Reading List for the General Public
Classic Works of Fiction
Contemporary Works of Fiction
Works of World Drama
Works of Children's Literature
READING LIST FOR THE PUBLIC:
CONTEMPORARY FICTION
A
Abe, Kobo, The Woman in
the Dunes (Japanese, 1964)
Achebe, Chinua, Things Fall Apart
(Nigerian, 1958)
Agee, James, A Death in the Family
(American, 1957)
Amis, Kingsley, Lucky Jim
(British, 1954)
Amis, Martin, Money: A Suicide
Note (British, 1984)
Anand, Mulk Raj, Untouchable
(Indian, 1935)
Anthony, Patricia, The Happy Policeman
(American, 1994)
Atwood, Margaret, Surfacing
(Canadian, 1972)
Auster, Paul, City of Glass
(American, 1985)
B
Babel, Isaac, The Collected
Stories (Russian, 1955)
Baldwin, James, Another Country
(American, 1960)
Barker, Pat, Regeneration
(British, 1991)
Barth, John, The Sot-Weed Factor
(American, 1960)
Beattie, Ann, Falling in Place
(American, 1980)
Bellow, Saul, Mr. Sammler's Planet
(American, 1969)
Böll, Heinrich, Billiards at Half-Past
Nine (German, 1962)
Borges, Jorge, Ficciones
(Argentine, 1965)
Bowles, Paul, The Sheltering Sky
(American, 1949)
Boyle, T. Coraghessan, World's
End (American, 1987)
Brink, Andre, A Dry White Season
(South African, 1979)
Brown, Claude, Manchild in the
Promised Land (American, 1965)
Burgess, Anthony, A Clockwork Orange
(British, 1962)
Burke, Phyllis, Atomic Candy
(American, 1989)
Burroughs, William S., The Naked
Lunch (American, 1959)
Butler, Octavia, Xenogenesis (trilogy)
(American, 1987-9)
Butler, Robert Olen, The Alleys
of Eden (American, 1981)
Byatt, A. S., Possession
(British, 1989)
C
Calvino, Italo, If on a
Winter's Night a Traveller (Italian, 1981)
Carey, Peter, Oscar and Lucinda,
(Australian, 1988)
Carter, Angela, Nights at the Circus
(British, 1984)
Carver, Raymond, Cathedral
(American, 1983)
Cheever, John, Collected Short
Stories (American, 1963)
Chin, Frank, Donald Duk
(Chinese-American, 1991)
Coetzee, J. M., From the Heart
of the Country (South African, 1977)
Connell, Evan, Mrs. Bridge
(American, 1958)
Coover, Robert, The Public Burning
(American, 1977)
Cortázar, Julio, Hopscotch
(Argentine, 1963)
Crews, Harry, Car (American,
1972)
D
Davies, Robertson, Fifth
Business (Canadian, 1970)
DeLillo, Don, White Noise (American, 1985)
Desai, Anita, Clear Light of Day
(Indian, 1980)
Dick, Philip K., The Man in the
High Castle (American, 1962)
Dickey, James, Deliverance
(American, 1970)
Didion, Joan, Play It As It Lays
(American, 1970)
Doctorow, E. L., Ragtime
(American, 1975)
Donleavy, J. P., The Ginger Man
(American-Irish, 1955)
Drabble, Margaret, The Garrick
Year (British, 1964)
Duncan, David James, The Brothers
K (American, 1992)
Duong, Thu Huong, Novel without
a Name (Vietnamese, 1995)
Duras, Marguerite, The Lover
(French, 1984)
Durrell, Lawrence, Justine
(British, 1957)
E
Ellison, Ralph, Invisible
Man (American, 1947)
Emecheta, Buchi, The Joys of Motherhood
(Nigerian, 1979)
Endo, Shusaku, Silence
(Japanese, 1969)
Erdrich, Louise, Love Medicine
(American, 1984)
Exley, Frederick, A Fan's Notes
(American, 1968)
F
Farah, Nuruddin, Naked Needle
(Somali, 1976)
Findley, Timothy, Famous Last Words (Canadian, 1981)
Ford, Richard, Independence Day
(American, 1995)
Fowles, John, The French Lieutenant's
Woman (British, 1969)
Frame, Janet, Owls do Cry
(New Zealand, 1960)
Friedman, Bruce Jay, Stern
(American, 1962)
Fuentes, Carlos, The Death of Artemio
Cruz (Mexican, 1962)
G
Gaddis, William, J. R.
