21st century in literature
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See also: 21st century in poetry, 20th century in literature, list of years in literature.
The 21st century in literature refers to world literature in prose produced during the 21st century. The range of years is, for the purpose of this article, literature written from (roughly) the year 2001 to the present.
2000s
The 2000s saw a steep increase in the acceptability of literature of all types, inspired by the coming-of-age of millions of people who enjoyed the works of writers such as C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien in their youths. Neil Gaiman, for instance, one of the decade's most popular writers of speculative fiction, cites Tolkien, Lewis, and G. K. Chesterton as his three biggest influences growing up. J. K. Rowling admits to being heavily influenced by Lewis as well. Philip Pullman's gritty and controversial young adult His Dark Materials trilogy, written and published in the late 1990s, increased in popularity and was more widely read during the 2000s. The popularity of Lewis, Tolkien, Pullman, and Rowling was spurred on by movies which proved to be some of the biggest of the 2000s.
The 2000s also saw the popularization of manga, or Japanese comics, among international audiences, particularly in English-speaking nations. Many famous books like Harry Potter series were converted into movies. Books on wars, guides for exams, myths, etc. were frequent sellers in this decade. Some books were written in simple English and works of old writers were translated into language that was easier to understand. Mythology was converted into graphic novel form to build interest among young readers.
- 2001 - The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen; Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand; Life of Pi by Yann Martel;
Nobel Prize: Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul - 2002 - Atonement by Ian McEwan; Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides; Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer;
Nobel Prize: Imre Kertész - 2003 - Roman Triptych (Meditation);
Nobel Prize: J. M. Coetzee - 2004 - Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig;
Nobel Prize: Elfriede Jelinek - 2005 -
Nobel Prize: Harold Pinter - 2006 - The Road by Cormac McCarthy; Les Bienveillantes by Jonathan Littell; Against the Day by Thomas Pynchon;
Nobel Prize: Orhan Pamuk - 2007 - The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Díaz; A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini; On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan;
Nobel Prize: Doris Lessing - 2008 - 2666: A Novel by Roberto Bolaño; Feuchtgebiete by Charlotte Roche;
Nobel Prize: J. M. G. Le Clézio - 2009 - The Humbling by Philip Roth; Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel;
Nobel Prize: Herta Müller