The New York Times Book Review has compiled a ranking of the 100 best books of the 21st century. For this purpose, the publication sent out a survey to hundreds of novelists, publicists, scholars, editors, journalists, critics, publishers, poets, translators, and other representatives of the book market.
Writers Stephen King, Bonnie Garmus, Min Jin Lee, actress Sarah Jessica Parker, cultural critic Thomas Chatterton Williams, and others took part in the survey. The best of these works are available for reading and downloading on the Z-library platform.
Table of Contents
“The Warmth of Other Suns,” Isabel Wilkerson
A book about one of the most remarkable untold pages of American history: the decades of migration of black citizens who fled the South to northern and western cities in search of a better life.
“2666,” by Roberto Bolaño
Written in the last years of Roberto Bolaño’s life and published posthumously, “2666” was hailed in Europe and Latin America as the author’s highest achievement.
The novel consists of five stories, each connected to the mysterious town of Santa Teresa, located on the US-Mexico border. It is where mysterious serial murders take place. All over the city, dead, raped, and mutilated women are found, and the murderer is still at large.
“Underground Railroad,” Colson Whitehead
19th century, plantation in Georgia. A runaway slave miraculously escapes from the web of horror, only to fall into an even more terrible hell the next moment.
The work touches on difficult questions. What is America during the Civil War? What is a nation, and how is it created? It turns out that the famous Declaration of Independence also has flaws, as does the “great American idea” before which the world bows. What is true freedom – an open question.
“Austerlitz,” Winfried Georg Sebald
This novel, or “a prose book of an indeterminate genre,” as Sebald himself called it, is distinguished not only by its unusual, labyrinthine plot, which the author builds with the care of a spider weaving its web, but also by the unique poetics of the language, which turns this work into a long poem about the search for a lost childhood. The unnamed narrator, again and again, meets the mysterious hermit Jacques Austerlitz, who is in love with European landscapes and architecture and tells him about his many years of efforts to uncover the secret of his origin.
“Never Let Me Go,” Kazuo Ishiguro
This is a novel with elements of science fiction and dystopia, a story about the search for answers, love, friendship, memory, hope, and hopelessness. Katie, the main character of the book, tries to understand and accept her childhood and youth in the privileged boarding school of Hailsham and beyond, her difference from people, and the chosen destiny for Katie herself and her closest friends to be a donor. This is a long journey of memories, feelings, and revelations, which slowly build a new picture of the world for the characters.
“Gilead”, Marilyn Robinson
In 1956, at the end of the life of the Reverend John Ames, he begins a letter to his son, telling about himself and his ancestors. Ames is the son of a preacher from Iowa and the grandson of a priest who, as a young man in Maine, saw a vision of Christ in chains and came west to Kansas to fight for the abolition of slavery.
Reverend Ames writes to his son about the tension between his father and his grandfather.
The New York Times’s best books list offers a compelling glimpse into the literary achievements of the 21st century, showcasing works that delve into profound themes of history, identity, and human resilience. For those eager to explore these masterpieces, many are accessible for reading and downloading on the Z library platform.