(American, 1975)
Garcia Márquez, Gabriel, One
Hundred Years of Solitude (Colombian, 1967)
Gardner, John, Grendel (American,
1971)
Gibson, William, Neuromancer
(American, 1984)
Gironella, José, The Cypresses
Believe in God (Spanish, 1953)
Godwin, Gail, A Mother and Two
Daughters (American, 1982)
Golding, William, Lord of the Flies
(British, 1954)
Gordimer, Nadine, Burger's Daughter
(South African, 1979)
Gordon, Mary, Final Payments
(American, 1978)
Grace, Patricia, Mutuwhenua, or
the Moon Sleeps (New Zealand, 1978)
Grass, Günter, The Tin Drum
(German, 1959)
Greene, Graham, The Heart of the
Matter (British, 1948)
H
Hanna, Barry, Hey Jack!
(American, 1987)
Harris, Mark, Bang the Drum Slowly
(American, 1956)
Harris, Wilson, Palace of the Peacock
(Guyanese, 1960)
Head, Bessie, The Collector of
Treasures (Botswanan, 1977)
Heinlein, Robert A., The Moon is
a Harsh Mistress (American, 1967)
Heller, Joseph, Catch-22
(American, 1955)
Helprin, Mark, A Winter's Tale
(American, 1983)
Hijuelos, Oscar, The Mambo Kings
Play Songs of Love (American, 1989)
Himes, Chester, Pinktoes
(American, 1965)
Hoffman, Alice, At Risk
(American, 1988)
Hogan, Linda, Mean Spirit
(American, 1990)
Hulme, Keri, The Bone People
(New Zealand, 1985)
I
Icaza, Jorges, The Villagers
(Ecuadorian, 1951)
Ihimaera, Witi, The Matriarch
(New Zealand, 1986)
Irving, John, The Water Method
Man (American, 1972)
Isherwood, Christopher, Berlin
Stories (British, 1945)
J
Jhabvala, Ruth Prawer, Heat
and Dust (Indian, 1975)
Johnson, Charles, The Middle Passage (American, 1989)
Jolley, Elizabeth, The Well (Australian, 1987)
Jones, James, From Here to Eternity (American, 1951)
K
Kawabata, Yasunari, Thousand
Cranes (Japanese, 1959)
Kazantzakis, Nikos, Zorba the Greek (Greek, 1946)
Keillor, Garrison, Lake Wobegon Days (American, 1985)
Keneally, Thomas, The Chant of Jimmy Blacksmith (Australian,
1972)
Kennedy, William, Ironweed
(American, 1983)
Kerouac, Jack, On the Road
(American, 1955)
Kesey, Ken, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's
Nest (American, 1962)
Kim, Richard E., The Martyred
(Korean-American, 1964)
Kincaid, Jamaica, Annie John
(American, 1985)
Kinsella, W. P., Shoeless Joe
(Canadian, 1982)
Knowles, John, A Separate Peace
(American, 1959)
L
Lamming, George In the Castle
of My Skin (Barbadan, 1954)
Lampedusa, Giuseppe di, The Leopard
(Italian, 1960)
Laurence, Margaret, The Diviners
(Canadian, 1974)
Lee, Harper, To Kill a Mockingbird
(American, 1960)
Le Guin, Ursula, The Left Hand
of Darkness (American, 1969)
Lem, Stanislaus, Solaris
(Polish, 1961)
Lessing, Doris, The Golden Notebook
(British, 1962)
Lodge, David, Souls and Bodies
(British, 1980)
Lovelace, Earl, The Dragon Can't
Dance (Trinidadian, 1979)
Lowry, Malcolm, Under the Volcano
(British, 1947)
M
MacLennan, Hugh, Two Solitudes
(Canadian, 1945)
Mahfouz, Naguib, Palace Walk (Egyptian, 1956)
Mailer, Norman, The Naked and the Dead (American, 1948)
