What Is the Best Work of American Fiction of the Last 25 Years?

Early this year, the Book Review’s editor, Sam Tanenhaus, sent out a short letter to a couple of hundred prominent writers, critics, editors and other literary sages, asking them to please identify “the single best work of American fiction published in the last 25 years.”

THE WINNER:

Beloved, Toni Morrison (1987)

THE RUNNERS-UP:

Underworld, Don DeLillo (1997)

Blood Meridian, Cormac McCarthy (1985)

Rabbit Angstrom: The Four Novels, John Updike (1995)
‘Rabbit at Rest’ (1990), ‘Rabbit Is Rich’ (1981), ‘Rabbit Redux’ (1971), ‘Rabbit, Run’ (1960)

American Pastoral, Philip Roth (1997)

There’s a list of books that received multiple votes, links to reviews, and more at What Is the Best Work of American Fiction of the Last 25 Years? – New York Times.