100 novels that make you proud to be Canadian
The 100 novels on our list are must-read books.
Canada has a wealth of writers telling today's tales, revisiting our past and imagining our future. Literary or mystery, comic or graphic, historical or out of this world, the 100 novels on our list are must-read books.
CBC Books considered everything from cultural impact and critical reception to reader response to choose these titles. The authors all call or once called Canada home, and the novels are all in print. Enjoy!
- 419 by Will Ferguson
- A Complicated Kindness by Miriam Toews
- A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry
- A Season in the Life of Emmanuel by Marie-Claire Blais, trans. Derek Coltman
- A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali by Gil Courtemanche, trans. Patricia Claxton
- A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
- Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
- Annabel by Kathleen Winter
- Away by Jane Urquhart
- Barney's Version by Mordecai Richler
- Bear by Marian Engel
- Beautiful Losers by Leonard Cohen
- Bone and Bread by Saleema Nawaz
- Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson
- By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept by Elizabeth Smart
- Cereus Blooms at Night by Shani Mootoo
- Certainty by Madeleine Thien
- Come, Thou Tortoise by Jessica Grant
- Creation by Katherine Govier
- Crow Lake by Mary Lawson
- De Niro's Game by Rawi Hage
- Elizabeth and After by Matt Cohen
- Essex County by Jeff Lemire
- Fall on Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald
- February by Lisa Moore
- Fifth Business by Robertson Davies
- Forty Words for Sorrow by Giles Blunt
- Fruit by Brian Francis
- Fugitive Pieces by Anne Michaels
- Funny Boy by Shyam Selvadurai
- Galore by Michael Crummey
- Generation X by Douglas Coupland
- George & Rue by George Elliott Clarke
- Green Grass, Running Water by Thomas King
- Half-Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan
- Holding Still for as Long as Possible by Zoe Whittall
- How to Make Love to a Negro without Getting Tired by Dany Laferriere, trans. David Homel
- In the Skin of a Lion by Michael Ondaatje
- Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese
- Kamouraska by Anne Hébert, trans. Norman Shapiro
- Kiss of the Fur Queen by Tomson Highway
- Kit's Law by Donna Morrissey
- Late Nights on Air by Elizabeth Hay
- Life of Pi by Yann Martel
- Lives of the Saints by Nino Ricci
- Lost Girls by Andrew Pyper
- Lullabies for Little Criminals by Heather O'Neill
- Mercy Among the Children by David Adams Richards
- Monkey Beach by Eden Robinson
- Neuromancer by William Gibson
- No Great Mischief by Alistair MacLeod
- No Time for Goodbye by Linwood Barclay
- Obasan by Joy Kogawa
- Room by Emma Donoghue
- Ru by Kim Thuy, trans. by Sheila Fischman
- Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life by Bryan Lee O'Malley
- Secret Daughter by Shilpi Somaya Gowda
- Six Metres of Pavement by Farzana Doctor
- Skim by Mariko & Jillian Tamaki
- Spin by Robert Charles Wilson
- Still Life by Louise Penny
- Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town by Stephen Leacock
- Swamp Angel by Ethel Wilson
- Sweetness in the Belly by Camilla Gibb
- The Amazing Absorbing Boy by Rabindranath Maharaj
- What We All Long For by Dionne Brand
- The Antagonist by Lynn Coady
- The Best Laid Plans by Terry Fallis
- The Birth House by Ami McKay
- The Bishop's Man by Linden MacIntyre
- The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill
- The Book of Secrets by M.G. Vassanji
- The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway
- The Colony of Unrequited Dreams by Wayne Johnston
- The Cure for Death by Lightning by Gail Anderson-Dargatz
- The Double Hook by Sheila Watson
- The Englishman's Boy by Guy Vanderhaeghe
- The Golden Mean by Annabel Lyon
- The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
- The Hero's Walk by Anita Rau Badami
- The Jade Peony by Wayson Choy
- The Lesser Blessed by Richard Van Camp
- The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches by Gaétan Soucy, trans. Sheila Fischman
- The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
- The Mistress of Nothing by Kate Pullinger
- The Orenda by Joseph Boyden
- The Outlander by Gil Adamson
- The Polished Hoe by Austin Clarke
- The Romantic by Barbara Gowdy
- The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt
- The Stone Angel by Margaret Laurence
- The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields
- The Time in Between by David Bergen
- The Wars by Timothy Findley
- The Wives of Bath by Susan Swan
- Three Day Road by Joseph Boyden
- Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay
- Two Solitudes by Hugh MacLennan
- Whale Music by Paul Quarrington
- What the Body Remembers by Shauna Singh Baldwin