swap_horiz Graham Greene Alternatives

1

George Orwell

British novelist and essayist (1903–1950) best known for the dystopian 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' (1949) and the allegorical...

Satire 20TH Century Dystopian British

9.2 Excellent

2

J.R.R. Tolkien

English writer and academic who authored the seminal high fantasy novels *The Hobbit* and *The Lord of the Rings*, effec...

Fantasy Epic World Building 20TH Century

9.2 Excellent

3

Cormac McCarthy

American novelist celebrated for his bleak, violent themes and his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Road.

American 20TH Century Dark Literary

9.1 Excellent

4

Thomas Mann

German novelist who won the 1929 Nobel Prize in Literature for his epic, symbol-laden masterpiece The Magic Mountain.

German Psychological 20TH Century Literary

9.0 Excellent

5

Ralph Ellison

American writer whose sole published novel during his lifetime, *Invisible Man* (1952), won the National Book Award and...

African American American 20TH Century Literary

9.0 Excellent

6

James Baldwin

American novelist and essayist whose works, including *Go Tell It on the Mountain* (1953), profoundly explored racial, c...

African American American 20TH Century Literary

9.0 Excellent

7

Chinua Achebe

Nigerian novelist whose 1958 debut novel Things Fall Apart is a foundational text of modern African literature.

20TH Century Literary African Nigerian

8.9 Great

8

Virginia Woolf

English modernist novelist (1882–1941) who pioneered stream-of-consciousness narrative in works such as 'Mrs Dalloway' (...

20TH Century British Feminist Modernism

8.8 Great

9

Terry Pratchett

English humorist and fantasy author famous for his prolific and beloved Discworld series, which spans 41 comedic novels.

Fantasy Comic 20TH Century British

8.8 Great

10

Lu Xun

Chinese writer of the early 20th century, celebrated as the founder of modern Chinese literature for his biting social c...

20TH Century Literary Chinese Modernism

8.6 Great

11

Hilary Mantel

English historical novelist who won the Booker Prize twice for her Thomas Cromwell trilogy, starting with Wolf Hall.

Contemporary Booker Historical British

8.5 Great

12

Günter Grass

German novelist and playwright awarded the 1999 Nobel Prize in Literature, notably recognized for his influential debut...

German 20TH Century Postwar Literary

8.5 Great

13

Zora Neale Hurston

American author and anthropologist who was a central figure of the Harlem Renaissance, best known for her 1937 novel *Th...

African American American 20TH Century Literary

8.5 Great

14

Maya Angelou

American memoirist, poet, and civil rights activist best known for her 1969 autobiography *I Know Why the Caged Bird Sin...

African American American 20TH Century Literary

8.5 Great

15

Clarice Lispector

Brazilian novelist celebrated for her modernist, introspective works and her dense, existential 1964 masterpiece *The Pa...

20TH Century Experimental Literary Feminist

8.5 Great

16

Junichiro Tanizaki

Prominent Japanese author whose novels, including "The Makioka Sisters," masterfully explore the clash between tradition...

Aesthetics Japanese Psychological 20TH Century

8.5 Great

17

William Golding

British novelist (1911–1993) and Nobel laureate (1983) whose debut novel 'Lord of the Flies' (1954) allegorically examin...

20TH Century Dark British Nobel

8.4 Great

18

E.M. Forster

English novelist famous for his works examining class and hypocrisy in early 20th-century Britain, notably *Howards End*...

Social 20TH Century British Literary

8.4 Great

19

Richard Wright

American author whose landmark 1940 novel *Native Son* and memoir *Black Boy* profoundly impacted discussions of race an...

African American American 20TH Century Literary

8.4 Great

20

Ian McEwan

British novelist celebrated for his psychological depth, notably in the Booker Prize-winning World War II novel Atonemen...

Contemporary Psychological 20TH Century British

7.9 Good