Book details

Book description

Which 100 novels represent the finest American literature ever produced? Let this book be your guide.



Ordered A-Z by author this latest title in the popular Must-Read series provides a rich resource for your reading. It features 100 titles from 19th century classics: Melville's Moby Dick and Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter , to the 1920s generation: Hemingway, F Scott Fitzgerald and William Faulkner, the Beat generation (Kerouac's On the Road ) to the major writers of today: Toni Morrison (Beloved ) Michael Chabon (The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay ), Jonathan Franzen (The Corrections ), Donna Tartt (The Secret History ) and Barbara Kingsolver (The Poisonwood Bible ).


All the major figures are covered from Fenimore Cooper to the present day, as well as lesser known and more offbeat writers that you may not yet have discoverd such as Dawn Powell, William Maxwell and Marilynne Robinson.



The Read-On suggestions provide up to 500 recommendations for further titles and a long Introduction provides contextual and historical background on American fiction, providing great value and everything you need to expand your range of reading. Nick Rennison is a bookseller, editor and freelance writer. He reviews new titles for Waterstones Books Quarterly and is author of other titles in the Must-Read series as well as the Bloomsbury Good Reading Guide.



Ed Wood is the Editor for Waterstones Books Quarterly .