Mais, Roger, Brother Man (Jamaican, 1954)
Malamud, Bernard, The Fixer (American, 1966)
Malouf, David, Remembering Babylon (Australian, 1993)
Mason, Bobbie Ann, In Country (American, 1985)
McCarthy, Cormac, All the Pretty Horses (American, 1992)
McMurtry, Larry, Lonesome Dove (American, 1985)
McPherson, James Allen, Hue and Cry (American, 1969)
Miller, Walter, A Canticle for Liebowitz (American, 1959)
Mishima, Yukio, The Sailor who
Fell from Grace with the Sea (Japanese, 1965)
Moore, Brian, The Lonely Passion
of Judith Hearne (Irish-Canadian-American, 1973)
Moravia, Albert, Two Women
(Italian, 1958)
Morris, Wright, Love Among the
Cannibals (American, 1957)
Morrison, Toni, Beloved
(American, 1987)
Mudrooroo (Colin Johnson), Doctor
Wooreddy's Prescription for Enduring the End of the World (Australian,
1983)
Murdoch, Iris, Under the Net
(British, 1954)
N
Nabokov, Vladimir, Lolita
(Russian-American, 1953)
Naipaul, V. S., A House for Mr.
Biswas (Anglo-Indian-Trinidadian, 1961)
Narayan, R. K., The Man-Eater of
Malgudi (Indian, 1961)
Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Weep Not, Child
(Kenyan, 1964)
O
Oates, Joyce Carol, Them
(American, 1969)
O'Brien, Tim, Going after Cacciato
(American, 1975)
O'Connor, Edwin, The Last Hurrah
(American, 1956)
O'Connor, Flannery, The Violent
Bear It Away (American, 1955)
Oe, Kenzaburo, A Personal Matter
(Japanese, 1964)
Okri, Ben, The Famished Road
(Nigerian, 1991)
Olsen, Tillie, Tell Me a Riddle
and Other Stories (American, 1971)
Ondaatje, Michael, The English
Patient (Canadian, 1992)
Orwell, George, 1984 (British,
1949)
Oz, Amos, My Michael
(Israeli, 1968)
Ozick, Cynthia, Levitation: Five
Fictions (American, 1983)
P
Paley, Grace, Enormous Changes
in the Last Minute (American, 1960)
Pasternak, Boris, Doctor Zhivago (Russian, 1958)
Paton, Alan, Cry, the Beloved Country (South African, 1948)
Pekar, Harvey, Our Cancer Year (American, 1994)
Percy, Walker, The Moviegoer (American, 1960)
Piercy, Marge, Gone to Soldiers (American, 1987)
Plath, Sylvia, The Bell Jar
(American, 1971)
Porter, Katherine Anne, Pale Horse,
Pale Rider (American, 1939)
Potok, Chaim, My Name Is Asher
Lev (American, 1972)
Powers, J. F., Morte D'Urban
(American, 1956)
Powers, John R., The Last Catholic
in America (American, 1973)
Pritchett, V. S., Collected Stories
(British, 1981)
Proulx, E. Annie, The Shipping
News (American, 1993)
Puig, Manuel, Kiss of the Spider
Woman (Argentine, 1979)
Purdy, James, Malcolm (American,
1959)
Pym, Barbara, Quartet in Autumn
(British, 1980)
Pynchon, Thomas, Gravity's Rainbow
(American, 1973)
Q
Quiroga, Horacio, South American Jungle Tales (Uruguayan, 1959)
R
Rao, Raja, The Serpent and
the Rope (Indian, 1960)
Read, Piers Paul, A Married Man
(British, 1980)
Richler, Mordecai, The Apprenticeship
of Duddy Kravitz (Canadian, 1969)
Robbe-Grillet, Alain, Jealousy
(French, 1987)
Robbins, Tom, Even Cowgirls Get
the Blues (American, 1976)
