List of novelists
Well-known authors of novels, listed by country:See also: Lists of authors, List of poets, List of playwrights, List of short story authors
Ancient Greek Authors
Ancient Latin Authors
- Marcus Tullius Cicero
- Quintus Horatius Flaccus
- Aulus Gellus
- Publius Vergilius Maro
- Plinius Secundus
- Publius Ovidius Naso
Argentina
- Julio Cortazar, (1914 - 1984)
- Ricardo Güiraldes, (1886-1927) Don Segundo Sombra
- Manuel Puig, author of Kiss of the Spider Woman
Armenia
Australia
- Amy Witting
- Carmel Bird
- Christina Stead, author of The Man Who Loved Children (1940)
- D.B.C. Pierre, 2003 Booker Prize
- David Foster
- David Malouf
- Dorothy Hewett
- Elizabeth Jolley
- Frank Moorhouse
- George Johnston
- Gerald Murnane
- Greg Egan, science fiction
- Helen Garner
- Henry Handel Richardson
- James Clavell, screenwriter, director (of the original The Fly among others), author of Shogun
- Jessica Anderson
- John Marsden, author of the Tomorrow series
- Joseph Furphy
- Kate Grenville
- Kerry Greenwood
- Lily Brett, author of Just Like That (1994)
- Marcus Clarke
- Miles Franklin
- Murray Bail
- Nevil Shute
- Patrick White, Nobel Prize for Literature (1973), noted for his examinations of his native land
- Peter Carey
- Peter Goldsworthy
- Randolph Stow
- Richard Flanagan
- Rolf Boldrewood
- Thea Astley
- Thomas Keneally, author of Schindler's Ark (1985), on which the film Schindler's List was based, Confederates (1979)
- Tim Winton
- Traci Harding
- Xavier Herbert
Austria
(see also German literature)- Hugo Bettauer
- Peter Handke, (1942- )
- Josef Haslinger
- Peter Henisch
- Robert Musil, (1880 - 1942), Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften (The Man Without Qualities)
- Arthur Schnitzler
- Stefan Zweig, (1881-1942)
Belarus
Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Ivo Andrić, (1892-1975)
Brazil
- Paulo Coelho, (1947- )
Canada
(see also: Canadian literature, List of Canadian writers)- Margaret Atwood, (1939- ), author of The Handmaid's Tale (1985)
- Pierre Berton, (1920- )
- Marie-Claire Blais, (1939- )
- Morley Callaghan, (1903-1990) author of Strange Fugitive (1928)
- Deborah Joy Corey, (1958- ) winner Books in Canada First Novel Award
- Robertson Davies, (1913-1995), author of Fifth Business
- Réjean Ducharme
- Timothy Findley (1930-2002) (See also France)
- Hugh MacLennan,
- Margaret Laurence,
- Stephen Leacock
- Yann Martel, author of "Life of Pi", 2002 Booker Prize
- Rohinton Mistry, (1952- )
- Lucy Maude Montgomery, (1874-1942)
- Susanna Moodie, (1803-1885)
- Farley Mowat
- Alice Munro, (1931- )
- Michael Ondaatje, (1943- ), author of The English Patient (1993)
- Mordecai Richler, (1931-2001), author of The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1959)
- Gabrielle Roy, (1909-1983)
- Carol Shields, (1935-2003)
- Catharine Parr Traill, (1802-1899)
- Jane Urquhart, (1949- )
Catalonia
- Raimon Llull, (1235-1315), author of Libre de meravelles
- Ramon Muntaner, (circa 1270-1336), author of Cronica
- Joanot Martorell, (1413-1468), author of Tirant lo Blanch
- Narcís Oller, (1846-1930), author of La febre d'or
- Mercč Rodoreda, (1909-1983), author of La plaça del diamant
Chile
- Isabel Allende
- Manuel Rojas
- Francisco Coloeane
China
(see also: Chinese literature)- Lao She, (1899-1966), author of Si Shi Tong Tang
- Zhang Ailing, (1920-1995), female romantic story writer
- Qian Zhongshu, (1910-1998), author of "Wei Cheng''
- Lu Xun, (1881-1936), author of The True Story of Ah Q
- Mao Dun, (1896-1981), author of Zi Ye
Colombia
- Gabriel García Márquez, (1928- ), author of One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967), Nobel Prize for Literature (1982), journalist, publisher, avatar of magical realism
- José Eustasio Rivera, (1888-1928), author of La vorágine
Cosmopolitan
- Romain Gary, Russian-born French writer
- Franz Kafka, (1883-1924) lived in Prague during Austria-Hungary and Czechoslovakia; German language writer; see also German literature
- Arthur Koestler (1905-1983)
- Milan Kundera, (1929- ) born in Czechoslovakia, but moved to France. Multi-language writer.
