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There are those who write well, and there are those who write well and often. These prolific literary giants have all published work worthy of inclusion on our list of the greatest novels since 1996, but their fecundity perhaps made it difficult for voters to narrow it down to just one book.
Margaret Atwood
Atwood started the millennium winning the Booker Prize with “The Blind Assassin,” a nested novel of historical fiction. If that seems like a change from the feminist speculative fiction of her breakthrough, “The Handmaid’s Tale,” Atwood has refused to be pigeonholed. Since 1996, she has published books of poetry, short fiction, essays and graphic novels; she wrote the libretto for an opera; and she wrote a novel that will remain unread for nearly 100 years. The closest literary kin would be the MaddAddam Trilogy (2003-2013), feminist speculative fiction plus capitalism and genetic engineering gone wrong — and a pandemic.
Dave Eggers
Eggers has been an outsized cultural figure for the past quarter-century. His 2000 debut, “A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius,” was a lightly fictionalized memoir that introduced readers to Eggers’ ironized yet deeply moving storytelling. Since then, genre-bender Eggers has turned his hand to sociopolitical satire (“A Hologram for The King,” “The Circle”), book-length portraiture (“Zeitoun”) and fictionalized autobiography (“What Is the What”). As the pasha of the McSweeney’s literary empire and founder of the 826 National literary nonprofit, it’s a surprise that Eggers has time to write books at all (two or three dozen, so far).
Tana French
A master of plotting and characterization, French uses the tropes of the detective novel to explore greater themes of class and cultural imperialism. An American who’s lived in Ireland since the 1990s, French’s 2007 debut, “In the Woods,” kicked off her six-book (so far) Dublin Murder Squad series. The fourth, “Broken Harbor,” won the 2012 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for mystery/thriller. In recent books, French has borrowed elements of the western genre to explore corporate rapacity in the era of climate change and looked at life in a small Irish village with the ear to both insider and outsider.
William Gibson
The greatest science-fiction writer of his generation, the man who coined the term “cyberspace,” Gibson has been very busy. An American who moved to Canada and drifted into writing in the 1970s, he has written avidly and brilliantly during the last 30 years about the power and peril of technology. In novels such as “All Tomorrow’s Parties” and “The Peripheral,” Gibson anticipated the present state of our wired world — in which a simulacrum of reality has overtaken everyday life via technology controlled by the creepy and the power-mad, and rebel outsiders try to fight back.
Lauren Groff
Groff emerged fully formed with her 2008 debut, “The Monsters of Templeton,” a dark family saga that leaps across time and space with formal daring and wit. A novelist with a sharp social conscience, whether setting her fiction in the present or past, Groff burrows under the bedrock of culture to explore the moral rot underneath. Her novel “Fates and Furies,” the story of a long marriage as told from the perspectives of both spouses, was a breakout bestseller and Barack Obama’s favorite book of 2015, and she remained on his favorites list with her latest, 2023’s “The Vaster Wilds.”
Stephen Graham Jones
Jones is a bold experimentalist in his fiction, employing a mashup of literary genres, often with horror as a key element. He’s written novels, short stories and comics about alienation and disenfranchisement and revenge. In his latest book, “The Buffalo Hunter Hunter,” a Blackfoot vampire who is murdered during the Marias Massacre of 1870 returns; 2016’s “Mongrels” is a coming-of-age-meets-werewolf story. Jones has published about 35 books since his 2000 debut, “The Fast Red Road,” and is an unstoppable literary force.
Celeste Ng
With her blockbuster 2014 novel “Everything I Never Told You,” Ng reinvented the suburban novel for our present age of anxiety, with its status-signaling, subtle racial tensions, teenage secrets and tone-deaf parents. Her follow-up, “Little Fires Everywhere,” was a huge bestseller, guaranteeing Ng a devoted readership. The Hulu adaptation by Reese Witherspoon’s production company, which elevated the questions of race, power and blind spots, landed co-star Kerry Washington an Emmy nomination. The novelist’s latest, “Our Missing Hearts,” imagines a near-future in which a son’s search for his mother unfolds against a country whose leaders have pledged to preserve culture by destroying it.
Sally Rooney
Rooney’s moving, witty and whip-smart millennial fiction has struck a resonant chord with readers worldwide. The Irish novelist, perhaps unwillingly, has become a fictional voice of her generation, examining the power relationships and politics of her characters. Her first two novels, “Conversations With Friends” and “Normal People,” were published before she turned 30. Her latest, “Intermezzo,” was met by critics hoping she might finally stumble, but fans were satisfied. Rooney’s young adults, hyperarticulate and conversant in seemingly everything, are yet tripped up by the mysteries of the human heart.
Danzy Senna
Senna has artfully explored what it means to be a biracial person in America, and the dark comedy of in-betweenness. She launched her career with “Caucasia,” an award-winning bestselling novel, in 1998; it has been translated into 12 languages. So far, she has published four novels, one short story collection, and one memoir. Her most recent book, “Colored Television,” is a seriocomic exploration of race and creativity and the haves and have-nots of Hollywood. Matters may be all too serious, but Senna is able to shine a smart, funny light on them.
Zadie Smith
Beginning with her 2000 debut, “White Teeth,” which racked up more awards than we can list here, Smith has explored the spaces between us — ethnic differences, economic disparities, art and longing. Smith is a maximalist who likes to work with a large canvas, a social observer with a sharp and unflinching eye. While she has also published plays, short fiction, criticism and essays, Smith is primarily a novelist whose books include “On Beauty,” “Swing Time,” “NW” and “The Fraud.” She’s one of the leading writers of our time.
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