Library Journal Best Books - Literary Fiction (Awarded by Library Journal)

Awards List

2025

Room on the Sea
(*)
Andre Aciman

Fifteen Wild Decembers
(*)
Karen Powell

The Fair Folk And Little Orphan Mary
(*)
Maria Konopnicka

Rosarita
(*)
Anita Desai

We Do Not Part
(*)
Han Kang

To Sicily with Love
(*)
Jennifer Probst

The Antidote
(*)
Karen Russell

Beach Vibes
(*)
Susan Mallery

Dream Count
(*)
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

A Girl Within a Girl Within a Girl
(*)
Nanda Reddy

Goddess Complex
(*)
Sanjena Sathian

A Hole in the Story
(*)
Ken Kalfus

Hunchback
(*)
Saou Ichikawa

Liquid
(*)
Mariam Rahmani

Sister Europe
(*)
Nell Zink

Theft
(*)
Abdulrazak Gurnah

Twist
(*)
Colum McCann

What Is Wrong with You?
(*)
Paul Rudnick

Wild Dark Shore
(*)
Charlotte McConaghy

The Women on Platform Two
(*)
Laura Anthony

Counting Backwards
(*)
Binnie Kirshenbaum

Rabbit Moon
(*)
Jennifer Haigh

The Gowkaran Tree in the Middle of Our Kitchen
(*)
Shokoofeh Azar

Only Smoke
(*)
Juan Jose Millas

Songs of Summer
(*)
Jane L. Rosen

What Will People Think?
(*)
Sara Hamdan

Where the Rivers Merge
(*)
Mary Alice Monroe

Atmosphere: A Love Story
(*)
Taylor Jenkins Reid

Bug Hollow
(*)
Michelle Huneven

Double Room
(*)
Anne Senes

Endling
(*)
Maria Reva

Fox
(*)
Joyce Carol Oates

The Girls Who Grew Big
(*)
Leila Mottley

Great Black Hope
(*)
Rob Franklin

The Great Mann
(*)
Kyra Davis Lurie

Off Menu
(*)
Amy Rosen

So Far Gone
(*)
Jess Walter

The Summer House
(*)
Masashi Matsuie

This Is Not a Ghost Story
(*)
Amerie

Archive of Unknown Universes
(*)
Ruben Reyes Jr.

