List of novelists by nationality
Well-known authors of novels, listed by country:
See also the list of children's literature authors
- Argentina
- Ricardo Güiraldes, (1886-1927) Don Segundo Sombra
- Australia
- Jessica Anderson
- Thea Astley
- Murray Bail
- Carmel Bird
- Rolf Boldrewood
- Peter Carey
- Marcus Clarke
- James Clavell, screenwriter, director (of the original The Fly among others), author of Shogun
- Greg Ega, science fiction author, big on nanotech and AI
- Richard Flanagan
- David Foster
- Miles Franklin
- Joseph Furphy
- Helen Garner
- Peter Goldsworthy
- Kerry Greenwood
- Kate Grenville
- Xavier Herbert
- Dorothy Hewett
- George Johnston
- Elizabeth Jolley
- Thomas Keneally, author of Schindler's Ark (1985), on which the film Schindler's List was based, Confederates (1979)
- Frank Moorhouse
- Gerald Murnane
- Henry Handel Richardson
- Christina Stead, The Man Who Loved Children (1940)
- Patrick White, Nobel Prize for Literature (1973, noted for his examinations of his native land
- Tim Winton
- Amy Witting
- Austria (see also German literature)
- Peter Handke, (1942- )
- Stefan Zweig, (1881-1942)
- Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Ivo Andric, (1892-1975)
- Brazil
- Paulo Coelho, (1947- )
- Canada (see also: List of Canadian writers
- Margaret Atwood, (1939- ) The Handmaid's Tale (1985)
- Pierre Berton, (1920- )
- Douglas Coupland,
- Robertson Davies, (1913-1995) wrote Fifth Business (1970), publisher, professor, journalist
- C. J. Everon (See also France)
- Timothy Findley (1930-2002) (See also France)
- Mavis Gallant, (1922- ) (See also France)
- Arthur Hailey, (1920- )indefatigable researcher, author of Hotel (1965), Airport (1968)
- Nancy Huston, (1953- ) (See also France)
- Robert N.Kucey, (1940- )
- Hugh MacLennan,
- Margaret Laurence,
- Malcolm Lowry, (1909-1957) author of Under the Volcano (1947)
- Alistair MacLeod, (1936- )
- Rohinton Mistry, (1952- )
- Lucy Maude Montgomery, (1874-1942)
- Farley Mowat,
- Alice Munro, (1931- )
- Michael Ondaatje, (1943- )wrote The English Patient (1993)
- Mordecai Richler, (1931-2001) The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1959)
- David Adams Richards, (1950- )
- Gabrielle Roy, (1909-1983)
- Carol Shields, (1935- )
- Jane Urquhart, (1949- )
- Catalan
- Raimon Llull, (1235-1315) Libre de meravelles
- Ramon Muntaner, (circa 1270-1336) Crònica
- Joanot Martorell, (1413-1468) Tirant lo Blanch
- Narcís Oller, (1846-1930) La febre d'or
- Mercè Rodoreda, (1909-1983) La plaça del diamant
- China
- Lao She, (1899-1966) "Si Shi Tong Tang"
- Zhang Ailing, (1920-1995) female romantic story writer
- Qian Zhongshu, (1910-1998) "Wei Cheng"
- Lu Xun, (1881-1936) "The True Story of Ah Q"
- Colombia
- Gabriel García Márquez, (1928- ) Nobel Prize for Literature (1982), One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967), journalist, publisher, enthusiastic third-world leftist, avatar of magical realism.
- José Eustasio Rivera, (1888-1928) La vorágine
- Czech Republic
- Karel Capek, (1890-1938) inventor of the word robot, moralist, ironist, Czech patriot
- Jaroslav Hasek, (1883-1923) The Good Soldier Schweik
- Bohumil Hrabal, (1914-1997), Closely Watched Trains, died trying to feed pigeons.
- Cosmopolitan
- Franz Kafka, (1883-1924) lived in Prague during Austria-Hungary and Czechoslovakia; German language writer; see also German literature; creator of images of despair and alienation that haunted the 20th century
- Arthur Koestler (1905-1983)
- Milan Kundera, (1929- )born in Czechoslovakia, but moved to France. Multi-language writer.
- Salman Rushdie, (1947- ) born in India, but moved abroad later. English language writer), placed under fatwah (death sentence) by Muslim clerics
- Denmark
- Isak Dinesen, (1885-1962) her real name was Karen Blixen, wrote Seven Gothic Tales (1934), Out of Africa (1937)
- Johannes Vilhelm Jensen (1873-1950)
- Egypt
- Naguib Mahfouz, (1911- ) Nobel Prize, 1988, famous for the Cairo Trilogy about life in the sprawling inner city.
- England
- Kingsley Amis, novelist and poet, young author of Lucky Jim and old author of The Old Devils.
