Orange Prize for Fiction's "50 Essential Reads by Contemporary Authors"

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To support the 2004 award, the Orange Prize for Fiction researched the UK’s first ever living library of 50 contemporary ‘essential reads’.

The books were chosen by a sample of 500 people attending the first week of the Guardian Hay festival and represent the audience’s definitive ‘must have’ bookshelf by living writers.

("alternate list source":http://www.listology.com/content_show.cfm/content_id.30665/Books)

  1. 1.
    American Pastoral
    by Philip Roth

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  2. 2.
    Atonement: A Novel
    by Ian McEwan

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  3. 3.
    Being Dead: A Novel
    by Jim Crace

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  4. 4.
    Birdsong: A Novel of Love and War
    by Sebastian Faulks

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  5. 5.
    The Blind Assassin: A Novel
    by Margaret Atwood

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  6. 6.
    Captain Corelli's Mandolin
    by Louis de Bernieres

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  7. 7.
    Cloudstreet : A Novel
    by Tim Winton

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  8. 8.
    The Corrections: A Novel
    by Jonathan Franzen

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  9. 9.
    Disgrace
    by J. M. Coetzee

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  10. 10.
    Enduring Love: A Novel
    by Ian Mcewan

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  11. 11.
    ?
    Faith singer
    by Rosie Scott

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  12. 12.
    Fingersmith
    by Sarah Waters

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  13. 13.
    Fred & Edie: A Novel
    by Jill Dawson

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  14. 14.
    Fugitive Pieces: A Novel
    by Anne Michaels

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  15. 15.
    Girl with a Pearl Earring
    by Tracy Chevalier

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  16. 17.
    Grace Notes
    by Bernard MacLaverty

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  17. 18.
    The Handmaid's Tale: A Novel
    by Margaret Atwood

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  18. 19.
    High Fidelity
    by Nick Hornby

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  19. 21.
    Hotel World
    by Ali Smith

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  20. 22.
    The House of the Spirits
    by Isabel Allende

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  21. 23.
    Midnight's Children (Everyman's Library)
    by Salman Rushdie

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  22. 24.
    Misery
    by Stephen King

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  23. 25.
    Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow (Harvill Panther)
    by Peter Hoeg

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  24. 26.
    Money
    by Martin Amis

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  25. 27.
    Music & Silence
    by Rose Tremain

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  26. 29.
    One Hundred Years of Solitude
    by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

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  27. 30.
    Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit (Winterson, Jeanette)
    by Jeanette Winterson

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  28. 31.
    The Passion (Winterson, Jeanette)
    by Jeanette Winterson

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  29. 32.
    The Poisonwood Bible (Oprah's Book Club)
    by Barbara Kingsolver

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  30. 33.
    A Prayer for Owen Meany (Modern Library)
    by John Irving

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  31. 35.
    The Regeneration Trilogy
    by Pat Barker

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  32. 36.
    Riders
    by Jilly Cooper

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  33. 37.
    The Secret History
    by Donna Tartt

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  34. 38.
    The Shipping News
    by E. Annie Proulx

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  35. 39.
    Slaughterhouse-Five
    by KURT VONNEGUT

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  36. 40.
    The Story of Tracy Beaker
    by Jacqueline Wilson

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  37. 41.
    A Suitable Boy: A Novel (Perennial Classics)
    by Vikram Seth

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  38. 42.
    The Tin Drum (Vintage International)
    by Gunter Grass

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  39. 43.
    Trainspotting
    by Irvine Welsh

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  40. 44.
    Unless: A Novel
    by Carol Shields

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  41. 45.
    What I Loved: A Novel
    by Siri Hustvedt

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  42. 46.
    White Teeth: A Novel
    by Zadie Smith

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  43. 47.
    The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle: A Novel
    by Haruki Murakami

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  44. 48.
    The Winshaw Legacy: or, What a Carve Up!
    by Jonathan Coe

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  45. 49.
    Middlesex: A Novel
    by Jeffrey Eugenides

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  46. 50.
    Women's Room
    by Marilyn French

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This is a community list. You can contribute, edit, or help maintain it by adding it to your lists.
Created by Robot Co-op on Nov 30, 2005.
 

Comments

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The Secret History — 26 weeks ago

Doesn’t it bother anybody else that Secret is spelled Secert on this list?


Only 50 Please — 44 weeks ago

Took off someone’s personal addition to the list. Remember, you can always make your own version of a list if you disagree with the official one. Please stop adding things to this one. Thank you.


Source... — 48 weeks ago

Okay, I finally found a new list source and added it in (as well as an alternate in case the first one conks out on us again…)


djou
Montreal

51 — 1 year ago

There are now 51 books listed…


tjan
Amsterdam

Hmmmm — 1 year ago

I don’t mean to be horrid, but what is the source of this list? The Orange Prize for Fiction listing in Wiki has a number of books not listed here. But this is a good list…


boppo7
London

. — 1 year ago

Middlesex is an excellent book, if you’re working on this list make that one of your first!


gottalovegab
Belfast

hi — 1 year ago

glad to see fingersmith there. many people i know and have described this book to, brush it off as a lesbian themed book, nothing more. i think they are VERY wrong. fingersmith is one of (acually THE) most beautifully written peice of literature i have ever read. The characters are so deep and real, and the love between the two main girls is….just..i cant even describe how skillfully it was created by miss waters. 10/10. stunning.


#50 — 1 year ago

I just added the missing book(s) – Updike’s Rabbit series – and changed Regeneration to the Regeneration Trilogy, since that’s what’s actually on the list.

Is anyone else having trouble with the list source link? I had to google a cached version to find the list…


sleepydumpling
Brisbane

Cloudstreet — 1 year ago

SO glad to see Cloudstreet by Tim Winton getting a mention. One of the finest authors in the world, and this is his best book IMHO. Beautiful characters, descriptions and setting that instantly transport your senses into the book and a story about luck, both good and bad that captures the imagination. I literally fell in love with this book.


LavenderMenace
Amherst

Wow. — 2 years ago

Riders, by Jilly Cooper is one of the trashiest books ever! I admit enjoying it wholeheartedly, but I wouldn’t call it an “essential read”, unless it is essential to read novels involving competitive show-jumping and bosom-heaving. Ah well.



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