The First Line
(*)
Jean-Marie Laclavetine

The Peculiar Gift of July
(*)
Ashley Ream

The Rabbit Club
(*)
Christopher J. Yates

These Summer Storms
(*)
Sarah MacLean

The View From Lake Como
(*)
Adriana Trigiani

A Dog in Georgia
(*)
Lauren Grodstein

The Incredible Kindness of Paper
(*)
Evelyn Skye

People Like Us
(*)
Jason Mott

Songs for Other People's Weddings
(*)
David Levithan

What Hunger
(*)
Catherine Dang

When the Cranes Fly South
(*)
Lisa Ridzen

The Winds from Further West
(*)
Alexander McCall Smith

Cece
(*)
Emmelie Prophete

Discontent
(*)
Beatriz Serrano

Trigger Warning
(*)
Jacinda Townsend

We'll Prescribe You Another Cat
(*)
Syou Ishida

The Wilderness
(*)
Angela Flournoy

Bad Bad Girl
(*)
Gish Jen

Heart the Lover
(*)
Lily King

Intemperance
(*)
Sonora Jha

Minor Black Figures
(*)
Brandon Taylor

The Second Chance Cinema
(*)
Thea Weiss

Beasts of the Sea
(*)
Iida Turpeinen

Days at the Torunka Cafe
(*)
Satoshi Yagisawa

The Ferryman and His Wife
(*)
Frode Grytten

Palaver
(*)
Bryan Washington

Tom's Crossing
(*)
Mark Z. Danielewski

The Tortoise's Tale
(*)
Kendra Coulter

Wreck
(*)
Catherine Newman

The Award
(*)
Matthew Pearl

Before I Forget
(*)
Tory Henwood Hoen

The Book of Luke
(*)
Lovell Holder

Emotions
(*)
Jean-Philippe Toussaint

The Mushroom Gatherer
(*)
Viktorie Hanisova

Murder Your Darlings
(*)
Jenna Blum

2024

Martyr!
(*)
Kaveh Akbar

Hard by a Great Forest
(*)
Leo Vardiashvili

The Extinction of Irena Rey
(*)
Jennifer Croft

James
(*)
Percival Everett

Honey
(*)
Victor Lodato

Ghostroots: Stories
(*)
Pemi Aguda

The Coin
(*)
Yasmin Zaher

The Goodbye Process: Stories
(*)
Mary Jones

Mina's Matchbox
(*)
Yoko Ogawa

Creation Lake
(*)
Rachel Kushner

2023

The Covenant of Water
(*)
Abraham Verghese

This Other Eden
(*)
Paul Harding

Like the Appearance of Horses
(*)
Andrew Krivak

The Light at the End of the World
(*)
Siddhartha Deb

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store
(*)
James McBride

The Fraud
(*)
Zadie Smith

North Woods
(*)
Daniel Mason

Wellness
(*)
Nathan Hill

The Wren, the Wren
(*)
Anne Enright

Let Us Descend
(*)
Jesmyn Ward

Tremor
(*)
Teju Cole

2022

The Town of Babylon
(*)
Alejandro Varela

The Candy House
(*)
Jennifer Egan

If an Egyptian Cannot Speak English
(*)
Noor Naga

Young Mungo
(*)
Douglas Stuart

Trust
(*)
Hernan Diaz

Brother Alive
(*)
Zain Khalid

Properties of Thirst
(*)
Marianne Wiggins

Lessons
(*)
Ian McEwan

Demon Copperhead
(*)
Barbara Kingsolver

Sweet, Soft, Plenty Rhythm
(*)
Laura Warrell

2021

The Prophets
(*)
Robert Jones Jr.

The Removed
(*)
Brandon Hobson

The Five Wounds
(*)
Kirstin Valdez Quade

Open Water
(*)
Caleb Azumah Nelson

Once There Were Wolves
(*)
Charlotte McConaghy

Bewilderment
(*)
Richard Powers

Matrix
(*)
Lauren Groff

Chronicles from the Happiest People on Earth
(*)
Wole Soyinka

Cloud Cuckoo Land
(*)
Anthony Doerr

What Storm, What Thunder
(*)
Myriam J.A. Chancy

2020

Apeirogon
(*)
Colum McCann

The Index of Self-Destructive Acts
(*)
Christopher R. Beha

Little Family
(*)
Ishmael Beah

A Burning
(*)
Megha Majumdar

Hamnet
(*)
Maggie O'Farrell

Migrations
(*)
Charlotte McConaghy

The New American
(*)
Micheline Aharonian Marcom

Transcendent Kingdom
(*)
Yaa Gyasi

Leave the World Behind
(*)
Rumaan Alam

2019

Boy Swallows Universe
(*)
Trent Dalton

Disappearing Earth
(*)
Julia Phillips

On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
(*)
Ocean Vuong

The Nickel Boys
(*)
Colson Whitehead

Inland
(*)
Tea Obreht

Night Boat to Tangier
(*)
Kevin Barry

Red at the Bone
(*)
Jacqueline Woodson

The Shadow King
(*)
Maaza Mengiste

The Water Dancer
(*)
Ta-Nehisi Coates

Frankissstein
(*)
Jeanette Winterson

2018

The House of Impossible Beauties
(*)
Joseph Cassara

Gun Love
(*)
Jennifer Clement

Speak No Evil
(*)
Uzodinma Iweala

The Overstory
(*)
Richard Powers

The Great Believers
(*)
Rebecca Makkai

There There
(*)
Tommy Orange

Lake Success
(*)
Gary Shteyngart

Waiting for Eden
(*)
Elliot Ackerman

We That Are Young
(*)
Preti Taneja

The Projectionist
(*)
Grove Press

Award Categories

Christian Fiction

Contemporary Romance

Crime Fiction

Crime Fiction: Mystery

Crime Fiction: Suspense

Crime Fiction: Thriller

Fantasy

Graphic Novels

Historical Fiction

Historical Romance

Horror

LGBTQIA+ Romance

Literary Fiction

Paranormal Romance

Pop Fiction

Romance

Romantasy

Science Fiction

SF/Fantasy

Short Stories

World Literature

Award Years

2025

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018