academics, book editors, journalists, critics, publishers, translators, booksellers, librarians and other book lovers, along with “a little help” from The New York Times Book Review staff.
The voters could pick only from books published in the United States in English, on or after January 1, 2000. Translations of foreign works also counted.
“Many of us find joy in looking back and taking stock of our reading lives, which is why we… decided to mark the first 25 years of this century with an ambitious project: To take a first swing at determining the most important, influential books of the era,” the The New York Times Book Review wrote.
“We let [voters] each define “best” in their own way. For some, this simply meant “favorite.” [sic] For others, it meant books that would endure for generations.
“After casting their ballots, respondents were given the option to answer a series of prompts where they chose their preferred book between two randomly selected titles. We combined data from these prompts with the vote tallies to create the list of the top 100 books.”
Some well-known voters included actor and founder of Zando literary imprint SJP Lit, Sarah Jessica Parker, alongside best-selling authors James Patterson, Min Jin Lee and Stephen King.
These high-profile voters’ top 10 picks were also revealed, and social media users quickly spotted King had voted for one of his own titles – the 2009 science fiction novel Under the Dome.
Despite decades of mainstream success, none of King’s books ended up on the list.
Entrants on the 100 best books of the 21st century list included short story compilations, investigative journalism, graphic novels and lengthy works of fiction.
Common themes explored in the selected titles included race (particularly pertaining to the Black experience in America), queerness, social and cultural history, poverty and politics.
– TND
