Below is a list of my favourite authors. While quite a few of them have written both fiction and non-fiction, it is their fiction that I have mostly read.
All of the writers listed have written originally in English. Over the years I have read translated works of a few authors, some of which I have liked, some of which I haven't. I have not included these authors in the list because when you are reading a translated work, whether or not you like it will also depend, in my view, to an extent, on the quality of the translation.
As you will see from the (long) list, I am easily pleased. My criterion for including an author is that the author has written at least one book that I have liked a lot.
In front of each author's name I have given the title of the novel I have enjoyed reading the most.
The list is in alphabetical order, but if I have to choose one amongst them as my most favourite author, it will be V.S. Naipaul.
All of the writers listed have written originally in English. Over the years I have read translated works of a few authors, some of which I have liked, some of which I haven't. I have not included these authors in the list because when you are reading a translated work, whether or not you like it will also depend, in my view, to an extent, on the quality of the translation.
As you will see from the (long) list, I am easily pleased. My criterion for including an author is that the author has written at least one book that I have liked a lot.
In front of each author's name I have given the title of the novel I have enjoyed reading the most.
The list is in alphabetical order, but if I have to choose one amongst them as my most favourite author, it will be V.S. Naipaul.
- Agatha Christie (The Murder of Roger Ackryod)
- Alan Silito (Saturday Night and Sunday Morning)
- Alex Garland (Generation X)
- Aldous Huxley (A Brave New World)
- Allison Lurie (Foreign Affairs)
- Amy Tan (The Joyluck Club)
- Andrea Levy (Every Light in the House Burnin')
- Angela Carter (Wise Children)
- Anita Brookner (Latecomers)
- Anita Desai (In Custody)
- Anthony Burgess (Earthly Powers)
- Anne Tyler (Breathing Lessons)
- Ardeshir Vakil (Beach Boy)
- Armistead Maupin (Tales of the City)
- Arundhati Roy (The God of Small Things)
- Arvind Adiga (White Tiger)
- Barbara Trapido (Frankie and Stankie)
- Barbara Kingsglover (The Lacuna)
- Barry Unsworth (Pascali's Island)
- Bernard Malamud (The Fixer)
- Bernice Rubens (Autobiopsy)
- Beryl Bainbridge (Every Man for Himself)
- Bret Easten Ellis (American Psycho)
- Bruce Chatwin (On the Black Hill)
- C.K. Stead (The Secret History of Modernism)
- C.P. Snow (The Masters)
- Carol Shields (The Stone Diaries)
- Charles Bukowski (Ham on Rye)
- Chimamanda Nagozi Adichie (Purple Hibiscus)
- Chinunah Achibe (Things Fall Apart)
- Christopher Isherwood (Mr Norris Changes Trains)
- Damon Galgut (The Good Doctor)
- DBC Pierre (Vernon Godlittle)
- David Lodge (Out of the Shelter)
- David Mitchell (Cloud Atlas)
- David Nicholls (One Day)
- Donna Tartt (The Secret History)
- Doris Lessing (Grass is Singing)
- Douglas Coupland (All Families are Psychotic)
- Edna O'Brian (Girl with Green Eyes)
- Elizabeth Bowen (Heat of the Day)
- Eric Ambler (Background to Danger)
- Erica Jong (Fear of Flying)
- Esther Freud (Hideous Kinky)
- Evelyn Waugh (Handful of Dust)
- F. Scott Fitzgerald (The Great Gatsby)
- Ford Madox Ford (The Good Soldier)
- George Orwell (1984)
- Giles Foden (The Last Kingof Scotland)
- Graham Greene (The Human Factor)
- Graham Swift (Shuttlecock)
- Hanif Kureishie (The Buddha of Suburbia)
- Hari Kunzru (The Impressionist)
- Harper Lee (To Kill A Mocking Bird)
- Henry Roth (Call It Sleep)
- Hilary Mantel (A Place of Greater Safety)
- Howard Jacobson (Coming from Behind)
- Jane Gardam (Old Filth)
- Jay McInerney (Story of My Life)
- J.D. Salinger (Catcher in the Rye)
- Jeffrey Archer (Shall We Tell the President?)
