The Modern Novel

1982

Evelyne Accad: L’Excisée (The Excised)
Kathy Acker: Great Expectations
Peter Ackroyd: The Great Fire of London
Isabel Allende: La casa de los espíritus (The House of the Spirits)
Thea Astley: An Item from the Late News
John Banville: The Newton Letter
Pat Barker: Union Street
John Barth: Sabbatical: A Romance
Rabah Belamri: Le Soleil sous le tamis [The Sun Under the Screen]
Saul Bellow: The Dean’s December
Mario Benedetti: Primavera con una esquina rota (Springtime in a Broken Mirror)
Horst Bienek: Erde und Feuer (Earth and Fire)
Marie-Claire Blais: Visions d’Anna (Anna’s World)
François Bon: Sortie d’usine [Factory Exit]
William Boyd: An Ice-Cream War
Bruce Chatwin: On the Black Hill
Driss Chraïbi: La Mère du printemps (Mother Spring)
Robert Coover: Spanking the Maid
Don DeLillo: The Names
Ellen Douglas: A Lifetime Burning
Ingeborg Drewitz: Eis auf der Elbe [Ice on the Elbe]
Ion Druță: Белая Церковь [White Church]
Lawrence Durrell: Constance or Solitary Practices
Esmail Fassih: ثريا در اغما (Sorraya in a Coma)
John Fowles: Mantissa
Teolinda Gersão: Paisagem com mulher e mar ao fundo [Landscape with Woman and Sea in the Background]
June Allison Gibbons: The Pepsi-Cola Addict
Youenn Gwernig: La grande tribu [The Large Tribe]
Christoph Hein: Der Fremde Freund (aka Drachenblut) (The Distant Lover)
Hilda Hilst: A obscena senhora D (The Obscene Madame D)
Kazuo Ishiguro: A Pale View of Hills
Anne-Marie La Fère: Le semainier [The Semainier]
Doris Lessing: The Making of the Representative for Planet 8
Maria Gabriela Llansol: A Restante Vida (Text for the Remaining Life ) (Book 2 of Geografia de Rebeldes (Geography of Rebels trilogy))
Javier Marías: El siglo [The Century]
Eduardo Mendoza: El laberinto de las aceitunas (Olive Labyrinth)
Harry Mulisch: De aanslag (The Assault)
Haruki Murakami: 羊をめぐる冒険 (A Wild Sheep Chase)
Gerald Murnane: The Plains
Joyce Carol Oates: A Bloodsmoor Romance
Ifeoma Okoye: Behind the Clouds
Orhan Pamuk: Cevdet Bey ve Oğullari [Cevdet Bey and His Sons]
Helena Parente Cunha: Mulher no Espelho (Woman Between Mirrors)
Fernando Pessoa: Livro do desassossego (The Book of Disquiet; The Book of Disquietude)
Ivailo Petrov: Хайка за вълци (Wolf Hunt)
Carlos Rojas: El sueño de Sarajevo [The Dream of Sarajevo]
Leïla Sebbar: Shérazade : 17 ans, brune, frisée, les yeux verts (Sherazade : missing, aged 17, dark curly hair, green eyes)
José Saramago: Memorial do convento (Baltasar and Blimunda)
Tchicaya U Tam’si: (Les Méduses (The Madman and the Medusa))
Pier Vittorio Tondelli: Pao Pao
Leonid Tsypkin: Лето в Бадене (Summer in Baden-Baden)
Antti Tuuri: Pohjanmaa (A Day in Ostrobothnia)
Anne Tyler: Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant
Alice Walker: The Color Purple

