What is the best American novel?

Dive into a captivating clash of storytelling as timeless classics meet bold, modern voices, each weaving unique narratives that challenge, entertain, and provoke thought. Prepare to explore a spectrum of unforgettable characters and themes that shape the American literary landscape—where will your vote land?

1

The Great Gatsby

Novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, set in the Jazz Age

2

To Kill a Mockingbird

Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about racial injustice

3

Moby-Dick

Herman Melville's epic tale of obsession and revenge at sea

4

The Catcher in the Rye

J.D. Salinger's classic about teenage alienation and rebellion

5

The Grapes of Wrath

John Steinbeck's depiction of the Great Depression and migration

6

Of Mice and Men

Steinbeck's novella about friendship and dreams during the Depression

7

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Mark Twain's seminal work on race and identity in America

8

The Sound and the Fury

William Faulkner's complex narrative about a Southern family

9

As I Lay Dying

Faulkner's novel exploring family and mortality in the South

10

Beloved

Toni Morrison's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about slavery's legacy

11

Invisible Man

Ralph Ellison's exploration of African American identity and invisibility

12

The Scarlet Letter

Nathaniel Hawthorne's tale of sin and redemption in Puritan America

13

Uncle Tom's Cabin

Harriet Beecher Stowe's influential anti-slavery novel

14

The Call of the Wild

Jack London's adventure novel about survival in the Yukon

15

The Old Man and the Sea

Ernest Hemingway's novella about struggle and perseverance

16

For Whom the Bell Tolls

Hemingway's novel set during the Spanish Civil War

17

The Sun Also Rises

Hemingway's portrayal of the Lost Generation in post-WWI Europe

18

A Farewell to Arms

Hemingway's love story set against the backdrop of WWI

19

Catch-22

Joseph Heller's satirical novel about the absurdities of war

20

Slaughterhouse-Five

Kurt Vonnegut's anti-war novel blending time travel and trauma

21

The Naked and the Dead

Norman Mailer's World War II novel exploring soldier experiences

22

On the Road

Jack Kerouac's defining work of the Beat Generation

23

Lolita

Vladimir Nabokov's controversial novel about obsession and manipulation

24

The Age of Innocence

Edith Wharton's exploration of societal norms in Gilded Age New York

25

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Zora Neale Hurston's novel about a woman's search for identity

26

The Color Purple

Alice Walker's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about African American women

27

The Road

Cormac McCarthy's post-apocalyptic tale of survival and fatherhood

28

Blood Meridian

McCarthy's violent novel about the American West and manifest destiny

29

American Psycho

Bret Easton Ellis's satirical novel on consumerism and identity

30

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

Michael Chabon’s Pulitzer-winning novel about comic book creators

31

Infinite Jest

David Foster Wallace's complex narrative on addiction and entertainment

32

White Noise

Don DeLillo's novel exploring media saturation and existential dread