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Fifty contemporary classics everyone shouldread at least onceonly 50?

There are hundreds we could include, and if we did, this list would go on and on.

50 Books from the Past 50 Years

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These stories will enchant you, challenge you, and surprise you (for starters).

The paths of a blind French girl and a young German boy intersect amid the dangers of war.

The novel was published in 2016 and won the American Book Award.

A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley

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In this odyssey, Cora navigates dangers that span centuries with only her indomitable will to guide her.

It follows Nadia and Saeed, a young couple whose home is rocked by violence.

And each of those timeless truths unfolds in this first autobiographical account of her life."

Tenth of December: Stories by George Saunders

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McBride’s novel won the National Book Award in 2013.

Their lives, secrets, and relationships unspool over decades.

It won the National Book Award for Fiction in 2018.

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

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Homegoing

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Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

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Beloved by Toni Morrison

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Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

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The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

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A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

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A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler

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The Dutch House by Ann Patchett

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The Shipping News by Annie Proulx

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Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward

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Dear Life: Stories by Alice Munro

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Louisiana: A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines

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Amsterdam by Ian McEwan

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Birds of America by Lorrie Moore

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Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier

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The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton

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Exit West: A Novel by Mohsin Hamid

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Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri

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The Color Purple by Alice Walker

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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

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Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

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March by Geraldine Brooks

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The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

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The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

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Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann

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Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

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A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James

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Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie

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The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

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Shadow Country by Peter Matthiessen

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The Good Lord Bird by James McBride

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The Hours by Michael Cunningham

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House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros

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The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan

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The Round House by Louise Erdrich

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The Road by Cormac McCarthy

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Vermont: Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner

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The Sellout by Paul Beatty

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The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert

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The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields

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The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen

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White Noise by Don DeLillo

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White Teeth by Zadie Smith

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Barbara Kingsolver

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The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

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My Brilliant Friend, by Elena Ferrante

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The Friend by Sigrid Nunez

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