Selecting Australia's Top 100 Books of the 21st Century

The Australian Broadcast Company (ABC) Radio National began soliciting votes on 1 September 2025 from listeners to nominate their favourite books of the 21st Century.  All books published between 1 January 2000 and 31 August 2025, are be eligible. You could select from a list of hundreds of books, or write-in your own title. Voting closes on 30 September and over two days, 18-19 October, Radio National conducted a countdown of the top 100. 

While we await the compilation of the Top 100 list, I thought I would share my votes and the ones I hope make the cut. 

My Top 10

I participated in the vote and found it devastatingly difficult to pick only ten titles. In fact, I had dozens on my shortlist and kept trading them off until I came up with a list of books I love. 

My list includes Australian authors Anna Funder (Stasiland), Charlotte Wood (The Natural Way of Things), Heather Rose (The Museum of Modern Love), Helen Garner (This House of Grief), Hannah Kent (Burial Rites), Sarah Krasnostein (The Trauma Cleaner) and Richard Flanagan (The Narrow Road to the Deep North). That didn't leave much room for others but I managed to squeeze in Barbara Kingsolver (Demon Copperhead), Elizabeth Strout (Olive Kitteridge) and Percival Everett (James). As soon as I voted, while satisfied with my list, I immediately felt the loss of the other titles that didn't make the cut. 

If I had the opportunity I would have added to this list:

• Margaret Atwood - The Testaments (2019)
• Graeme Macrae Burnet - His Bloody Project (2015)
• Eleanor Catton - Birman Wood (2023)
• Susanna Clarke - Piranesi (2021)
• Jennifer Down - Bodies of Light (2021)
• Jennifer Egan - A Visit from the Goon Squad (2010)
• Anne Enright - The Wren, The Wren (2023)
• Tayari Jones - An American Marriage (2018)
• Andrea Levy - Small Island (2004)
• Joan London - The Golden Age (2014)
• Emily Maguire - Rapture (2024)
• Cormac McCarthy - The Road (2006)
• Ian McEwan - Atonement (2001)
• Ian McGuire - The North Water (2016)
• Madeline Miller - Circe (2018)
• Emily St John Mandel - Sea of Tranquility (2022)
• Maggie O'Farrell - Hamnet (2020)
• Lionel Shriver - We Need to Talk About Kevin (2003)
• Douglas Stuart - Young Mungo (2020)
• Donna Tartt - The Goldfinch (2014)
• Colm Toibin - Brooklyn (2009)
• Sarah Winman - Still Life (2021)
• Alice Winn - In Memoriam (2023)
• Charlotte Wood - Stone Yard Devotional (2023)

I am hoping that all of these will land on the Top 100 list when it is revealed in a few weeks. Can't wait to find out. In the meantime, there is still time to vote!