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class

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Last updated: July 08, 2025

    Modern Classics, recommended by James Rebanks

  • Read
    Modern Classics - Drown by Junot Díaz

    1

    Drown
    by Junot Díaz
  • Read
    Modern Classics - Last Witnesses: An Oral History of the Children of World War II by Svetlana Alexievich

    2

    Last Witnesses: An Oral History of the Children of World War II
    by Svetlana Alexievich
  • Read
    Modern Classics - The World-Ending Fire by Wendell Berry

    3

    The World-Ending Fire
    by Wendell Berry
  • Read
    Modern Classics - The First Man by Albert Camus

    4

    The First Man
    by Albert Camus
  • Read
    Modern Classics - And Quiet Flows the Don by Mikhail Sholokhov

    5

    And Quiet Flows the Don
    by Mikhail Sholokhov

    • It's notoriously difficult to recognise great works of literature at the time of publication, but certain books come to the fore as 'modern classics': exceptional texts that will stand the test of time. We asked James Rebanks, the Lake District shepherd and celebrated author, to recommend five books that deserve the label.

  • Modern Classics - Drown by Junot Díaz
  • Modern Classics - Last Witnesses: An Oral History of the Children of World War II by Svetlana Alexievich
  • Modern Classics - The World-Ending Fire by Wendell Berry
  • Modern Classics - The First Man by Albert Camus
  • Modern Classics - And Quiet Flows the Don by Mikhail Sholokhov

Modern Classics, recommended by James Rebanks

It’s notoriously difficult to recognise great works of literature at the time of publication, but certain books come to the fore as ‘modern classics’: exceptional texts that will stand the test of time. We asked James Rebanks, the Lake District shepherd and celebrated author, to recommend five books that deserve the label.

Modern Classics, recommended by James Rebanks

About

We ask experts to recommend the five best books in their subject and explain their selection in an interview.

This site has an archive of more than one thousand seven hundred interviews, or eight thousand book recommendations. We publish at least two new interviews per week.

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