1983

Peter Ackroyd: The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde
Gabriela Adameșteanu: Dimineață pierdută (Wasted Morning)
Gamal al-Ghitani: ااب التجليات (The Book of Epiphanies)
António Lobo Antunes: Fado Alexandrino (Fado Alexandrino)
Madison Smartt Bell: The Washington Square Ensemble
Roberto Calasso: La rovina di Kasch (The Ruin of Kasch)
Italo Calvino: Palomar (Mr. Palomar)
Jay Cantor: The Death of Che Guevara
Camilo José Cela: Mazurca para dos muertos (Mazurka for Two Dead Men)
Hugo Claus: Het verdriet van België (The Sorrow of Belgium)
J M Coetzee: Life and Times of Michael K
Daniele Del Giudice: Lo stadio di Wimbledon [Wimbledon Stadium]
Lawrence Durrell: Sebastian or Ruling Passions
Buchi Emecheta: The Rape of Shavi
Nuruddin Farah: Close Sesame
Rodolfo Enrique Fogwill: Los pichiciegos (Malvinas Requiem)
George Garrett: The Succession
Pere Gimferrer: Fortuny (Fortuny)
Rainald Goetz: Irre (Insane)
Paula Gunn Allen: The Woman Who Owned The Shadows
Lars Gustafsson: Sorgemusik för frimurare (Funeral Music for Freemasons)
Barry Hannah: The Tennis Handsome
Elfriede Jelinek: Die Klavierspielerin (The Piano Teacher)
Denis Johnson: Angels
Uwe Johnson: Jahrestage. Band 4 (Anniversaries II: from the Life of Gesine Cresspahl)
William Kennedy: Ironweed
Sony Labou Tansi: L’anté-peuple (The Antipeople)
Doris Lessing: Documents Relating to the Sentimental Agents in the Volyen Empire
Norman Mailer: Ancient Evenings
Quim Monzó: Benzina (Gasoline)
Shiva Naipaul: A Hot Country (US: Love and Death in a Hot Country)
Orhan Pamuk: Sessiz ev (Silent House)
Julián Ríos: Larva (Larva)
Philippe Sollers: Femmes (Women)
Graham Swift: Waterland
Michel Tournier: Gilles et Jeanne (Gilles and Jeanne)
Luisa Valenzuela: Cola de lagartija (The Lizard’s Tail)
Edward Whittemore: Nile Shadows
Christa Wolf: Kassandra (Cassandra)
Hu-myŏng Yun: 둔황의사랑 (The Love of Dunhuang)

1984

Kōbō Abe: 方舟さくら丸 (The Ark Sakura)
Kathy Acker: Blood and Guts in High School
Adalet Ağaoğlu, : Üç Beş Kişi (Curfew)
César Aira: Canto Castrato
Isabel Allende: De amor y de sombra (Of Love and Shadows)
Jorge Amado: Tocaia Grande (Showdown)
Martin Amis: Money: A Suicide Note
J. G. Ballard: Empire of the Sun
Pat Barker: Blow Your House Down
Richard Bausch: The Last Good Time
Roberto Bolaño/A. G. Porta: Consejos de un discípulo de Morrison a un fanático de Joyce [Advice from a Disciple of Morrison and a Fan of Joyce]
T. Coraghessan Boyle: Budding Prospects: A Pastoral
Anthony Burgess: Enderby’s Dark Lady
William Boyd: Stars and Bars
Aldo Busi: Seminario sulla gioventù (Seminar on Youth)
Maryse Condé: Ségou: Les murailles de terre (Segu)
Zayd Mutee Dammaj: الرهينة (The Hostage)
Tahar Djaout: Les chercheurs d’os [The Bone Seekers]
Sebastian Faulks: A Trick of the Light
Alison Fell: Every Move You Make
Timothy Findley: Not Wanted on the Voyage
Natalia Ginzburg: La città e la casa (The City and the House)
William Golding: Paper Men
Alasdair Gray: 1982, Janine
David Ireland: Archimedes and the Seagle
Drago Jančar: Severni sij (Northern Lights)
Jurij Koch: Der Kirschbaum (The Cherry Tree)
Jaan Kross: Professor Martensi ärasõit (Professor Martens’ Departure)
Milan Kundera: Nesnesitelná lehkost bytí (The Unbearable Lightness of Being)
Maria Gabriela Llansol: Na Casa de Julho e Agosto (In the House of July and August) (Book 3 of Geografia de Rebeldes (Geography of Rebels trilogy))
Mitiarjuk Nappaaluk: Sanaaq unikkausinnguaq (Sanaaq)
Nimrod: Les jambes d’Alice [The Legs of Alice]
Cees Nooteboom: In Nederland (later: In de bergen van Nederland) (In the Dutch Mountains)
Joyce Carol Oates: Mysteries of Winterthurn
Milord Pavić: Hazarski recnik. Roman-leksikon u 100.000 reci (Dictionary of the Khazars, a Novel-Lexicon in 100,000 Words)
Jayne Anne Phillips: Machine Dreams
Nélida Piñon: A república dos sonhos (The Republic of Dreams)
Sergio Pitol: El desfile del amor (Love Parade)
Christopher Priest: The Glamour
Christoph Ransmayr: Die Schrecken des Eises und der Finsternis (The Terrors of Ice and Darkness)
Lars Saabye Christensen: Beatles (Beatles)
Alfredo Navarro Salanga: The Birthing of Hannibal Valdez
José Saramago: O Ano da Morte de Ricardo Reis (The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis)
Tchicaya U Tam’si: Les Phalènes [The Moths]
Colin Thubron: A Cruel Madness
Mario Vargas Llosa: Historia de Mayta (The Real Life of Alejandro Mayta)
Sebastiano Vassalli: La notte della cometa (The Night of the Comet)
Rudolph Wurlitzer: Slow Fade

