Fiction Index by Title

My categories are somewhat arbitrary, I’m afraid, but I think they do the job. The distinction between classics and modern literary fiction is particularly fine, and the line between literary and genre fiction can be blurry at the margins. I have just gone with my gut in most cases. I may break down the larger categories if necessary later. 

 

* denotes a title I read or saw live with my kids

 

Classic Fiction

 

Pre-1700


Beware the Cat William Baldwin

Gilgamesh* Traditional (retold by Bernarda Bryson) 

Mythology*        Traditional

Voices of the Winds: Native American Legends* Margot Edmonds & Ella E. Clark

 

1700-1800

 

The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle     Tobias Smollett

Candide Voltaire

Tristram Shandy     Laurence Sterne

 

1800-1900

 

Agnes Grey     Anne Bronte

Around the World in 80 Days*     Jules Verne

The Aspern Papers Henry James

The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. 

Best Short Stories by Black Authors Various (edited by Langston Hughes)

The Blithedale Romance Nathaniel Hawthorne

The Bostonians     Henry James

Can You Forgive Her?     Anthony Trollope

Captains Courageous*     Rudyard Kipling

Castle Nowhere Constance Fennimore Woolson

The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County* Mark Twain

A Christmas Carol*     Charles Dickens

The Claverings     Anthony Trollope

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court* Mark Twain

The Count of Monte Cristo     Alexandre Dumas (pere)

The Country of the Pointed Firs     Sarah Orne Jewett

Cousin Henry     Anthony Trollope

Daniel Deronda     George Eliot

Democracy        Henry Adams

Dr. Thorne     Anthony Trollope

Dracula        Bram Stoker

Eight Novellas and Short Stories     Henry James

Far From the Madding Crowd                   Thomas Hardy

Framley Parsonage     Anthony Trollope

Frankenstein        Mary Shelley

Germinal Emile Zola

The Gilded Age     Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner

The Golden Lion of Granpere Anthony Trollope

The Haunted Hotel Wilkie Collins

The Haunted Man     Charles Dickens

Heart of Midlothian     Sir Walter Scott

He Knew He Was Right     Anthony Trollope

Huckleberry Finn* Mark Twain

The Island of Doctor Moreau     H. G. Wells

Jane Eyre     Charlotte Bronte

Journey to the Center of the Earth*     Jules Verne

The Jungle Books*     Rudyard Kipling

Kidnapped*        Robert Louis Stevenson

King Solomon’s Mines* H. Rider Haggard

The Last Chronicle of Barset     Anthony Trollope

The Last Man Mary Shelley

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow*     Washington Irving

A London Life Henry James

Martin Chuzzlewit     Charles Dickens

Middlemarch George Eliot

Mirgorod        Nikolai Gogol

The Moonstone*     Wilkie Collins

The Mysterious Island     Jules Verne

No Name     Wilkie Collins

The Old Country Sholem Aleichem

Old Mortality     Sir Walter Scott

Orley Farm     Anthony Trollope

Phineas Finn Anthony Trollope

The Picture of Dorian Gray     Oscar Wilde

The Portrait of a Lady     Henry James

Pudd’nhead Wilson     Mark Twain

The Reverberator Henry James

Rip Van Winkle*     Washington Irving

The Rise of Silas Lapham William Dean Howells

The Scarlet Letter     Nathaniel Hawthorne

Selected Short Stories and Sketches     Sarah Orne Jewett

Sevastopol Sketches & Other Early Stories Leo Tolstoy

Silas Marner George Eliot

The Small House at Allington     Anthony Trollope

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde* Robert Lewis Stevenson

The Three Clerks Anthony Trollope

Three Men In A Boat*     Jerome K. Jerome 

The Time Machine* H. G. Wells

Tom Sawyer*     Mark Twain

Treasure Island*     Robert Lewis Stevenson

Uncle Tom’s Cabin     Harriet Beecher Stowe

Uncollected Stories Willa Cather

War and Peace     Leo Tolstoy

Washington Square     Henry James

 