- Salman Rushdie, (1947- ) born in India, but moved abroad later. English language writer, placed under fatwah (death sentence) by Muslim clerics
Croatia
(see also: Croatian literature)Czech Republic
(see also: Literature of the Czech Republic)- Karel Capek, (1890-1938) inventor of the word robot, moralist, ironist, Czech patriot
- Jaroslav Hasek, (1883-1923), author of The Good Soldier Svejk
- Vaclav Havel, (born 1936, President of Czech Republic (1993-2003) and famous playwright)
- Bohumil Hrabal, (1914-1997), author of Closely Watched Trains, died trying to feed pigeons.
- Jaroslav Seifert (1901-1986), (Nobel Prize for Literature) (1984)
Denmark
(see also: Danish Literature)- Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875)
- Isak Dinesen, (1885-1962) (real name: Karen Blixen), author of Seven Gothic Tales (1934), Out of Africa (1937)
- Johannes Vilhelm Jensen (1873-1950)
- Peter Kjaerulff (1946 - )
Egypt
- Naguib Mahfouz, (1911- ) Nobel Prize for Literature (1988), famous for the Cairo Trilogy about life in the sprawling inner city.
England
See also List of novelists by country: England- Aldous Huxley, (1884-1963), author of Brave New World
- Anthony Burgess, (1917-1993), composer, essayist, author of A Clockwork Orange
- Anthony Trollope
- C. H. B. Kitchin
- Charles Dickens, (1812-1870), master of the novel, wrote for serial publication
- Charlotte Brontë, (1816-1855)
- Doris Lessing, (born 1919)
- E. M. Forster, (1879-1970)
- Elizabeth Gaskell
- Emily Brontë, (1816-1855)
- Evelyn Waugh
- George Eliot, (1819-1880)
- George Orwell, (1903-1950) author of Animal Farm (1945), 1984 (1949), Burmese Days
- Graham Greene, (1904-1991)
- H. G. Wells, (1866-1946), author and essayist, early writer of science fiction, author of The War of the Worlds
- Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling
- J. R. Ackerley
- J. R. R. Tolkien, (1892-1973), author of The Lord of the Rings
- James Follet, (1939- ), author of over 20 novels, plus works for radio and television.
- Jane Austen, (1775-1817)
- Joseph Conrad, (1857-1924), Polish-born mariner, author of Heart of Darkness
- Kingsley Amis
- Martin Amis
- Nevil Shute (1899-1960), On the Beach, The Trustee from the Toolroom, A Town like Alice
- Nick Hornby, author of About a Boy (1998)
- P. G. Wodehouse, (1881-1975), creator of Jeeves and Wooster
- P.D. James, author of crime fiction but also the dystopian novel The Children of Men (1992)
- Rudyard Kipling, author of Kim (1904)
- Thomas Hardy, (1840-1928)
- Virginia Woolf, (1882-1941), feminist, modernist
- William Golding
Finland
- Tove Jansson, (1914-2001) she wrote in Swedish
- Aino Kallas, (1878-1956), female
- Aleksis Kivi, (1834-1872)
- Väinö Linna, (1920-1992)
- Frans Emil Sillanpää, (1888-1964), (Nobel Prize for Literature) (1939)
- Mika Waltari, (1908-1979)
France
- See also List of novelists by country: France
- (see also: French literature)
- Honoré de Balzac, (1799-1850), author of La Comedie Humaine, a series of novels presenting a full picture of France in the early 19th century
- Albert Camus, (1913-1960)
- Alexandre Dumas, (1802-1870), perhaps more movies have been made from his novels than any other; The Count of Monte Cristo has been filmed on an average of once every 18 months since films were first made.
- Michel Houellebecq, Impact award winner
- Gustave Flaubert, (1821-1880)
- Anatole France
- Victor Hugo, (1802-1885), author of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Les Misérables
- Marcel Proust, (1871-1922)
- François Rabelais, (ca. 1493-1553)
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau, (1712-1778)
- Jean-Paul Sartre, (1905-1980), existentialist
- Jules Verne, (1828-1905), writer of techno-thrillers, and founding father of science fiction.
- Voltaire, (1694-1778), satirist
- Emile Zola, (1840-1902), realist
Germany
(see also German literature)- Heinrich Böll, (1917-1985)
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, (1749-1832), polymath.