1985

Peter Ackroyd: Hawksmoor
António Lobo Antunes: Auto dos Danados (Act of the Damned)
Thea Astley: Beachmasters
Margaret Atwood: The Handmaid’s Tale
Paul Auster: City of Glass
John Calvin Batchelor: American Falls
Ann Beattie: Love Always
Madison Smartt Bell: Waiting for the End of the World
Volker Braun: Hinze-Kunze-Roman [The Tom, Dick and Harry Novel]
Aldo Busi: Vita standard di un ventidore provvisorio di collant (The Standard Life of a Temporary Pantyhose Salesman)
A S Byatt: Still Life
Peter Carey: Illywhacker
Finn Carling: Under aftenhimmelen (Under the Evening Sky)
Angela Carter: Nights at the Circus
Maryse Condé: Ségou: La terre en miettes (The Children of Segu)
Robert Coover: Gerald’s Party
Robertson Davies: What’s Bred in the Bone
Daniele Del Giudice: Atlante occidentale (Lines of Light)
Don DeLillo: White Noise
Philippe Djian: 37,2° le matin (Betty Blue: the Story of a Passion)
Lawrence Durrell: Quinx or The Ripper’s Tale
Péter Esterházy: Szív segédigéi (Helping Verbs of the Heart)
John Fowles: A Maggot
Marianne Fritz: Dessen Sprache du nicht verstehst [Whose Language You Do Not Understand]
Carlos Fuentes: Gringo viejo (The Old Gringo)
William Gaddis: Carpenter’s Gothic
Gabriel García Márquez: El Amor en los Tiempos del Cólera (Love in the Time of Cholera)
Juan Goytisolo: Paisajes después de la batalla (Landscapes after the Battle)
Christoph Hein: Horns Ende [The End of Horn]
Keizo Hino: 夢の島 (Isle of Dreams)
Denis Johnson: Fiskadoro
F Sionil José: Po-on (US: Dusk)
Bilge Karasu: Gece (Night)
László Krasznahorkai: Sátántangó (Satantango)
Eric Lane: Dante Alighieri’s Publishing Company
J. M. G. Le Clézio: Le Chercheur d’or (The Prospector)
Doris Lessing: The Good Terrorist
Giorgio Manganelli: Dall’inferno [From Hell]
Hilary Mantel: Every Day is Mother’s Day
Angeles Mastretta: Arráncame la vida (Mexican Bolero; Tear This Heart Out)
Cormac McCarthy: Blood Meridian
Harry Mulisch: Hoogste tijd (Last Call)
Haruki Murakami: 世界の終りとハー ;ドボイルド・ワンダー ;ランド (Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World)
Gellu Naum: Zenobia (Zenobia )
Tim O’Brien: The Nuclear Age
Rexford Orotaloa: Two Times Resurrection
Orhan Pamuk: Beyaz Kale (The White Castle)
Roberto Pazzi: Cercando l’imperatore (Searching for the Emperor)
Daniel Pennac: Au bonheur des ogres (The Scapegoat)
Richard Powers: Three Farmers on Their Way to a Dance
Danièle Sallenave: La vie fantôme (Phantom Life)
Russell Soaba: Maiba
Patrick Süskind: Das Parfum (Perfume)
Pramoedya Ananta Toer: Jejak Langkah (Footsteps)
Mohamed Toihiri: La République des Imberbes [The Republic of the Beardless]
Pier Vittorio Tondelli: Rimini
Esther Tusquets: Para no volver (Never to Return)
Anne Tyler: The Accidental Tourist
Enrique Vila-Matas: Historia abreviada de la literatura portátil (A Brief History of Portable Literature)
R.G. Vliet: Scorpio Rising