1900 and after

 

The Adventures of Sally     P. G. Wodehouse

The Age of Innocence Edith Wharton

Alarms and Diversions     James Thurber

All Quiet on the Western Front     Erich Maria Remarque

Amsterdam Stories Nescio

Aunts Aren’t Gentlemen*     P. G. Wodehouse

The Bell Jar Sylvia Plath

Best Short Stories by Black Authors Various (edited by Langston Hughes)

Biffen’s Millions     P. G. Wodehouse

Big Sur Jack Kerouac

Bless Me, Ultima Rudolfo Anaya

The Bluest Eye Toni Morrison

Breakfast of Champions Kurt Vonnegut

Brideshead Revisited     Evelyn Waugh

The Bridge of San Luis Rey Thornton Wilder

The Call of the Wild*     Jack London

Cannery Row     John Steinbeck

Catch-22        Joseph Heller

The Catherine Wheel Jean Stafford

Chronicle of a Death Foretold* Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Cocktail Time     P. G. Wodehouse

The Code of the Woosters P. G. Wodehouse

Complete Stories Evelyn Waugh

A Curtain of Green     Eudora Welty

David Golder Irene Nemirovsky

Death Comes for the Archbishop     Willa Cather

The Dharma Bums     Jack Kerouac

East of Eden John Steinbeck

Elmer Gantry Sinclair Lewis

Exile and the Kingdom     Albert Camus

Fahrenheit 451 Ray Bradbury

The Fall     Albert Camus

The 42nd Parallel John Dos Passos

For Whom the Bell Tolls     Ernest Hemingway

The Flying Inn     G. K. Chesterton

Giovanni’s Room James Baldwin

The Golden Bowl Henry James

Goodbye Columbus and Other Stories Philip Roth

Great Classic Women’s Fiction* Various

The Great Gatsby     F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Group Mary McCarthy

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter Carson McCullers

Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad

The House of Mirth     Edith Wharton

Jailbird Kurt Vonnegut

Jeeves and the Mating Season* P. G. Wodehouse

Just So Stories* Rudyard Kipling

Love Among the Chickens*     P. G. Wodehouse  

The Luck of the Bodkins P. G. Wodehouse    

The Magic Mountain Thomas Mann

Manalive        G. K. Chesterton

The Man of Property     John Galsworthy

The Man Who Knew Too Much G. K. Chesterton

Maurice E. M. Forster

The Metamorphosis Franz Kafka

Miss Lonelyhearts Nathanael West

Money in the Bank P. G. Wodehouse

My Antonia Willa Cather

1919 John Dos Passos

Of Mice and Men     John Steinbeck

One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel Garcia Marquez

O Pioneers!     Willa Cather

The Optimist’s Daughter Eudora Welty

Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit Jeanette Winterson

Outcry Lu Xun

Pale Horse, Pale Rider Katherine Anne Porter

Q. E. D. Gertrude Stein

The Red Pony John Steinbeck

The Sacred Fount Henry James

The Secret Agent     Joseph Conrad

Selected Stories     Isaac Bashevis Singer

A Separate Peace John Knowles

Seven Japanese Tales     Junichiro Tanizaki

The Sheltering Sky Paul Bowles

Siddhartha        Hermann Hesse

Slaughterhouse-Five Kurt Vonnegut

The Song of the Lark Willa Cather

The Sound and the Fury William Faulkner

The Subterraneans Jack Kerouac

Summer Lightning*     P. G. Wodehouse

Tender is the Night F. Scott Fitzgerald

Thank You Jeeves*     P. G. Wodehouse

Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neale Hurston

Things Fall Apart     Chinua Achebe

The 13 Clocks* James Thurber

This Side of Paradise     F. Scott Fitzgerald

Tortilla Flat     John Steinbeck

A Tree Grows In Brooklyn     Betty Smith

Tropic of Cancer Henry Miller

Ulysses James Joyce

Uncle Dynamite* P. G. Wodehouse

Uncle Fred in the Springtime     P. G. Wodehouse

Uncollected Stories Willa Cather

The Uncollected Wodehouse     P. G. Wodehouse

Under Western Eyes Joseph Conrad

White Fang* Jack London

The Wide Net     Eudora Welty

The Wind in the Willows*     Kenneth Grahame

The Wings of the Dove Henry James

The Wreath Sigrid Undset

Young Men in Spats P. G. Wodehouse

 