- J.G. Farrell (Singapore Grip)
- Jhumpa Lahiri (Interpreter of Maladies)
- Jim Crace (Being Dead)
- J.M. Coetzee (Disgrace)
- Joanne Harris (Gentlemen and Players)
- John Fante (Road to Los Angeles)
- John Fowls (The Collector)
- John Steinbeck (Of Mice and Men)
- Jonathan Coe (What A Carve Up!)
- Jonathan Franzen (Freedom)
- John Kennedy Toole ( A Confederacy of Dunces)
- John Updike (Rabbit, Run)
- Jonathan Safron Foer (Everything is Illuminated)
- Joseph Conrad (Heart of Darkness)
- Julian Barnes (Flaubert's Parrot)
- Junot Diaz (The Brief Wonderous Life of Oskar Wao)
- Justin Cartwright (The Song Before it is Sung)
- Kate Atkinson (Behind the Scene at the Museum)
- Kazuo Ishiguro (Never Let Me Go)
- Kingsely Amis (Lucky Jim)
- Kurt Vonnegut (Mother Night)
- L.P. Hartley (The Go-Between)
- Linda Grant (When I Lived in Modern Times)
- Louis de Berniers (A Partisan's Daughter)
- Malcolm Bradbury (Doctor Criminale)
- Margaret Atwood (Alias Grace)
- Margaret Drabble (Jerusalem the Golden)
- Marghanita LAski (LIttle Boy Lost)
- Martin Amis (Time's Arrow)
- Matt Beaumont (e)
- Michael Chabon (The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay)
- Michael Frayn (Tin Men)
- Michael Ondaatje (The English Patient)
- Muriel Spark (The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie)
- Nick Hornby (About A Boy)
- Nicole Krauss (The History of Love)
- Nina Bawden (Circle of Deceit)
- Norman Mailer (Tough Guys Don't Dance)
- Olga Grushin (The Dream Life of Sukhanov)
- P.G. Wodehouse (Something Fresh)
- Pat Barker (Regeneration)
- Paul Scott (Staying On)
- Paul Theroux (My Other Life)
- Penelope Fitzgerald (The Beginning of Spring)
- Penelope Lively (Road to Lichfield)
- Peter Carey (My Life as a Fake)
- Philip Hensher (Kitchen Venom)
- Philip Roth (Operation Shylock)
- R.K. Narayan (Swami and Friends)
- Richard Ford (Wildfire)
- Richard Yates (Revolutionary Road)
- Rohinton Mistry (Family Matters)
- Rose Tremain (Restoration)
- Rosemund Lehman (Invitation to the Waltz)
- Ruth Prawer Jhabwala (Heat and Dust)
- Salman Rushdie (Satanic Verses)
- Sarah Waters (Fingersmith)
- Saul Bellow (Humboldt's Gift)
- Sebastian Faulks (Engleby)
- Shiva Naipaul (Fireflies)
- Somerset Maugham (Of Human Bondage)
- Sue Townsend (Adrian Mole: the Cappuccino Years)
- Suzanne Berne (A Crime in the Neighbourhood)
- T.C. Boyle (Road to Wellville)
- Thomas Keneally (Schindler's Ark)
- Tibor Fischer (Under the Frog)
- Tom Sharpe (Poreterhouse Blue)
- Tom Wolfe (Bonfire of the Vanities)
- Toni Morrison (Song of Solomon)
- Vladimir Nabokov (Pale Fire)
- V.S. Naipaul (A Bend in the River)
- Waguih Ghali (Beer in the Snooker Club)
- William Boyd (Any Human Heart)
- William Styron (Sophie's Choice)
- Yann Martel (Life of Pi)
- Zadie Smith (The Autograph Man)
- Zoe Heller (Notes of A Scandal)