1986

Kathy Acker: Don Quixote
Edwar al-Kharrat: ترابها زعفران (City of Saffron)
Ventura Ametller: Summa kaòtica (Summa Kaotica)
Paul Auster: Ghosts
Paul Auster: The Locked Room
John Banville: Mefisto
Julian Barnes: Staring at the Sun
Farida Belghoul: Georgette!
Madison Smartt Bell: Straight Cut
Rachid Boudjedra: الزقاق معركة (La Prise de Gibraltar) [The Capture of Gibraltar]
Bo Carpelan: Axel
Emmanuel Carrère: La Moustache (The Moustache)
Driss Chraïbi: Naissance à l’aube (Birth at Dawn)
J M Coetzee: Foe
Jim Crace: Continent
Susan Daitch: L.C.
Félix de Azúa: Historia de un idiota contado por él mismo [Story of an Idiot as Told by Himself]
José Donoso: La desesperanza (Curfew)
Jean Echenoz: L’Equipée malaise (Double Jeopardy)
Nuruddin Farah: Maps
Sergio Galindo: Otilia Rauda (Otilia’s Body)
Patricia Grace: Potiki
Günter Grass: Die Rättin (The Rat)
Lars Gustafsson: Bernard Foys tredje rockad (Bernard Foy’s Third Castling)
Peter Handke: Die Wiederholung (Repetition)
Gisèle Hountondji: Une Citronnelle dans la neige [Lemon Grass in the Snow]
Chenjerai Hove: Bones
Robert Irwin: The Limits of Vision
Kazuo Ishiguro: An Artist of the Floating World
Denis Johnson: The Stars at Noon
Ivan Klíma: Soudce z milosti (Judge on Trial)
Agota Kristof: Le grand cahier (The Notebook)
Claudio Magris: Danubio (Danube)
Luigi Malerba: Il pianeta azzurro [The Blue Planet]
Alia Mamdouh: حبات من النفتالين (Mothballs; later: Naphthalene)
Norman Manea: Plicul negru (The Black Envelope)
Eduardo Mendoza: La ciudad de los prodigios (The City of Marvels)
Susan Minot: Monkeys
Patrick Modiano: Quartier perdu (A Trace of Malice)
Lorrie Moore: Anagrams
Herta Müller: Der Mensch ist ein großer Fasan auf der Welt (The Passport)
Péter Nádas: Emlékiratok könyve (A Book of Memories)
Samir Naqqash: فراعراقية (Tenants and Cobwebs)
Joyce Carol Oates: Marya: A Life
Claudio Piersanti: Charles [Charles]
Baltasar Porcel: Primaveras y otoños (Springs and Autumns)
Anthony Powell: The Fisher King
Soledad Puértolas: Burdeos (Bordeaux)
Marie Redonnet: Splendid Hôtel (Hôtel Splendid)
Julián Ríos: Poundemonium (Poundemonium)
Mercè Rodoreda: La mort i la primavera (Death in Spring)
Massimo Romano: Fantasmi di carta [Paper Ghosts]
José Saramago: A jangada de pedra (The Stone Raft)
Vikram Seth: The Golden Gate
Anton Shammas: ערבסקות, (Arabesques)
Steinunn Sigurðardóttir: Tímaþjófurinn (The Thief of Time)
Robert Stone: Children of Light
Antonio Tabucchi: Il filo dell’orizzonte (The Edge of the Horizon; Vanishing Point)
Mario Vargas Llosa: ¿Quién mató a Palomino Molero? (Who Killed Palomino Molero?)
Tim Winton: That Eye, the Sky

