The New York Times Book Review decided to mark the first 25 years of this century with an ambitious project: to take a first swing at determining the most important, influential books of the era. In collaboration with the Upshot, which is a website published by The New York Times, they sent a survey to hundreds of literary luminaries, asking them to name the 10 best books published since Jan. 1, 2000. Let’s be inspired and dazzled by the breadth of subjects, voices, opinions, experiences and imagination represented as shown below:

100: Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson 2007
99: How to Be Both by Ali Smith 2014
98: Bel Canto by Ann Patchett 2001
97: Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward 2013
96: Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments by Saidiya Hartman 2019
95: Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel 2012
94: On Beauty by Zadie Smith 2005
93: Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel 2014
92: The Days of Abandonment by Elena Ferrante; translated by Ann Goldstein 2005
91: The Human Stain by Philip Roth 2000
90: The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen 2015
89: The Return by Hisham Matar 2016
88: The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis 2010
87: Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters 2021
86: Frederick Douglass by David W. Blight 2018
85: Pastoralia by George Saunders 2000
84: The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee 2010
83: When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamín Labatut; translated by Adrian Nathan West 2021
82: Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor; translated by Sophie Hughes 2020
81: Pulphead by John Jeremiah Sullivan 2011
80: The Story of the Lost Child by Elena Ferrante; translated by Ann Goldstein 2015
79: A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin 2015
78: Septology by Jon Fosse; translated by Damion Searls 2022
77: An American Marriage by Tayari Jones 2018
76: Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin 2022
75: Exit West by Mohsin Hamid 2017
74: Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout 2008
73: The Passage of Power by Robert Caro 2012
72: Secondhand Time by Svetlana Alexievich; translated by Bela Shayevich 2016
71: The Copenhagen Trilogy by Tove Ditlevsen; translated by Tiina Nunnally and Michael Favala Goldman 2021
70: All Aunt Hagar’s Children by Edward P. Jones 2006
69: The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander 2010
68: The Friend by Sigrid Nunez 2018
67: Far From the Tree by Andrew Solomon 2012
66: We the Animals by Justin Torres 2011
65: The Plot Against America by Philip Roth 2004
64: The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai 2018
63: Veronica by Mary Gaitskill 2005
62: 10:04 by Ben Lerner 2014
61: Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver 2022
60: Heavy by Kiese Laymon 2018
59: Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides 2002
58: Stay True by Hua Hsu 2022
57: Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich 2001
56: The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner 2013
55: The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright 2006
54: Tenth of December by George Saunders 2013
53: Runaway by Alice Munro 2004
52: Train Dreams by Denis Johnson 2011
51: Life After Life by Kate Atkinson 2013
50: Trust by Hernan Diaz 2022
49: The Vegetarian by Han Kang; translated by Deborah Smith 2016
48: Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi 2003
47: A Mercy by Toni Morrison 2008
46: The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt 2013
45: The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson 2015
44: The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin 2015
43: Postwar by Tony Judt 2005
42: A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James 2014
41: Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan 2021
40: H Is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald 2015
39: A Visit From the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan 2010
38: The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño; translated by Natasha Wimmer 2007
37: The Years by Annie Ernaux; translated by Alison L. Strayer 2018
36: Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates 2015
35: Fun Home by Alison Bechdel 2006
34: Citizen by Claudia Rankine 2014
33: Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward 2011
32:The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst 2004
31: White Teeth by Zadie Smith 2000
30: Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward 2017
29: The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt 2000
28: Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell 2004
27: Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 2013
26: Atonement by Ian McEwan 2002
25: Random Family by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc 2003
24: The Overstory by Richard Powers 2018
23: Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage by Alice Munro 2001
22: Behind the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo 2012
21: Evicted by Matthew Desmond 2016
20: Erasure by Percival Everett 2001
19: Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe 2019
18: Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders 2017
17: The Sellout by Paul Beatty 2015
16: The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon 2000
15: Pachinko by Min Jin Lee 2017
14: Outline by Rachel Cusk 2015
13: The Road by Cormac McCarthy 2006
12: The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion 2005
11: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz 2007
10: Gilead by Marilynne Robinson 2004
9: Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro 2005
8: Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald; translated by Anthea Bell 2001
7: The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead 2016
6: 2666 by Roberto Bolaño; translated by Natasha Wimmer 2008
5: The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen 2001
4: The Known World by Edward P. Jones 2003
3: Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel 2009
2: The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson 2010
1: My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante; translated by Ann Goldstein 2012