swap_horiz Lao She Alternatives

1

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

2

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

3

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

4

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

5

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

6

F. Scott Fitzgerald

American novelist (1896–1940) whose 'The Great Gatsby' (1925) is a defining portrayal of the Jazz Age and the American D...

American 20TH Century Tragedy Jazz Age

8.8 Great

7

John Steinbeck

American novelist (1902–1968) and Nobel laureate (1962) whose 'The Grapes of Wrath' (1939), depicting Dust Bowl migrants...

American 20TH Century Social Realism Depression Era

8.8 Great

8

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

9

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

10

Graham Greene

English novelist renowned for exploring moral and religious themes in acclaimed works such as *The Power and the Glory*...

20TH Century British Thriller Literary

8.5 Great

11

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

12

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

13

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

14

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

15

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

16

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

17

Yasunari Kawabata

Japanese novelist who won the 1968 Nobel Prize in Literature, recognized for his spare, melancholic prose in Snow Countr...

Japanese 20TH Century Lyrical Literary

8.3 Great

18

Jorge Amado

Prolific Brazilian modernist writer whose vibrant works depicting Afro-Brazilian culture, like *Dona Flor and Her Two Hu...

20TH Century Literary Brazilian Social Realism

7.9 Good

19

Ba Jin

Prolific Chinese author of the 20th century renowned for his politically charged novels, most notably the influential 19...

20TH Century Family Saga Literary Chinese

7.3 Good

20

Mulk Raj Anand

Indian writer regarded as a pioneer of Indo-Anglian fiction, renowned for his 1935 novel *Untouchable*, which exposed th...

Indian 20TH Century Political Literary

7.0 Good