1987

Reinaldo Arenas: La loma del angel (Graveyard of the Angels)
César Aira: Una novela china [A Chinese Novel]
J. G. Ballard: Day of Creation
Charles Baxter: First Light
Madison Smartt Bell: The Year of Silence
William Boyd: The New Confessions
T. Coraghessan Boyle: World’s End
Jay Cantor: Krazy Kat: A Novel in Five Panels
Mia Couto: O último Voo do Flamingo (The Last Flight of the Flamingo)
Anita Desai: Baumgartner’s Bombay
Tahar Djaout: L’invention du désert [The Invention of the Desert]
Michael Dorris: A Yellow Raft in Blue Water
Carlos Fuentes: Cristóbal Nonato (Christopher Unborn)
Rodney Graham: The System of Landor’s Cottage
Rodney Hall: Kisses of the Enemy
David Ireland: Bloodfather
Svava Jakobsdóttir: Gunnladar saga (Gunnlöth’s Tale)
Jaan Kross: Vastutuulelaev: Bernhard Schmidti roman (Sailing Against the Wind)
Rosetta Loy: Le strade di polvere (The Dust Roads of Monferrato)
Joseph McElroy: Women and Men
Ian McEwan: The Child in Time
Thomas McMahon: Loving Little Egypt
Pierre Mertens: Les éblouissements (Shadowlight)
Mo Yan: 红高粱家族 (Red Sorghum)
Marvel Moreno: En diciembre llegaban las brisas (December Breeze)
Antonio Muñoz Molina: El invierno en Lisboa (Winter In Lisbon)
Toni Morrison: Beloved
Geoff Nicholson: Street Sleeper
Daniel Pennac: La fée carabine (The Fairy Gunmother)
Walker Percy: The Thanatos Syndrome
Jean Portante: Projets pour un naufrage prémédité [Projects for a Premeditated Shipwreck]
Marie Redonnet: Forever Valley (Forever Valley)
Marie Redonnet: Rose Mélie Rose (Rose Mélie Rose)
Jacques Roubaud: L’Enlèvement d’Hortense (Hortense is Abducted)/a>
Joanna Scott: Fading, My Parmacheene Belle
Tatsuhiko Shibusawa: 高丘親王航海記 (Takaoka’s Travels)
Carol Shields: Swann (UK: Mary Swann)
Patrick Süskind: Die Taube (The Pigeon)
Rupert Thomson: Dreams of Leaving
Pramoedya Ananta Toer: Rumah Kaca (House of Glass)
Mario Vargas Llosa: El hablador (The Storyteller)
William T. Vollmann: You Bright and Risen Angels: A Cartoon
David Foster Wallace: The Broom of the System
Edward Whittemore: Jericho Mosaic
Jeanette Winterson: The Passion
Alexis Wright: Plains of Promise

1988

Chinua Achebe: Anthills of the Savannah
Kathy Acker: Empire of the Senseless
Jorge Amado: O Sumiço da Santa (The War of the Saints)
Bernardo Atxaga: Obabakoak (Obabakoak)
Nicholson Baker: The Mezzanine
J. G. Ballard: Running Wild
Neil Bissoondath: A Casual Brutality
Ginevra Bompiani: Vecchio cielo, nuova terra [Old Sky, New Earth]
Peter Carey: Oscar and Lucinda
Michael Chabon: The Mysteries of Pittsburgh
Upamanyu Chatterjee: English, August
Bruce Chatwin: Utz
Tsitsi Dangarembga: Nervous Condition
Robertson Davies: The Lyre of Orpheus
Don DeLillo: Libra
Patrick DeVille: Longue Vue [Telescope]
Umberto Eco: Il pendolo di Foucault (Foucault’s Pendulum)
Heinrich Eggerth: Die Papierrose [The Paper Rose]
Jonathan Franzen: The Twenty-Seventh City
Rodney Hall: Captivity Captive (Third of Yandilli trilogy)
Slavko Janevski: Чудотворци (Miracle Workers)
Ismail Kadare: Koncert në fund të dimrit (The Concert)
Agota Kristof: La preuve (The Proof)
Doris Lessing: The Fifth Child
Deirdre Madden: The Birds of Innocent Wood
Yuri Mamleyev: Шатуны (The Sublimes)
Hilary Mantel: Eight Months on Ghazzah Street
David Markson: Wittgenstein’s Mistress
Mo Yan: 天堂蒜薹之歌 (The Garlic Ballads)
Patrick Modiano: Remise de peine (Suspended Sentence)
Jesús Moncada: Camí de sirga (The Towpath)
Marta Morazzoni: L’invenzione della verità (The Invention of Truth)
Haruki Murakami: ダンス・ダンス・ダンス (Dance Dance Dance)
Claude Ollier: Déconnection (later: Obscuration) (Disconnection)
Paek Nam-nyong: 벗 (Friend)
Milord Pavić: Predeo slikan cajem (Landscape Painted with Tea)
Richard Powers: Prisoner’s Dilemma
Soledad Puértolas: Queda la noche [The Night Remains]
Michèle Rakotoson: Le Bain des reliques [The Bath of Relics]
Luis Arturo Ramos: Este era un gato [This Was a Cat]
Christoph Ransmayr: Letzte Welt (The Last World)
Raja Rao: The Chessmaster and His Moves
Gerard Reve:: Bezorgde Ouders (Parents Worry)
Salman Rushdie: The Satanic Verses
Joanna Scott: The Closest Possible Union
Andrew Sinclair: King Ludd
Dumitru Tsepeneag: Pigeon vole (Pigeon Post)
Dubravka Ugrešić: Forsiranje romana-reke (Fording the Stream of Consciousness)
Enrique Vila-Matas: Una casa para siempre [A House Forever]
Marina Warner: The Lost Father
Gordon Weaver: The Eight Corners of the World