- Günter Grass, (1927- )
- Hermann Hesse, (1877-1962), author of The Glass Bead Game, Steppenwolf
- Siegfried Lenz, (1926- )
- Thomas Mann, (1875-1955)
- Erich Maria Remarque, (1898-1970), author of Im Westen nichts Neues, or All Quiet on the Western Front (1929)
- Patrick Süskind (1949- ), author of Perfume
Hungary
Iceland
- Snorri Sturluson, (1179-1241), author of the Younger Edda
- Halldor Laxness, (1903-1998)
India
- Salman Rushdie, (1947- ), of the fatwa fame.
- R.K. Narayan, (1906-2001)
- Vaikom Muhammad Basheer (1908-1994)
Ireland
see also Irish fiction- Samuel Beckett, (1906-1989)
- Brendan Behan, (1923-1964)
- Thomas Flanagan, (1923-2002)
- James Joyce, (1882-1941), author of Ulysses, Finnegans Wake
- Iris Murdoch
- Flann O'Brien, At Swim-Two-Birds
- Brian O'Nolan, (1911-1966) better known as Flann O'Brien, Myles na Gcopaleen, Cruiskeen Lawn...
- Laurence Sterne, (1713-1768) played with text and self-referential narrative two centuries before Postmodernism was invented.
- Jonathan Swift, (1667-1745) author of biting satires. Gulliver's Travels was Bowdlerised into children's literature.
- Oscar Wilde, (1854-1900), also a playwright, imprisoned for homosexual acts
Israel
- Amos Oz, author of Black Box, My Michael
- A. B. Yehoshua, author of Mr. Mani
Italy
- Riccardo Bacchelli
- Alessandro Baricco
- Stefano Benni, journalist, poet, novelist, Terra (1985) is most popular work in English
- Alberto Bevilacqua
- Giovanni Boccaccio
- Vitaliano Brancati
- Gesualdo Bufalino
- Aldo Busi
- Dino Buzzati
- Italo Calvino, Cosmicomics
- Luigi Capuana
- Andrea Camilleri
- Carlo Cassola
- Carlo Collodi
- Gabriele D'Annunzio, revolutionary
- Massimo D'Azeglio
- Grazia Deledda
- Giuseppe Dessi
- Umberto Eco
- Carlo Emilio Gadda
- Natalia Ginzburg
- Primo Levi, resistance fighter, chemist and novelist
- Emilio Lussu
- Alessandro Manzoni
- Dacia Maraini
- Elsa Morante
- Alberto Moravia
- Cesare Pavese
- Luigi Pirandello, playwright, Six Characters in Search of an Author
- Vasco Pratolini
- Andrea di Robilant
- Salvatore Satta
- Alberto Savinio
- Leonardo Sciascia
- Ignazio Silone
- Mario Soldati
- Italo Svevo
- Susanna Tamaro
- Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, The Leopard
- Giovanni Verga
- Elio Vittorini
Japan
(see also Japanese literature, List of Japanese authors)- Kobo Abe (1924-1993) The Woman In the Dunes, The Magic Chalk
- Ryunosuke Akutagawa, (1892-1927), Rashomon
- Osamu Dazai, (1909-1948), No Longer Human, Melos, Run!
- Fumiko Enchi (1905-1986) A Tale of False Fortunes, The Waiting Years
- Shusaku Endo, (1923-1996) Silence, Deep River
- Ichiyo Higuchi, (1872-1896) Child's Play, The Thirteenth Night
- Masuji Ibuse, (1898-1993) Black Rain
- Yasunari Kawabata (1899-1972) Snow Country, The Izu Dancer (Winner of the Nobel Prize, 1968)
- Yukio Mishima, (1925-1970), The Temple of the Golden Pavilion, Confessions of a Mask
- Kenji Miyazawa, (1896-1933) Night Train to the Stars, Matasaburo the Wind Imp
- Ogai Mori, (1862-1922), The Wild Goose, The Dancing Girl
- Soseki Natsume, (1867-1916), Kokoro, I Am a Cat
- Kenzaburo Oe (1935-) Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids, A Personal Matter (Nobel Prize, 1994)
- Junichiro Tanizaki (1886-1965) Some Prefer Nettles, The Makioka Sisters
Kenya
- Ngugi wa Thiongo, (1938- )
Lebanon
Netherlands
- Harry Mulisch
- Tip Marugg
- Willem Frederik Hermans
- Jan Wolkers
- Gerard van het Reve
- A.F.Th. van der Heijden
Nigeria
- Chinua Achebe, (1930- ) Things Fall Apart, stories about the dissolution of traditional African society.
