Feature: The New Canon

The New Canon is a regular feature, contributed by Ted Gioia, focusing on great works of fiction published since 1985. These books represent the finest literature of the current era, and are gaining recognition as the new classics of our time. Here you will find Cormac McCarthy, Ian McEwan, Philip Roth, Toni Morrison, Haruki Murakami, J.K. Rowling, Michael Chabon, Margaret Atwood, and many other leading literary lights of the new millennium. These works span the globe and cut across genres and boundaries, but are distinguished by their quality and creativity. Want to take the pulse of the modern novel? Check out the best of the best at The New Canon.

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Ted Gioia

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• The New Canon: London Fields by Martin Amis

  Imagine a mystery where the victim figures out who will commit the murder long before the killer realizes it himself.

  Review by Ted Gioia — on Apr 26, 2010

• The New Canon: The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien

  The story of a war must be a large story, no? Not if the author is Tim O'Brien.

  Review by Ted Gioia — on Mar 25, 2010

• The New Canon: Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco

  In his follow-up to the bestselling The Name of the Rose, Umberto Eco offers the mother of all conspiracy novels.

  Review by Ted Gioia — on Jan 25, 2010

• The New Canon: Runaway by Alice Munro

  Other authors present us with decisive characters, but Alice Munro is our leading chronicler of the indecisive and irresolute.

  Review by Ted Gioia — on Dec 06, 2009

• The New Canon: Oblivion by David Foster Wallace

  Those intimidated by David Foster Wallace's 1,100-page novel Infinite Jest, may find easier access to this author via these stories.

  Review by Ted Gioia — on Dec 01, 2009

• The New Canon: White Teeth by Zadie Smith

  You might call White Teeth the great melting pot novel, except there is more simmering than melting happening here.

  Review by Ted Gioia — on Nov 29, 2009

• The New Canon: The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

  A rags-to-riches tale set in India instead of America. Even in fiction, it seems, the world is flat.

  Review by Ted Gioia — on Nov 22, 2009

• The New Canon: The Sea by John Banville

  The Sea is a dark and haunting story of a widower who returns to the scene of his first romance.

  Review by Ted Gioia — on Oct 15, 2009

• The New Canon: The Known World by Edward P. Jones

  There are deep moral lessons in this brilliant novel by Edward Jones, but they aren’t pre-digested for the reader

  Review by Ted Gioia — on Sep 04, 2009

• The New Canon: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

  An autistic youngster decides to solve a crime and ends up learning that the real mystery starts at home.

  Review by Ted Gioia — on Aug 27, 2009

• The New Canon: Empire Falls by Richard Russo

  There are no secrets in small towns... except in Empire Falls, Maine, where almost everything important is hidden from view.

  Review by Ted Gioia — on Jul 23, 2009

• The New Canon: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami

  Welcome to the world of Haruki Murakami, where urban realism and the fantastic are mixed in almost equal doses

  Review by Ted Gioia — on Jul 11, 2009

• The New Canon: Austerlitz by W. G. Sebald

  In his final book Austerlitz, W. G. Sebald has written a historical novel that seems to exist outside of history.

  Review by Ted Gioia — on Apr 11, 2009

• The New Canon: The Famished Road by Ben Okri

  Ben Okri's novel The Famished Road, a winner of the 1991 Booker Prize, is a classic of magical realism with a distinctively African twist.

  Review by Ted Gioia — on Mar 14, 2009

• The New Canon: Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl

  Marisha Pessl's stunning debut novel starts out as a coming-of-age story but morphs into a dark whodunit with political overtones.

  Review by Ted Gioia — on Mar 02, 2009

• The New Canon: Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

  Bel Canto describes a standoff between terrorists and government authorities, yet is closer to Romeo and Juliet than Die Hard.

  Review by Ted Gioia — on Feb 03, 2009

• The New Canon: The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje

  Michael Ondaatje's "English Patient" is involved in an adulterous affair—but his past hides an even greater infidelity.

  Review by Ted Gioia — on Jan 27, 2009

• The New Canon: American Pastoral by Philip Roth

  Swede Levov embodies the American success story—until the turbulence of 1960s-era US life tears apart his family.

  Review by Ted Gioia — on Jan 19, 2009

• The New Canon: The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

  You can try to make 'The God of Small Things' into a novel about One Big Thing . . . but please don't!

  Review by Ted Gioia — on Jan 13, 2009

• The New Canon: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling

  Is J.K. Rowling's writing just "clichés and dead metaphors" as Harold Bloom argues, or is there something more to Harry Potter?

  Review by Ted Gioia — on Dec 30, 2008