The Best Novels

In the decades following Italian unification, its authors started writing in the new common language: Italian. Italy-based novelist Tim Parks introduces us to some of the best novels by some of Italy's greatest writers.

Like all great books, India's best novels are worth reading not just because of what they show about India, but what they reveal about the human condition. Here Radhika Jha, author of four critically acclaimed books, talks us through five important Indian novels and novelists and explains why it's so important that fiction isn't just about personal experience.

From magical realism to political upheaval, John King, Professor Emeritus at Warwick University, recommends five essential works of Latin American fiction – and reveals what Jorge Luis Borges was like in person.

Korean popular culture—television, film, and music—has been sweeping the globe. But Korean literature is darker and more serious than you might assume, given the fun and irreverent nature of 'K-pop.' Here, the respected translator and academic Bruce Fulton highlights five key Korean novels that offer insight into the culture and troubled history of the Korean peninsula.

Vietnam has had a tumultuous history and its literature is one powerful way of trying to understand it better. Journalist, author and publisher Sherry Buchanan—who has spent two decades introducing Vietnam's culture to English-speaking audiences—talks us through the best Vietnamese novels available in English, spanning the years from French colonialism to the 2016 Pulitzer Prize.

Booker Prize-winning translator David Bellos says Les Misérables is the greatest novel of all time. When it came out, "it was an event bigger than the launch of Titanic and Avatar put together." He picks the five greatest French novels.

Colombian novels shot to international prominence after the publication of One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez, which told the story of his small, Colombian hometown by mixing in fantastical elements. The novel spoke to readers around the globe and García Márquez would go on to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. Here, contemporary Colombian novelist Pilar Quintana introduces us to the works of this 'genius' as well as some of the other great novels of Colombian literature.

Hong Kong’s fiction scene punches above its weight, and it's not all political allusion. From magical realism to detective fiction, award-winning writer Wong Yi recommends her five favourite novels from a city depicted in fictional form as simultaneously claustrophobic and cosmopolitan.

We asked the award-winning Mexican novelist Ave Barrera—whose latest book, The Forgery, has recently been translated into English—to recommend five classic Mexican novels. Here she discusses her choices, which include books by Juan Rulfo, Elena Garro and Nellie Campobello.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) was set up after the fall of the Soviet Union to support countries in transition. The EBRD Literature Prize has been running since 2018 and can be won by any novel, translated into English, written by a living author from a country where the Bank invests. Literary critic Maya Jaggi, chair of the prize's independent judging panel, talks us through the novels that won between 2021 and 2025, a wonderful introduction to some excellent contemporary novels from Central and Eastern Europe.