# 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?

*By YouPickBest · Published December 12, 2025 · https://youpick.best/ranking/what-is-the-best-american-novel*

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## Current results (287 votes)

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

Tags: usa, books