Norway
(see also: Norwegian literature)- Ingvar Ambjřrnsen
- Lars Saabye Christensen
- Olav Duun
- Jostein Gaarder, Sophie's World
- Erik Fosnes Hansen
- Knut Hamsun, Hunger
- Roy Jacobsen
- Alexander Kielland
- Jan Kjćrstad
- Jonas Lie
- Axel Sandemose
- Gabriel Scott
- Sigrid Undset, Kristin Lavandsdatter
Pakistan
(see also: Pakistani literature)- Ahmed Ali
- Zulfikar Ghose
- Bapsi Sidhwa
- Tariq Ali
Peru
- Mario Vargas Llosa, (1936- ), ran for president, author of Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter
Poland
(see also: Polish literature)- Witold Gombrowicz, (1904-1969)
- Stanislaw Lem, (1921- )
- Eliza Orzeszkowa, (1841-1910)
- Boleslaw Prus, (1847-1912)
- Wladyslaw Reymont, (1867-1925) Nobel Prize for Literature 1924, author of national epic The Peasants
- Henryk Sienkiewicz, (1846-1916), Nobel Prize for Literature 1905, Quo Vadis
- Stefan Zeromski, (1864-1925)
Portugal
- António Lobo Antunes
- Fernando de Campos
- Eca de Queiróz
- Aqulino Ribeiro
- Albino Forjaz de Sampaio, (1884-1949)
- José Saramago, (1922- ), Nobel Prize for Literature 1998
Romania
(see also: Romanian literature and Romanian authors)- Ion Luca Caragiale (1852-1912), O scrisoare pierdută (1884),
- Mircea Cărtărescu (born 1956), Nostalgia (1993), Orbitor II (2002),
- Emil Cioran (1911-1995), Précis de décomposition (1949),
- Ion Creangă (1839-1889),
- Mircea Eliade (1907-1986),
- Mihai Eminescu (1850-1889),
- Panait Istrati (1884-1935),
- Eugen Ionescu (1909-1994), Elegii pentru fiinţe mici (1931), Nu (1934), Englezeşte fără profesor (1945), Rinocerii (1959),
- Camil Petrescu (1894-1957), Patul lui Procust (1933),
- Marin Preda (1927-1980), Moromeţii (1956),
- Liviu Rebreanu (1885-1944), Ion (1920),
- Mihail Sadoveanu (1880-1961), Fraţii Jderi (1935-1942),
- Ioan Slavici (1848-1925), Moara cu noroc (1860),
- Vasile Voiculescu (1884-1963), Zahei orbul 1952;
Russia
(see also: Russian literature)- Andrey Bely, (1880-1934)
- Mikhail Bulgakov, (1891-1940, author of The Master and Margarita
- Fyodor Dostoyevsky, (1821-1881), author of The Brothers Karamazov, The Possessed
- Nikolai Gogol, (1809-1852), author of Dead Souls
- Ivan Goncharov, (1812-1891), Oblomov, a tale of a "superfluous" man
- Mikhail Lermontov, (1814-1841)
- Nikolai Leskov, (1831-1895)
- Vladimir Nabokov, (1899-1977) early novels in Russian, later, including Lolita, in English.
- Boris Pasternak, (1890-1960), refused the Nobel Prize for Literature, Doctor Zhivago
- Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin, (1826-1889)
- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, (1918- ), One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, also historian
- Aleksey K. Tolstoy, (1817-1875)
- Aleksey N. Tolstoy, (1883-1945)
- Leo Tolstoy, (1828-1910) of whose greatest book it was said, "Loved the war, hated the peace".
Scotland
- Iain Banks aka Iain M. Banks, (1954- ) writes mainstream novels under the first name, science-fiction novels under the second.
- J. M. Barrie, author of Peter Pan among others.
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of the Great Detective, discoverer of the Lost World, believer in fairies.
- James Kelman
- Ken MacLeod, (1954- ), science fiction
- Ian Rankin
- Sir Walter Scott, (1771-1832), innovator of the historical novel
- Robert Louis Stevenson, (1850-1894), author of Treasure Island
- Mary Stewart, (1916- )
- Nigel Tranter, (1909-2000), Scottish historical novels.