Modern Literary Fiction

 

English Language

 

Absurdistan Gary Shteyngart

All the Names They Used for God Anjali Sachdiva

America Is Not The Heart Elaine Castillo

Bad News Edward St. Aubyn

Be Frank With Me     Julia Claiborne Johnson

Black Cake Charmaine Wilkerson

Black Swan Green     David Mitchell

The Book Thief     Markus Zusak

Brick Lane Monica Ali

The Buddha in the Attic Julie Otsuka

The Buried Giant     Kazuo Ishiguro

A Burning Megha Majumdar

Circe Madeline Miller

Cloud Cuckoo Land Anthony Doerr

Commonwealth Ann Patchett

The Consequences Manuel Munoz

Crooked Hallelujah Kelly Jo Ford

Crossroads Jonathan Franzen

Cutting for Stone     Abraham Verghese

Deacon King Kong James McBride

Divisadero Michael Ondaatje

Ella Minnow Pea     Mark Dunn

English Music     Peter Ackroyd

Everything I Never Told You Celeste Ng

Exit West Mohsin Hamid

Fates and Furies Lauren Groff

Five-Carat Soul James McBride

Florida        Lauren Groff

The Forty Rules of Love Elif Shafak

Freshwater        Akwaeke Emezi

The Folks That Live On The Hill Kingsley Amis

A Gentleman in Moscow     Amor Towles

Gold Boy, Emerald Girl     Yiyun Li

The Goldfinch     Donna Tartt

The Golem and the Jinni Helene Wecker

Good Evening, Mrs. Craven           Mollie Panter-Downes

Go Tell It On The Mountain     James Baldwin

Half of a Yellow Sun Chimamanda Adichie

Hall of Small Mammals     Thomas Pierce

The Handmaid’s Tale     Margaret Atwood 

Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship… Alice Munro

The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store James McBride

Heavy Water and Other Stories Martin Amis

The Home-Maker     Dorothy Canfield Fisher

Homegoing        Yaa Gyasi

The House On Mango Street     Sandra Cisneros

How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents  Julia Alvarez

I Am the Messenger Markus Zusak

Interior Chinatown Charles Yu

Interpreter of Maladies     Jhumpa Lahiri

In the Presence of the Sun N. Scott Momaday

Invisible Man     Ralph Ellison

James Percival Everett

July’s People     Nadine Gordimer

Kindred        Octavia Butler

The Kite Runner     Khaled Hosseini

Klara and the Sun Kazuo Ishiguro

LaRose Louise Erdrich

La’s Orchestra Saves the World*     Alexander McCall Smith

Let the Great World Spin     Colum McCann

Little Fires Everywhere     Celeste Ng

Lost Children Archive Valeria Luiselli

Luster Raven Leilani

Mariana Monica Dickens

McSorley’s Wonderful Saloon     Joseph Mitchell

The Merry Spinster     Daniel Mallory Ortberg

Mr. Gallion’s School     Jesse Stuart

Moonglow Michael Chabon

The Moons of Jupiter     Alice Munro

My Ex-Life Stephen McCauley

Native Speaker Chang-Rae Lee

Never Mind     Edward St. Aubyn

The Night Watchman Louise Erdrich

Normal People Sally Rooney

On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous Ocean Vuong

Open City     Teju Cole

Out of the Silent Planet     C. S. Lewis

Pachinko Min Jin Lee

The Penelopiad                   Margaret Atwood

