My Favorite Forty Works of Prose Fiction Second Series
Explore the second series of My Favorite Forty Works of Prose Fiction—a curated list of must-read books for literature lovers. Discover timeless classics and hidden gems in this essential prose fiction collection.
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The Woman in the Dunes
by Kobo Abe
The Woman in the Dunes, by celebrated writer and thinker Kobo Abe, combines the essence of myth, suspense and the existential novel. After missing the …
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The Handmaid's Tale
by Margaret Atwood
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • An instant classic and eerily prescient cultural phenomenon, from “the patron saint of feminist dystopian fiction” (The New York …
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The New York Trilogy
by Paul Auster
The remarkable, acclaimed series of interconnected detective novels City of Glass, Ghosts, and The Locked Room, from New York Times bestselling author Paul Auster. This …
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The Loser
by Thomas Bernhard
Thomas Bernhard was one of the most original writers of the twentieth century. His formal innovation ranks with Beckett and Kafka, his outrageously cantankerous voice …
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Death of Virgil
by Hermann Broch
It is the reign of the Emperor Augustus, and Publius Vergilius Maro, the poet of the Aeneid and Caesar's enchanter, has been summoned to the …
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Wuthering Heights
by Emily Bronte
One of English literature's classic masterpieces—a gripping novel of love, propriety, and tragedy. Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American …
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Lilith's Brood
by Octavia E. Butler
The acclaimed trilogy that comprises LILITH'S BROOD is multiple Hugo and Nebula award-winner Octavia E. Butler at her best. Presented for the first time in …
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Cosmicomics
by Italo Calvino
Enchanting stories about the evolution of the universe, with characters that are fashioned from mathematical formulae and cellular structures. “Naturally, we were all there, - …
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True History of the Kelly Gang
by Peter Carey
“I lost my own father at 12 yr. of age and know what it is to be raised on lies and silences my dear daughter …
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Alice no país das maravilhas
by Lewis Carroll
A garota Alice vê um coelho branco entrar em uma toca. Vai atrás dele e chega ao País das Maravilhas. Ela muda de tamanho muitas …
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Raymond Carver: Collected Stories (LOA #195)
by Raymond Carver
In collections such as Will You Please Be Quiet, Please? and What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, Raymond Carver wrote with unflinching …
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Don Quixote
by Miguel de Cervantes
A definitive English translation of the sixteenth-century classic follows the adventures of Don Quixote de la Mancha and his faithful squire, Sancho Panza, as they …
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Dhalgren
by Samuel R. Delany
In one of the most profound and bestselling science fiction novels of all time, Samuel R. Delany has produced a novel "to stand with the …
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The Name of the Rose
by Umberto Eco
ONE OF TIME MAGAZINE'S 100 BEST MYSTERY AND THRILLER BOOKS OF ALL TIME • A spectacular best seller and now a classic, The Name of …
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Invisible Man
by Ralph Ellison
NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • NATIONAL BESTSELLER • In this deeply compelling novel and epic milestone of American literature, a nameless narrator tells his story …
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Absalom, Absalom!
by William Faulkner
From the Modern Library’s new set of beautifully repackaged hardcover classics by William Faulkner—also available are Snopes, As I Lay Dying, The Sound and the …
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One Hundred Years of Solitude
by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
One Hundred Years of Solitude tells the story of the rise and fall, birth and death of the mythical town of Macondo through the history …
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Dead Souls
by Nikolai Gogol
Since its publication in 1842, Dead Souls has been celebrated as a supremely realistic portrait of provincial Russian life and as a splendidly exaggerated tale; …
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The Tin Drum
by Günter Grass
In celebration of the 50th anniversary of this classic novel, an acclaimed translator and scholar has drawn from many sources for this new translation, more …
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Hunger
by Knut Hamsun
From the Back Cover: A true classic of modern literature-and a forerunner of the psychologically driven fiction of Kafka, Camus, and Saramago. Hunger is the …
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Never Let Me Go
by Kazuo Ishiguro
NOBEL PRIZE WINNER • From the acclaimed, bestselling author of The Remains of the Day comes “a Gothic tour de force" (The New York Times) …
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The Wings of the Dove
by Henry James
Emerging from the grit and stigma of poverty to a life of fairytale privilege under the wing of her aunt, the beautiful and financially ambitious …
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The Piano Teacher
by Elfriede Jelinek
38-year-old Erika Kohut, a piano teacher at the Vienna Conservatory, still lives with her domineering mother. Erika has a weakness for buying clothing that she …
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Jesus' Son
by Denis Johnson
Jesus' Son is a visionary chronicle of dreamers, addicts, and lost souls. These stories tell of spiraling grief and transcendence, of rock bottom and redemption, …
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The Executioner's Song
by Norman Mailer
Re-creates the crime, trial and events leading to the execution of convicted murderer Gary Gilmore, who requested the death sentence.
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The Magic Mountain
by Thomas Mann
NOBEL PRIZE WINNER • A monumental work of erudition and irony, sexual tension and intellectual ferment, The Magic Mountain is an enduring classic. With this …
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Blood Meridian
by Cormac McCarthy
The “masterpiece” (Michael Herr) of the New York Times bestselling, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Road, No Country for Old Men, The Passenger, and Stella …
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Cloud Atlas
by David Stephen Mitchell
Recounts the connected stories of people from the past and the distant future, from a nineteenth-century notary and an investigative journalist in the 1970s to …
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Complete Tales & Poems of Edgar Allan Poe
by Edgar Allan Poe
One of the most original American writers, Edgar Allan Poe shaped the development of both the detectvie story and the science-fiction story. Some of his …
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The Satanic Verses
by Salman Rushdie
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “[A] torrent of endlessly inventive prose, by turns comic and enraged, embracing life in all its contradictions. In this …
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Pastoralia
by George Saunders
A stunning collection including the story "Sea Oak," from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Man Booker Prize-winning novel Lincoln in the …
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Frankenstein
by Mary Shelley
The world’s most famous work of horror fiction: a devastating exploration of the limits of human creativity. Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by …
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Anathem
by Neal Stephenson
For ten years Fraa Erasmas, a young avout, has lived in a cloistered sanctuary for mathematicians, scientists, and philosophers, protected from the corrupting influences of …
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The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
by Laurence Sterne
Introduction and Notes by Robert Folkenflik Rich in playful double entendres, digressions, formal oddities, and typographical experiments, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman …
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Anna Karenina
by Leo Tolstoy
The must-have Pevear and Volokhonsky translation of one of the greatest Russian novels ever written Described by William Faulkner as the best novel ever written …
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M31
by Stephen Wright
Dash and Dot—husband and wife; self-professed descendants of aliens from the M31 galaxy—are the world’s most in-demand lecturers on the UFO circuit. They live in …