- Martin Amis, son of Kingsley, author of Dead Babies, Money and The Information
- Jeffrey Archer, peer, perjurer and author of best-selling but poorly-reviewed novels.
- Jane Austen, subtle humor missed by high-school teachers
- Beryl Bainbridge
- J. G. Ballard, disturbing novelist, wrote Crash, Empire of the Sun
- Arnold Bennett
- Mary Elizabeth Braddon
- Anne Brontë
- Charlotte Brontë
- Emily Brontë
- Anthony Buckeridge
- Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, the annual bad writing contest is named after him.
- John Bunyan
- Anthony Burgess, composer, essayist, author of A Clockwork Orange
- Samuel Butler
- G. K. Chesterton, mystery writer and Christian apologist
- Joseph Conrad, Polish-born mariner, author of The Heart of Darkness.
- Daniel Defoe, journalist, wrote Robinson Crusoe (1719), Moll Flanders, wrote more than 500 books, accounted the most prolific author in English.
- Charles Dickens, master of the novel, wrote for serial publication
- Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of the Great Detective, discoverer of the Lost World, believer in fairies.
- Daphne Du Maurier
- Lawrence Durrell, The Alexandria Quartet
- George Eliot
- Henry Fielding
- Ken Follett
- Ford Madox Ford, wrote The Good Soldier (1914), promoter of many other writers.
- E. M. Forster
- Neil Gaiman
- Elizabeth Gaskell
- Stella Gibbons, author of Cold Comfort Farm, found something nasty in Mary Webb's woodshed.
- William G. Golding, The Lord of the Flies
- Robert Graves, The White Goddess, fascinated by classical myth
- Graham Greene
- H. Rider Haggard, adventure novels set in exotic locations, such as King Solomon's Mines, She
- Thomas Hardy
- William Horwood
- Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
- Christopher Isherwood
- Rudyard Kipling, journalist, imperial propagandist, masterful short-story writer, poet, author of Kim (1904)
- Arthur Koestler
- D. H. Lawrence, author of {{Lady Chatterly's Lover]], once deemed "...obscene and filthy..." by U.S. Postmaster General, who was overridden by the Supreme Court
- C. S. Lewis, Christian, author The Chronicles of Narnia, wrote a book called Surprised by Joy, years of English bachelorhood later, married an American fan named Joy
- A. E. W. Mason, The Four Feathers
- William Somerset Maugham, creator of Sadie Thompson in Rain.
- Ian McEwan
- George Meredith
- Iris Murdoch
- George Orwell, pen name of Eric A. Blair, journalist, volunteer soldier in the Spanish Civil War, author of Animal Farm (1945), 1984 (1949)
- Ouida, (1839-1908)
- Thomas Love Peacock
- Terry Pratchett, author of novels about magic, wizards, trolls etc. that are actually about the real world.
- J. B. Priestley
- Barbara Pym
- Samuel Richardson, printer, contender for the title of "first English novelist", author of Pamela (1740)
- Sax Rohmer, creator of Dr. Fu Manchu, "the yellow peril incarnate in one man".
- Dorothy Sayers, mystery writer who translated Dante
- Will Self
- William Makepeace Thackeray
- J. R. R. Tolkien, described by one critic as a `radical Luddite', he wrote the most popular work of fiction of the 20th century.
- Anthony Trollope
- Evelyn Waugh
- Mary Webb, chronicler of rustic passion and obssession.
- H. G. Wells, author and essayist; author of at least two of the greatest science fiction novels ever written.
- T. H. White, author of The Sword in the Stone, and The Once and Future King
- Angus Wilson
- P. G. Wodehouse, genius of the trivial.
- Virginia Woolf, feminist, modernist.
- Finland
- Tove Jansson, (1914-2001) she wrote in Swedish
- Aino Kallas, (1878-1956), female
- Aleksis Kivi, (1834-1872)
- Väinö Linna, (1920-1992)
- Frans Emil Silanpää, (1888-1964)
- Mika Waltari, (1908-1979)
- France
- Honore de Balzac, author of La Comedie Humaine, a series of novels presenting a full picture of France in the early [[19th century
- Albert Camus
- Louis Ferdinand Céline, Death on the Installment Plan or Mort á Credit.
- Gilbert Cesbron
- Emilie du Chatelet
- Colette, best known for "Gigi" and "Cheri"
- Régine Deforges
- Denis Diderot
- Alexandre Dumas, perhaps more movies have been made from his novels than any other; the Count of Monte Cristo has been filmed on an average of once every 18 months since films were first made.