Perelandra C. S. Lewis

The Poisonwood Bible Barbara Kingsolver

Purple Hibiscus     Chimamanda Adichie

Rebecca        Daphne du Maurier

Refuge        Dina Nayeri

Reinventing the Enemy’s Language (Part1) Various

The Reluctant Fundamentalist     Mohsin Hamid

The Remains of the Day Kazuo Ishiguro

The Round House Louise Erdrich

Saplings Noel Streatfeild

The Satanic Verses Salman Rushdie

The Sense of an Ending Julian Barnes

A Single Pebble     John Hersey

Sing To It                            Amy Hempel

Something Wicked This Way Comes Ray Bradbury

The Song of Achilles     Madeline Miller

Starting Over     Elizabeth Spencer

Stories From Quarantine Various Authors

Stories from the Tenants Downstairs Sidik Fofana

Strange Fruit     Lillian Smith

Super Sad True Love Story     Gary Shteyngart

Swing Time     Zadie Smith

A Tale for the Time Being Ruth Ozeki

That Constant Coyote Gerald Haslam

That Hideous Strength C. S. Lewis

There There     Tommy Orange

The Things They Carried Tim O’Brien

Till We Have Faces     C. S. Lewis

Time and Time Again     James Hilton

Tomorrow, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow Gabrielle Zevin

Too Far To Walk     John Hersey

Trans Atlantic     Colum McCann

Transcendent Kingdom Yaa Gyasi

Thirteen Ways of Looking Colum McCann

The Underground Railroad             Colson Whitehead

Unsheltered Barbara Kingsolver

The Vagrants        Yiyun Li

The Vanishing Half Brit Bennett

Wandering Stars Tommy Orange

Where the Dead Sit Talking Brandon Hobson

Wind From the Carolinas     Robert Wilder 

A Winter’s Love     Madeleine L’Engle

Young Mungo Douglas Stuart

 

In Translation

 

Cathedral of the Sea Ildefonso Falcones

Convenience Store Woman Sayaka Murata

The Cypresses Believe in God     José María Gironella

Diary of a Void Emi Yagi

Earthlings Sayaka Murata

The Elegance of the Hedgehog     Muriel Barbery

Faces in the Crowd     Valeria Luiselli

Foucault’s Pendulum Umberto Eco

The Garlic Ballads     Mo Yan

Gourmet Rhapsody     Muriel Barbery

Hadriana In All My Dreams Rene Depestre

Hard- boiled Wonderland and the End of the World Haruki Murakami

Italian Short Stories Various (edited by Jhumpa Lahiri)

Kitchen                               Banana Yoshimoto

Love in the Time of Cholera     Gabriel Garcia Marquez

The Master and Margarita     Mikhail Bulgakov

The Memory Police Yoko Ogawa

A Man Called Ove Fredrik Backman

My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She’s Sorry Fredrik Backman

The Noodle Maker Ma Jian

Norwegian Wood Haruki Murakami

Palace Walk     Naguib Mahfouz

The Quest for Christa T.     Christa Wolf

Signs Preceding the End of the World Yuri Herrera

Stories From Quarantine Various Authors

The Stories of Eva Luna     Isabel Allende

The Vegetarian Han Kang

Visitation Jenny Erpenbeck

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle     Haruki Murakami

 

 

Genre Fiction, Science Fiction, Mysteries, and Miscellaneous

 

Mysteries

 

