30 prize-winning works of fiction from 2016
From literary to speculative fiction, these 30 books earned high praise.
Looking for your next read? These 30 titles were hand-picked by literary prizes around the world this year.
Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien
- Winner, 2016 Governor General's Literary Award for fiction
- Winner, 2016 Scotiabank Giller Prize
Mysterious Fragrance of the Yellow Mountains by Yasuko Thanh
- Winner, 2016 Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize
The Sellout by Paul Beatty
- Winner, 2016 Man Booker Prize
13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl by Mona Awad
- Winner, 2016 Amazon.ca First Novel Award
Republic of Dirt by Susan Juby
- Winner, 2016 Leacock Medal
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
- Winner, 2016 National Book Award for fiction
Experimental Film by Gemma Files
- Winner, 2016 Sunburst Award (adult fiction category)
The Pain Tree by Olive Senior
- Winner, 2016 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature
Debris by Kevin Hardcastle
- Winner, 2016 Trillium Book Award
The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen
- Winner, 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction
The Tiny Wife by Andrew Kaufman
- Winner, 2015 ReLit Award (novel category) (awarded in February 2016)
The Loney by Andrew Michael Hurley
- Winner, 2015 Costa First Novel Award (awarded in January 2016)
On the Shores of Darkness, There Is Light by Cordelia Strube
- Winner, 2016 Toronto Book Award
The Party Wall by Catherine Leroux, translated by Lazer Lederhendler
- Winner, 2016 Governor General's Literary Award for translation (French to English)
The Mystics of Mile End by Sigal Samuel
- Winner, 2016 Canadian Jewish Literary Award for fiction
We're All In This Together by Amy Jones
- Winner, 2016 Northern Lit Award
A Daughter of No Nation by A.M. Dellamonica
- Winner, 2016 Aurora Award for Best English Novel
God in Pink by Hasan Namir
- Winner, 2016 Lambda Literary Award (gay fiction category)
One Hundred Days of Rain by Carellin Brooks
- Winner, 2016 Edmund White Award for Debut Fiction
The Measure of Darkness by Liam Durcan
- Winner, 2016 Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction
The Betrayers by David Bezmozgis
- Winner, 2016 Vine Award for Canadian Jewish Literature
Open Season by Peter Kirby
- Winner, 2016 Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel
The Unquiet Dead by Ausma Zehanat Khan
- Winner, 2016 Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Novel
Sleep by Nino Ricci
- Winner, 2016 Canadian Authors Association Award (fiction category)
The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood
- Winner, 2016 Kitschies Red Tentacle Award
A God in Ruins by Kate Atkinson
- Winner, 2016 Costa Novel Award
The Vegetarian by Han Kang, translated by Deborah Smith
- Winner, 2016 Man Booker International Prize
Family Life by Akhil Sharma
- Winner, 2016 International DUBLIN Literary Award
Sleeping on Jupiter by Anuradha Roy
- Winner, 2016 DSC Prize for South Asian Literature
The Glorious Heresies by Lisa McInerney
- Winner, 2016 Baileys Women's Prize
- Winner, 2016 Desmond Elliott Prize