- C. J. Everon (See also Canada)
- Timothy Findley (See also Canada)
- Mavis Gallant (See also Canada)
- Nancy Huston (See also: Canada)
- Andre Gide
- Joris-Karl Huysmans, (1848-1907) civil servant, war hero (Legion of Honor), founder of the Academie Goncourt, apostle of perversity and decadence, author of A rebours, or Against the Grain (1884) and La-Bas, or Down There (1891)
- Gustave Flaubert
- Victor Hugo
- Alfred Jarry, pataphysician, his Pere Ubu or King Turd (1896) could have been written about Richard Nixon
- Choderlos de Laclos
- Andre Malraux
- Alma Marceau
- Georges Perec
- Abbe Prevost
- Marcel Proust, the man in the cork-lined room.
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau, invented the myth of the Noble Savage.
- Marquis de Sade, Mr. Eponym
- Georges Sand
- Jean-Paul Sartre, existentialist
- Gertrude Stein = See also: United States
- Stendhal, The Red and the Black, considered by some to be the first modern novel
- Jules Verne, writer of techno-thrillers, and founding father of science fiction.
- Voltaire, who thought this may not be the best of all possible worlds.
- Emile Zola
- Germany (see also German literature)
- Heinrich Böll, (1917-1985)
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, (1749-1832) polymath.
- Gunter Grass, (1927- )
- Hermann Hesse, (1877-1962) The Glass Bead Game, Steppenwolf
- Siegfried Lenz, (1926- )
- Thomas Mann, (1875-1955)
- Erich Maria Remarque, (1898-1970) Im Westen nichts Neues, or All Quiet on the Western Front (1929)
- Patrick Süskind (1949- ) The Perfume
- Hungary
- Gyorgy Dalos, (1943- )
- Iceland
- Halldor Laxness, (1903-1998)
- Ireland
- Samuel Beckett, (1906-1989)
- Brendan Behan, (1923-1964)
- Thomas Flanagan, (1923-2002)
- James Joyce, (1882-1941), Ulysses, Finnegan's Wake
- Brian O'Nolan, (1911-1966) better known as Flann O'Brien, Myles na Gcopaleen, Cruiskeen Lawn...
- Laurence Sterne, (1713-1768) played with text and self-referential narrative two centuries before Postmodernism was invented.
- Jonathan Swift, (1667-1745) author of biting satires. Gulliver's Travels was Bowdlerised into a children's book.
- Oscar Wilde, (1854-1900) also a playwright, imprisoned for homosexual acts
- Italy
- Riccardo Bacchelli
- Alessandro Baricco
- Stefano Benni, journalist, poet, novelist, Terra (1985) is most popular work in English
- Alberto Bevilacqua
- Giovanni Boccaccio
- Vitaliano Brancati
- Gesualdo Bufalino
- Aldo Busi
- Italo Calvino
- Luigi Capuana
- Andrea Camilleri
- Carlo Cassola
- Carlo Collodi
- Gabriele D'Annunzio
- Massimo D'Azeglio
- Grazia Deledda
- Giuseppe Dessì
- Umberto Eco
- Carlo Emilio Gadda
- Natalia Ginzburg
- Primo Levi, resistance fighter, chemist and novelist
- Emilio Lussu
- Alessandro Manzoni
- Dacia Maraini
- Elsa Morante
- Alberto Moravia
- Cesare Pavese
- Luigi Pirandello
- Vasco Pratolini
- Salvatore Satta
- Alberto Savinio
- Leonardo Sciascia
- Ignazio Silone
- Mario Soldati
- Italo Svevo
- Susanna Tamaro
- Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
- Giovanni Verga
- Elio Vittorini
- Kenya
- Ngugi wa Thiongo, (1938- )
- Nigeria
- Chinua Achebe, (1930- ) Things Fall Apart, stories about the dissolution of traditional African society.
- Peru
- Mario Vargas Llosa, (1936- ), ran for president
- Poland
- Witold Gombrowicz, (1904-1969)
- Jerzy Kosinski, (1933-1991), of Polish origins - his works are in English
- Stanislaw Lem, (1921- )
- Wladyslas Stanislaw Reymont, (1867-1925) Nobel Prize 1924, wrote national epic The Peasants
- Henryk Sienkiewicz, (1846-1916), Nobel Prize 1905, Quo Vadis
- Portugal
- Albino Forjaz de Sampaio, (1884-1949)
- José Saramago, (1922- ), Nobel Prize 1998
- Russia
- Andrey Bely, (1880-1934)
- Mikhail Bulgakov, (1891-1940) The Master and Margarita, a novel of Satan and Communism, stranger than you can imagine.
- Fyodor Dostoyevsky, (1821-1881)
- Nikolai Gogol, (1809-1852)
- Ivan Goncharov, (1812-1891), Oblomov, a tale of "everyman"
- Mikhail Lermontov, (1814-1841)
- Nikolai Leskov, (1831-1895)
- Vladimir Nabokov, (1899-1977) early novels in Russian, later, including Lolita, in English.
