National Book Award Best Fiction
The mission of the National Book Foundation is to celebrate the best literature published in the United States, expand its audience, and ensure that books have a prominent place in our culture.
- 1
Invisible Man
Ralph Ellison · 1952 · 29 lists
- 2
The Color Purple
Alice Walker · 1982 · 20 lists
- 3
The Corrections
Jonathan Franzen · 2001 · 16 lists
- 4
White Noise
Don DeLillo · 1984 · 13 lists
- 5
Gravity's Rainbow
Thomas Pynchon · 1973 · 12 lists
- 6
The World According to Garp
John Irving · 1979 · 12 lists
- 7
The Adventures of Augie March
Saul Bellow · 1953 · 11 lists
- 8
Herzog
Saul Bellow · 1961 · 10 lists
- 9
The Stories of John Cheever
John Cheever · 1978 · 9 lists
- 10
Rabbit is Rich
John Updike · 1981 · 8 lists
- 11
The Moviegoer
Walker Percy · 1961 · 8 lists
- 12
The Underground Railroad
Colson Whitehead · 2016 · 8 lists
- 13
The Complete Stories
Franz Kafka · 1971 · 7 lists
- 14
The Shipping News
Annie Proulx · 1993 · 7 lists
- 15
Sing, Unburied, Sing
Jesmyn Ward · 2017 · 6 lists
- 16
Sophie’s Choice
William Styron · 1979 · 6 lists
- 17
All the Pretty Horses
Cormac McCarthy · 1992 · 5 lists
- 18
Cold Mountain
Charles Frazier · 1997 · 5 lists
- 19
JR
William Gaddis · 1975 · 5 lists
- 20
Let the Great World Spin
Colum McCann · 2009 · 5 lists
- 21
Dog Soldiers
Robert Stone · 1973 · 4 lists
- 22
Sabbath’s Theater
Philip Roth · 1995 · 4 lists
- 23
The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty
Eudora Welty · 1980 · 4 lists
- 24
The Round House
Louise Erdrich · 2012 · 4 lists
- 25
Tree of Smoke
Denis Johnson · 2007 · 4 lists
- 26
A Fable
William Faulkner · 2022 · 3 lists
- 27
Collected Stories
Katherine Anne Porter · 1900 · 3 lists
- 28
Goodbye, Columbus
Philip Roth · 1959 · 3 lists
- 29
Redeployment
Phil Klay · 2014 · 3 lists
- 30
Salvage the Bones
Jesmyn Ward · 2011 · 3 lists
- 31
The Magic Barrel
Bernard Malamud · 1953 · 3 lists
- 32
The Wapshot Chronicle
John Cheever · 1957 · 3 lists
- 33
Them
Joyce Carol Oates · 2001 · 3 lists
- 34
- 35
Charming Billy
Alice McDermott · 1997 · 2 lists
- 36
Chimera
John Barth · 1972 · 2 lists
- 37
From Here to Eternity
James Jones · 2017 · 2 lists
- 38
Going After Cacciato
Tim O'Brien · 1975 · 2 lists
- 39
Mating
Norman Rush · 2006 · 2 lists
- 40
- 41
The Fixer
Bernard Malamud · 1966 · 2 lists
- 42
The Friend
Sigrid Nunez · 1848 · 2 lists
- 43
The Good Lord Bird
James McBride · 2013 · 2 lists
- 44
The Man With the Golden Arm
Nelson Algren · 1949 · 2 lists
- 45
Trust Exercise
Susan Choi · 2019 · 2 lists
- 46
A Crown of Feathers and Other Stories
Isaac Bashevis Singer · 1970 · 1 list
- 47
A Frolic of His Own
William Gaddis · 1994 · 1 list
- 48
Augustus
John Edward Williams · 1947 · 1 list
- 49
Blackouts
Justin Torres · 2019 · 1 list
- 50
Blood Tie
Mary Lee Settle · 1977 · 1 list
- 51
Europe Central
William T. Vollmann · 2005 · 1 list
- 52
Fortune Smiles
Adam Johnson · 2015 · 1 list
- 53
Hell of a Book
Jason Mott · 2021 · 1 list
- 54
In America
Susan Sontag · 1994 · 1 list
- 55
Interior Chinatown
Charles Yu · 2020 · 1 list
- 56
Lord of Misrule
Jaimy Gordon · 1990 · 1 list
- 57
Middle Passage
Charles Johnson · 1993 · 1 list
- 58
Morte d'Urban
J.F. Powers · 1962 · 1 list
- 59
Mr. Sammler's Planet
Saul Bellow · 1970 · 1 list
- 60
Paco's Story
Larry Heinemann · 1986 · 1 list
- 61
Paris Trout
Pete Dexter · 1988 · 1 list
- 62
Plains Song: For Female Voices
Wright Morris · 1980 · 1 list
- 63
Shadow Country
Peter Matthiessen · 2008 · 1 list
- 64
Ship Fever and Other Stories
Andrea Barrett · 1996 · 1 list
- 65
Spartina
John Casey · 1990 · 1 list
- 66
Steps
Jerzy Kosiński · 1915 · 1 list
- 67
Ten North Frederick
John O'Hara · 1955 · 1 list
- 68
The Centaur
John Updike · 1911 · 1 list
- 69
The Echo Maker
Richard Powers · 2006 · 1 list
- 70
The Eighth Day
Thornton Wilder · 1967 · 1 list
- 71
The Field of Vision
Wright Morris · 1956 · 1 list
- 72
The Great Fire
Shirley Hazzard · 1995 · 1 list
- 73
The Hair of Harold Roux
Thomas Williams · 1974 · 1 list
- 74
The News from Paraguay
Lily Tuck · 2004 · 1 list
- 75
The Rabbit Hutch
Tess Gunty · 2022 · 1 list
- 76
The Spectator Bird
Wallace Stegner · 1976 · 1 list
- 77
The Waters of Kronos
Conrad Richter · 1960 · 1 list
- 78
Three Junes
Julia Glass · 2002 · 1 list
- 79
Victory Over Japan: A Book of Stories
Ellen Gilchrist · 1984 · 1 list
- 80
World's Fair
E.L. Doctorow · 1985 · 1 list