I really enjoyed listening to Trevor and Paul discuss their “top 10 books of the 21st century so far” on their (always enjoyable!) podcast, and so I thought I’d have a go at making my own list. I agree with them that the fun of this kind of exercise is in the conversations it prompts, with other readers, but also with ourselves. There is something clarifying about the process: it can’t possibly lead to a definitive list of the “best” books by some universally reliable standard (their two lists certainly illustrate this, as there is little overlap between them!) but it is one way to discover things about yourself as a reader, first by forcing yourself to make tough  choices and then by confronting you with other people’s choices.

I certainly had a vigorous conversation (if only in my own head) with Trevor and Paul about their choices, some of which I have found unreadable (ahem, Ducks, Newburyport – but also Austerlitz, as unlike Trevor I don’t usually like “wandering” books), some of which I also thought hard about in making my own list (The Road), and some of which I am more interested in reading than before, because they spoke so eloquently about them (Flights, 2666). They both read so widely: I have been seeking out more translated books already but one thing I definitely said to myself as I looked over my own longlist was that I needed to do even more of that.

This fun list-making project also had its sobering side: how many of us thinking about “the best books of the 21st century” will actually know much about the books that come out in the second half of the century, after all – or even the second quarter of it? We certainly won’t be around to see what the readers of the 22nd century think of our choices, fascinating as it would be to see which of them turn out to have any staying power. Perhaps our lists will look as comically misguided as the lists of bestseller lists from the 19th century, which are full of now-forgotten names. Maybe our idiosyncratic but deeply felt preferences will be starting points for the recovery projects of the future, the next generation of Virago and Persephone and NYRB Classics and Recovered Books!

So, without further ado, here’s my own list, my personal favorites of the 21st century so far. Compiling it was not a straightforward process: many of my “best of the year” titles, for example, were written well before the 21st century, so I couldn’t just pluck them for this purpose. I also didn’t start blogging until 2007, so it’s possible I have overlooked a book I read and loved but just didn’t think of while doing this, because I don’t have a record of it. Unlike Paul and Trevor, I have not ranked my titles: they are in chronological order. I know which one I would put at the top if I absolutely had to – but it’s my blog and my list so you can’t make me. 😁 I have written about almost every one of these books here or elsewhere, so I have included the links for you to follow if you want to know more about them. (How have I never written about Fingersmith?!)

Helen DeWitt, The Last Samurai (2001)

Ian McEwan, Atonement (2001)

Carol Shields, Unless (2002)

Sarah Waters, Fingersmith (2002)

Colm Tóibín, The Master (2004)

Daniel Mendelsohn, The Lost (2006)

Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall Trilogy (2009-2020)

Molly Peacock, The Paper Garden (2010)

George Saunders, Lincoln in the Bardo (2017)

Denise Riley, Time Lived, Without Its Flow (2019)

So, what do you think? Are any of these on your ‘best of the 21st C so far’ list? Are you aghast or just puzzled at any of them? Are any of them ones you’ve been curious about and now feel – as I do about Flights – that maybe it’s time to give them a try?