- Irvine Welsh, (1961- )
Serbia and Montenegro
- Desanka Maksimovic
- Milorad Pavic, (1929- )
- Petar Petrovic Njegos
Spain
- Leopoldo Alas, author of 'La Regenta'
- Miguel de Cervantes, : El Quijote, or Don Quixote
- Pérez Galdós
- Juan Goytisolo: El sitio de los sitios
- Juan Marsé: La Muchacha de las bragas de oro (Premio planeta)
- Eduardo Mendoza: La ciudad de los prodigios, Sin Noticias de Gurp, El Misterio de la cripta embrujada
- Arturo Pérez-Reverte: El Club Dumas
- Miguel de Unamuno: Niebla, San Manuel Bueno Martir
Sweden
- Marianne Fredriksson
- Gustaf Fröding
- Jan Guillou
- Eyvind Johnson
- Pär Lagerkvist
- Selma Lagerlöf
- Astrid Lindgren
- Harry Martinson
- Vilhelm Moberg
- August Strindberg (1849 - 1912)
Switzerland
- Max Frisch (1911 - 1991), Stiller (1954) (I'm Not Stiller), Mein Name sei Gantenbein (1964)
Turkey
- Cem Akas
- Metin Kacan
- Yahya Kemal
- Yasar Kemal, author of "Mehmed, My Hawk"
- Orhan Pamuk, author of "Black Book" and "The White Castle"
- Aziz Nesin
- Haldun Taner
United States
See also List of novelists by country: United States- Kathy Acker, (1943-1997)
- Robert H. Adleman (1919-1995)
- Louisa May Alcott, (1832-1888), author of Little Women, Little Men, Jo's Boys
- Nicholson Baker (born 1957), author of The Mezzanine and Vox
- Ray Bradbury, (born 1920), author of The Illustrated Man, Something Wicked This Way Comes
- Charles Bukowski, (1920-1994), poet & novelist, author of Post Office, Factotum
- William S. Burroughs, (1914-1997)
- Truman Capote, (1924-1984)
- Raymond Chandler, (1888-1959)
- Tom Clancy, (born 1947), The Hunt for Red October
- Stephen Crane, (1871-1900), The Red Badge of Courage, Maggie, a Girl of the Streets.
- John Fante, (1909-1983), author of Ask the Dust, Full of Life
- William Faulkner, (1897-1962), Southern Modernist, author of A Light in August
- F. Scott Fitzgerald, (1896-1940), author of The Great Gatsby and This Side of Paradise
- Dashiell Hammett, (1894-1961)
- Nathaniel Hawthorne, (1804-1864), author of The Scarlet Letter, The House of the Seven Gables
- Ernest Hemingway, (1899-1961), author of For Whom the Bell Tolls, A Farewell to Arms, and ''The Sun Also Rises
- Frank Herbert, (1920-1986), famous science fiction writer, notably Dune saga.
- John Irving, (born 1942), author of A Prayer for Owen Meany and The Cider House Rules
- Jack Kerouac, beatnik, author of On the Road (1952).
- Stephen King, prolific horror author.
- Jack London, (1876-1916), The Call of the Wild, Martin Eden, The Sea-Wolf
- Herman Melville, (1819-1891), Moby-Dick
- Henry Miller (1891-1980)
- Thomas Pynchon, (born 1937) V, The Crying of Lot 49, Gravity's Rainbow
- Philip Roth, (born 1933), author of Portnoy's Complaint and The Human Stain
- J. D. Salinger, author of Catcher in the Rye
- John Steinbeck, (1902-1968), The Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and Men, In Dubious Battle, Cannery Row, East of Eden
- Mark Twain, (1835-1910), pseudonym for Samuel Clemens author of Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer, The Prince and the Pauper
- Kurt Vonnegut, (born 1922), author of Cat's Cradle
- Tom Wolfe, (born 1931), author of The Bonfire of the Vanities
- Thomas Wolfe, (1900-1938), Look Homeward, Angel. A Story of the Buried Life (1929)
Venezuela
Wales
- English language
- Mary Balogh
- Ken Follett
- Richard Hughes, (1900-1976), A High Wind in Jamaica
- Jack Jones, (1884-1970)
- Richard Llewellyn, (1907-1983), How Green Was My Valley
- Jean Rhys
- Bernice Rubens, author of A Solitary Grief
- Howard Spring, (1889-1965)
- Welsh language
Yiddish
- Sholom Aleichem, (1859-1916) (real name: Solomon Rabinovitz), Fiddler on the Roof was based on his stories
- Sholom Asch, (1880-1957)
- Mendele Moykher Sforim, (1836-1917), pseud. for Sholem Yankev Abramovitch
- Yitzok Lebesh Peretz, (1852-1915)
- Isaac Bashevis Singer, (1904-1991)