Robinson, Marilynne, Housekeeping
(American, 1981)
Roth, Philip, Goodbye, Columbus
(American, 1959)
Rhys, Jean, Wide Sargasso Sea
(English, 1966)
Rulfo, Juan, Pedro Páramo
(Mexican, 1955)
Rushdie, Salman, Midnight's Children
(Indian, 1980)
Russ, Joanna, The Female Man
(American, 1975)
Russo, Richard, Nobody's Fool
(American, 1993)
S
Sábato, Ernesto, The Tunnel
(Argentine, 1948)
Sagan, Francoise, Bonjour Tristesse (French, 1954)
Salinger, J. D., The Catcher in the Rye (American, 1945)
Seals, David, Powwow Highway (American, 1990)
Selvon, Sam, The Lonely Londoners (Trinidadian, 1956)
Shaara, Michael, Killer Angels (American, 1974)
Sheed, Wilfred, People Will Always Be Kind (American, 1973)
Shields, Carol, The Stone Diaries (Canadian-American, 1993)
Silko, Leslie Marmon, Ceremony (American, 1977)
Sillitoe, Alan, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (British,
1958)
Simon, Claude, The Grass (French, 1958)
Singer, Isaac Bashevis, The Collected Stories (American,
1981)
Singh, Kushwant, Train to Pakistan (Indian, 1956)
Smiley, Jane, A Thousand Acres (American, 1991)
Solzhenitsyn, Alexander, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
(Russian, 1963)
Sontag, Susan, I, Etcetera (American, 1978)
Soyinka, Wole, Interpreters
(Nigerian, 1965)
Spark, Muriel, The Prime of Miss
Jean Brodie (British, 1966)
Spiegelman, Art, Maus I & II
(American, 1986)
Stead, Christina, The Man who Loved
Children (Australian, 1940)
Stone, Robert, Dog Soldiers
(American, 1974)
Styron, William, Lie Down in Darkness
(American, 1951)
T
Tanizaki, Junichiro, Some
Prefer Nettles (Japanese, 1965)
Taylor, Peter, A Summons to Memphis
(American, 1986)
Thomas, D. M., The White Hotel
(British, 1981)
Tolkien, J. R. R., The Lord of
the Rings (British, 1954-55)
Toole, John Kennedy, A Confederacy
of Dunces (American, 1980)
Tutuola, Amos, My Life in the Bush
of Ghosts (Nigerian, 1954)
Tyler, Anne, Dinner at the Homesick
Restaurant (American, 1982)
U
Updike, John, Rabbit, Run (American, 1960)
V
Valenzuela, Luisa, Strange
Things Happen Here (Argentine, 1979)
Vargas Llosa, Mario, Green House
(Peruvian, 1965)
Vidal, Gore, Creation (American,
1981)
Vonnegut, Kurt, Slaughterhouse-Five
(American, 1969)
W
Wain, John, Hurry on Down
(British, 1953)
Walker, Alice, The Color Purple (American, 1982)
Wallant, Edward Louis, The Pawnbroker (American, 1962)
Warren, Robert Penn, All the King's Men (American, 1946)
Welch, James, Winter in the Blood (American, 1974)
Welty, Eudora, Collected Stories (American, 1980)
White, Patrick, The Aunt's Story (Australian, 1946)
White, T. H., The Once and Future King (British, 1958)
Wiesel, Elie, A Beggar in Jerusalem (Romanian, 1968)
Williams, John A., The Man Who Cried I Am (American,
1967)
Woiwode, Larry, Beyond the Bedroom Wall (American,
1976)
Wolff, Tobias, In the Garden of
North American Martyrs (American, 1981)
Y
Yourcenar, Marguerite, Memoirs of Hadrian (French, 1951)