It is the International Women’s Day today (8th March), and I am celebrating this event by showcasing an incredible talent of female authors. I am listing 20 fiction books from 20 amazing women that received top marks on my website. This list is in no particular order and, thus, I am not numbering it.
Edith Wharton – The House of Mirth
Olga Tokarczuk – Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead
Eileen Chang – Half a Lifelong Romance
Patricia Highsmith – Edith’s Diary
Anita Brookner – Hotel du Lac
Daphne du Maurier – The Scapegoat
Clarice Lispector – The Hour of the Star
Fumiko Enchi – The Waiting Years
Willa Cather – A Lost Lady
Rumer Godden – Black Narcissus [1939]
Vera Caspary – Laura
Arundhati Roy – The God of Small Things
Bessie Head – When Rain Clouds Gather
Susanna Clarke – Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Siri Hustvedt – The Blazing World
Yōko Ogawa – The Memory Police
Meg Wolitzer – The Interestings
Eleanor Catton – The Luminaries
Hanya Yanagihara – A Little Life
Paulette Jiles – News of the World
Has your favourite author/book made this list? Do share your favourites.
Thoughts on Papyrus 
Great list. I’m sorry to say that I haven’t read any of these. Some of my favorite novels by female authors are Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, Beloved by Toni Morrison, Kitchen God’s Wife by Amy Tan, The Secrets Between Us by Thrity Umrigar, Homegoing by Yaa Gyazi, The Round House by Louise Erdrich, The Secret History by Donna Tartt, and Suite Française by Irene Némirovsky.
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Thank you. Poisonwood Bible has just narrowly missed my list. I loved the first part of the book, but the last one hundred pages or so let down my experience of the book. I love Donna Tartt, too, but because I haven’t reviewed any of her books on my site, she is not on the list. I’ve got to look up Thrity Umrigar, thanks for sharing your favourites!
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If you do audiobooks, I recommend that format for Umrigar’s book. The narrator does an amazing job with all the accents. Her performance is equal in stature to the quality of the story.
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I haven’t read the particular novels you mention by Clarice Lispector and Willa Cather. I will look them up!
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I think A Lost Lady is a gem, and The Hour of the Star must be Lispector’s best book!
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Well, putting them on hold at the library today!
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Diana — I am negligent or at least not that up to speed when it comes to woman authors. Of those on your list, I liked Rumer Godden’s novel The River, which was made it to a wonderful film bu Jean Renoir; and I like and admire Willa Cather. Cather has the ability to write plainly and wonderfully … I liked My Ántonia.
You didn’t include Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein — guess it’s not quite a novel.
Louisa May Alcott is regarded as a writer for girls; the author of Little Women. She is actually a damned good writer, period. Her novel Work: A Story of Experience (1873) is outstanding. Before reading this novel, I wrote a blog post about Alcott:
https://rogersgleanings.com/2018/04/29/louisa-may-alcott/
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I think my post title is misleading, my fault. These are just the top books by female authors I happened to review on my blog, not my all-time favourites. I loved Alcott’s Little Women, and will surely check out the book you mention. Thank you also for the link!
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An excellent list. I have read and loved a few of them : Hotel du Lac, The Memory Police, The Waiting Years, Drive Your Plough, Black Narcissus, The Blazing World, Strange and Norrell. Many of those would make my list too though maybe different books by the same authors. They’re all exceptional anyway.
I would add to your list: Nicola Barker, Deborah Levy, Ruth Ozeki, Elizabeth von Armin, Annie Dillard, Marilynne Robinson, Olivia Laing. Oh I could go on. So many wonderful writers.
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SYLVIA TOWNSEND WARNER! See I can’t stop!
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Thank you. I am familiar with and read some Deborah Levy, Ruth Ozeki, and Marilynne Robinson, but not the others you mention. Elizabeth von Armin is particularly appealing, thanks a lot for sharing your favourites!
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Ooh The Enchanted April is so good I read it every year. Implausible but still very charming. I hope you enjoy 😊
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added it to my TBR, many thanks!
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I really enjoyed your list, I expect everybody’s would be different and isn’t that a great thing?! You’ve given me something to think about. . .
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Good idea for today’s topic. I have read only a few, The House of Mirth, The God of Small Things, Jonathan Strange, and some other books by Olga Tokarczuk, Patricia Highsmith, and Willa Cather. But it was nice finding some other ideas here.
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Spring in the soul!🌸
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Great post! I am fortunate to have “met” a few of these great ladies.
Neat to see here The Waiting Years, I don’t often see it on other blogs!
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What a wonderful list! News of the World is right up there on my favorites list.
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