Here are the Biggest Fiction Bestsellers of the Last 100 Years
(And What Everyone Read Instead)
The best-selling fiction of the year:
1. Stieg Larsson, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest
2. John Grisham, The Confession
3. Kathryn Stockett, The Help
4. Nicholas Sparks, Safe Haven
5. Tom Clancy, Dead or Alive
6. Janet Evanovich, Sizzling Sixteen
7. James Patterson, Cross Fire
8. Jonathan Franzen, Freedom
9. Patricia Cornwell, Port Mortuary
10. Stephen King, Full Dark, No Stars
Also published that year:
Jennifer Egan, A Visit From the Goon Squad
David Mitchell, The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet
Gary Shteyngart, Super Sad True Love Story
The best-selling fiction of the year:
1. Kathryn Stockett, The Help
2. Kathryn Stockett, The Help (movie tie-in edition)
3. Sara Gruen, Water for Elephants
4. Abraham Verghese, Cutting for Stone
5. George R. R. Martin, A Dance With Dragons
6. John Grisham, The Confession
7. Stieg Larsson, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
8. Stieg Larsson, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest
9. John Grisham, The Litigators
10. Emma Donoghue, Room
Also published that year:
Julian Barnes, The Sense of an Ending
Ben Lerner, Leaving the Atocha Station
Téa Obreht, The Tiger’s Wife
Karen Russell, Swamplandia!
Jesmyn Ward, Salvage the Bones
The best-selling fiction of the year:
1. E. L. James, Fifty Shades of Grey
2. E. L. James, Fifty Shades Darker
3. E. L. James, Fifty Shades Freed
4. E. L. James, Fifty Shades Trilogy Box Set
5. Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl
6. J. K. Rowling, The Casual Vacancy
7. John Grisham, The Racketeer
Also published that year:
Elena Ferrante, My Brilliant Friend (English translation)
The best-selling fiction of the year:
1. Dan Brown, Inferno
2. John Grisham, Sycamore Row
3. Stephen King, Doctor Sleep
4. F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
5. Khaled Hosseini, And the Mountains Echoed
6. E. L. James, Fifty Shades of Grey
Also published that year:
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Americanah
Rachel Kushner, The Flamethrowers
George Saunders, Tenth of December
Donna Tartt, The Goldfinch
The best-selling fiction of the year:
1. Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl (trade paperback)
2. John Grisham, Gray Mountain
3. Christina Baker Kline, Orphan Train
4. Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl (movie tie-in)
5. Donna Tartt, The Goldfinch
6. Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl (mass market)
7. Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
8. John Grisham, Sycamore Row
9. Stephen King, Revival
10. E. L. James, Fifty Shades of Grey
Also published that year:
Rachel Cusk, Outline
Anthony Doerr, All the Light We Cannot See
Marlon James, A Brief History of Seven Killings
Karl Ove Knausgaard, My Struggle Book 1 (English translation)
Ben Lerner, 10:04
Jenny Offill, Dept. of Speculation
The best-selling fiction of the year:
1. Harper Lee, Go Set a Watchman
2. E. L. James, Grey
3. Paula Hawkins, The Girl on the Train
4. Anthony Doerr, All the Light We Cannot See
5. Andy Weir, The Martian
6. John Grisham, Rogue Lawyer
7. Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
8. Nicholas Sparks, See Me
9. John Grisham, Gray Mountain
10. Kristin Hannah, The Nightingale
Also published that year:
Paul Beatty, The Sellout
Lauren Groff, Fates and Furies
Viet Thanh Nguyen, The Sympathizer
Hanya Yanagihara, A Little Life
The best-selling fiction of the year:
1. Paula Hawkins, The Girl on the Train (trade paperback)
2. Fredrik Backman, A Man Called Ove
3. John Grisham, The Whistler
4. Jojo Moyes, Me Before You (trade paperback)
5. Jojo Moyes, Me Before You (mass market movie tie-in)
6. Nicholas Sparks, Two by Two
7. Paula Hawkins, The Girl on the Train (mass market movie tie-in)
8. Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird
9. Jojo Moyes, Me Before You (trader paper movie tie-in)
10. Anthony Doerr, All the Light We Cannot See
Also published that year:
Naomi Alderman, The Power
Emma Cline, The Girls
Garth Greenwell, What Belongs to You
Han Kang, The Vegetarian (English translation)
Colson Whitehead, The Underground Railroad
The best-selling fiction of the year:
1. Amor Towles, A Gentleman in Moscow
2. Colson Whitehead, Underground Railroad
3. Lisa Wingate, Before We Were Yours
4. John Grisham, Camino Island
5. Neil Gaiman, Norse Mythology
6. John Grisham, The Whistler
7. Paula Hawkins, Into the Water
8. Nicholas Sparks, Two By Two
9. George Saunders, Lincoln in the Bardo
10. Jodi Picoult, Small Great Things
Also published that year:
Mohsin Hamid, Exit West
Carmen Maria Machado, Her Body and Other Parties
Ottessa Moshfegh, Homesick for Another World
Sally Rooney, Conversations With Friends
Jesmyn Ward, Sing, Unburied, Sing