As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust Alan Bradley

Blue Shoes and Happiness*     Alexander McCall Smith

Dark Fire     C. J. Sansom

The Daughter of Time     Josephine Tey

The Dead In Their Vaulted Arches     Alan Bradley 

Dissolution        C. J. Sansom

The Double Comfort Safari Club* Alexander McCall Smith

A Duty to the Dead     Charles Todd

Eight Perfect Murders Peter Swanson

The Eyre Affair     Jasper Fforde

The Full Cupboard of Life*     Alexander McCall Smith

The Good Husband of Zebra Drive* Alexander McCall Smith

The Grave’s a Fine and Private Place Alan Bradley

The Guest List Lucy Foley

Have His Carcase     Dorothy Sayers

I am Half-sick of Shadows     Alan Bradley 

In the Company of Cheerful Ladies* Alexander McCall Smith

The Kalahari Typing School for Men*     Alexander McCall Smith

The Lie Tree Frances Hardinge

The Maid Nita Prose

The Miracle at Speedy Motors* Alexander McCall Smith

Morality for Beautiful Girls*     Alexander McCall Smith

A Morbid Taste for Bones     Ellis Peters

Murder on the Leviathan Boris Akunin

A Red Herring Without Mustard     Alan Bradley

Revelation C. J. Sansom

Sovereign        C. J. Sansom

Speaking From Among the Bones Alan Bradley 

The Sunday Philosophy Club     Alexander McCall Smith

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie Alan Bradley 

Tea Time for the Traditionally Built* Alexander McCall Smith

The Tears of the Giraffe*     Alexander McCall Smith

There is a Tide Agatha Christie

Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew’d     Alan Bradley

Trent’s Last Case* E. C. Bentley

The Turkish Gambit Boris Akunin

Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers* Jesse Sutanto

The Violin Conspiracy Brendan Slocumb

The Weed That Strings the Hangman’s Bag Alan Bradley

The Winter Queen     Boris Akunin

 

Horror

 

American Fantastic Tales Volume One Various

Ghost Story Peter Straub

The Haunting of Hill House     Shirley Jackson

Interview With The Vampire Anne Rice

Mexican Gothic Silvia Moreno-Garcia

The Ocean at the End of the Lane Neil Gaiman

Rosemary’s Baby     Ira Levin 

The Shining Stephen King

We Have Always Lived in the Castle Shirley Jackson

The Werewolf of Paris Guy Endore

Zone One     Colson Whitehead

 

Science Fiction/Fantasy

 

Acceptance Jeff Vandermeer

Annihilation        Jeff Vandermeer

Artemis        Andy Weir

Authority Jeff Vandermeer

The Best of Gene Wolfe     Gene Wolfe

The Dispossessed Ursula Le Guin

The Emissary Yoko Tawada

Exhalation Ted Chiang

Gifts* Ursula Le Guin

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy* Douglas Adams

Kindred        Octavia Butler

Klara and the Sun Kazuo Ishiguro

The Lathe of Heaven Ursula Le Guin

The Left Hand of Darkness     Ursula Le Guin

Lest Darkness Fall L. Sprague de Camp

Life, the Universe, and Everything* Douglas Adams

The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul     Douglas Adams

The Man In The High Castle Philip K. Dick

The Memory Librarian Janelle Monae, et al.

The Midnight Library Matt Haig

Parable of the Sower Octavia Butler

The Past is Red Catherynne Valente

A Princess of Mars     Edgar Rice Burroughs

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe*     Douglas Adams

Sea of Tranquility Emily St. John Mandel

Space Opera Catherynne Valente

Station Eleven Emily St. John Mandel

This is How You Lose the Time War Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone

The Time Machine* H. G. Wells

 

Historical Fiction


Blue at the Mizzen Patrick O’Brian

The Commodore     Patrick O’Brian

The Heaven Tree Edith Pargeter

The Hundred Days                         Patrick O’Brian

Margaret the First Danielle Dutton

The Letter of Marque     Patrick O’Brian

Mozart’s Last Aria     Matt Rees

The Nutmeg of Consolation     Patrick O’Brian

The Thirteen Gun Salute     Patrick O’Brian

The Truelove     Patrick O’Brian

The Wine Dark Sea     Patrick O’Brian

The Yellow Admiral     Patrick O’Brian



Other Light Fiction or Genres

 

The Air You Breathe          Frances de Pontes Peebles

All the Birds in the Sky     Charlie Jane Anders

Brooklyn Colm Toibin

Children of Blood and Bone     Tomi Adeyemi

Daisy Jones and the Six      Taylor Jenkins Reid

A Dirty Job Christopher Moore

Fight Club Chuck Palahniuk

Forest of a Thousand Lanterns