- Boris Pasternak, (1890-1960), refused the Nobel
- Aleksandr Pushkin, (1799-1837)
- Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin, (1826-1889)
- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, (1918- )
- Aleksey K. Tolstoy, (1817-1875)
- Aleksey N. Tolstoy, (1883-1945)
- Leo Tolstoy, (1828-1910) of whose greatest book it was said, "Loved the war, hated the peace".
- Scotland
- Iain Banks aka Iain M. Banks, (1954- ) he writes mainstream novels under the first name, science-fiction novels under the second.
- Ken MacLeod, (1954- ), science fiction
- Sir Walter Scott, (1771-1832)
- Robert Louis Stevenson, (1850-1894) Treasure Island
- Mary Stewart, (1916- )
- Irvine Welsh, (1961- )
- Serbia
- Milorad Pavic, (1929- )
- Turkey
- United States
- Kathy Acker
- Henry Adams
- Louisa May Alcott
- Nelson Algren, essayist, chronicler of the marginal, author of The Man With the Golden Arm.
- Sherwood Anderson
- Maya Angelou, knows why the caged bird sings
- Paul Auster
- Richard Bach
- James Baldwin
- Russell Banks, (1940- )
- Charles Baxter
- Saul Bellow
- Ray Bradbury
- Pearl S. Buck
- William S. Burroughs
- Truman Capote
- Orson Scott Card
- Willa Cather
- Kate Chopin
- Tom Clancy
- James Fenimore Cooper
- Charles Cotton
- Douglas Coupland
- Stephen Crane
- Don Delillo
- Theodore Dreiser
- Louise Erdrich
- Ben K. Green
- John Dos Passos
- Ralph Ellison
- William Faulkner
- F. Scott Fitzgerald
- John Grisham
- Alex Haley
- Dashiell Hammett
- Barry Hannah
- Nathaniel Hawthorne
- Robert Heinlein
- Joseph Heller, his first book is generally considered his best
- Ernest Hemingway
- Langston Hughes, (1902-1967)
- Zora Neale Hurston
- John Irving
- Washington Irving, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
- Henry James
- James Jones
- Jan Karon, (1937- )
- Jack Kerouac, beatnik, author of On the Road (1952).
- Ursula K. Le Guin, essayist, poet, novelist for children and adults
- Harper Lee To Kill a Mockingbird
- Murray Leinster
- Sinclair Lewis
- Jack London
- Stephen King horror novelist
- Robert Ludlum
- Norman Mailer, journalist, author of The Naked and the Dead (1948).
- Carson McCullers
- John D. MacDonald, detective fiction
- Larry McMurtry
- Herman Melville, Moby-Dick
- James A. Michener Tales of the South Pacific
- Henry Miller, author of frequently banned Tropic of Cancer
- Steven Millhauser, (1943- )
- Toni Morrison, Nobel Prize
- Vladimir Nabokov, lepidopterist, Lolita
- Flannery O'Connor
- Chuck Palahniuk, (1962- )
- Thomas Pynchon, deeply weird
- Ayn Rand Atlas Shrugged
- Harold Robbins
- Tom Robbins
- J. D. Salinger
- Upton Sinclair Socialist, author of The Jungle (1906)
- Danielle Steel
- Gertrude Stein (See also France)
- John Steinbeck
- Jacqueline Susann, author of Valley of the Dolls, the best selling novel of 1966.
- Amy Tan
- Hunter S. Thompson, "gonzo journalism".
- Studs Terkel
- Harry Turtledove
- Mark Twain, author of Huckleberry Finn
- John Updike
- Kurt Vonnegut, author of Cat's Cradle
- Alice Walker
- David Foster Wallace
- E. B. White, author of Charlotte's Web, co-author of The Elements of Style.
- Edith Wharton
- Tom Wolfe, A Bonfire of Vanities
- Thomas Wolfe
- Venezuela
- Romulo Gallegos, (1884-1969) Canaima
- Wales
- English Language
- Richard Hughes, (1900-1976)
- Jack Jones, (1884-1970)
- Richard Llewellyn, (1907-1983), How Green Was My Valley
- Howard Spring, (1889-1965)
- Welsh Language
- Daniel Owen, (1836-1895)
- Kate Roberts, (1891-1985)
- Yiddish
- Sholom Aleichem, (1859-1916), pseud. for Solomon Rabinovitz, Fiddler on the Roof was based on his stories.
- Sholom Asch, (1880-1957)
- Mendele Moykher-Sforim, (1836?-1917), pseud. for Sholem Yankev Abramovitch
- Yitzok Lebesh Peretz, (1852-1915)
- Isaac Bashevis Singer, (1904-1991)