1989

Peter Ackroyd: First Light
Martin Amis: London Fields
John Banville: The Book of Evidence
Julian Barnes: A History of the World in 10½ Chapters
Madison Smartt Bell: Soldier’s Joy
Hermann Bürger: Brenner Part 1 Brunsleben (Brenner)
Paola Capriolo: Il nocchiero (The Helmsman)
Maryse Condé: Traversée de la mangrove
Miquel de Palol: El jardí dels set crepuscles (The Garden of Seven Twilights)
Evelyn Conlon: Stars in The Daytime
E. L. Doctorow: Billy Bathgate
Sebastian Faulks: The Girl at the Lion d’Or
Jon Fosse: Naustet (Boathouse)
Gabriel García Márquez: El General en su Laberinto (The General in his Labyrinth)
Sylvie Germain: Jours de colère (Days of Anger)
Almudena Grandes: Las edades de Lulú (The Ages of Lulu)
Pat Gray: Mr. Narrator
James Hamilton-Paterson: Gerontius
A. M. Homes: Jack
Kazuo Ishiguro: The Remains of the Day
Elfriede Jelinek: Lust (Lust)
György (George) Konrád: Kerti mulatság (A Feast in the Garden)
László Krasznahorkai: Az ellenállás melankóliája (The Melancholy of Resistance)
Hilary Mantel: Fludd
Javier Marías: Todas las almas (All Souls)
N. Scott Momaday: The Ancient Child
Quim Monzó, : La magnitud de la tragèdia (The Enormity of the Tragedy)
Geoff Nicholson: The Knot Garden
João Gilberto Noll: Hotel Atlântico (UK: Hotel Atlântico; US: Atlantic Hotel)
Barry Oakley: The Craziplane
Daniel Pennac: La petite marchande de prose (Write to Kill)
Carme Riera: Joc de miralls (Mirror Images)
Jacques Roubaud: Le Grand Incendie de Londres (The Great Fire of London)
José Saramago: História do cerco de Lisboa (The History of the Siege of Lisbon)
Rafik Schami: Erzähler der Nacht (Damascus Nights)
Masahiko Shimada: 雁 (夢使い (Dream Messenger)
Claude Simon: L’Acacia (The Acacia)
Olivier Targowla: Narcisse sur un fil (Narcisse on a Tightrope)
Shashi Tharoor: The Great Indian Novel
Colin Thubron: Falling
Paolo Volponi: Le mosche del capitale [The Flies of Capital]
Erhard von Büren: Abdankung. Ein Bericht (Epitaph for a Working Man)
Jeanette Winterson: Sexing the Cherry

Other links

Publishers Weekly list of bestselling novels in the United States in the 1980s
The Books of the Century: 1980-1989
Modern Literature Time Chart (1980 – 1989)
Modern US literature chronological order