100 Must-Read Quests
Transformations begin with a moment. A clue uncovered; a task charged; a revelation. Unexpected elements prompt moves into the as-yet unknown, from where one never returns exactly as they left.
These books are replete with tales of such epic quests, and include both fiction and non-fiction offerings. Some are family searches, plumbing genealogies, faded pictures, and myths for a fuller sense of self through the past; some are searches for artifacts so coveted they’d make Indiana Jones faint.
From Mordor to Mumbai, from unmapped space and unknown planets to once-fled from hometowns; between dimensions and into the grey areas of our memories; out of the South toward hoped-for opportunities, and back to a South where equality is still denied; down staircases that unwind into seeming infinity, and on the slow climb toward the American presidency; into future landscapes we’d be wise to avoid, and toward a clearer vision of a past we can’t undo; out of fairylands, toward the Emerald City, and back to the remnants of myths again, these books set their seekers down uncertain paths and transform everything in the course of the journey.
These are exciting, revelatory, inspiring, and upending stories—and are presented, let it be known, in no particular order, so please don’t treat number assignments as a map. Instead, find what intrigues you, and forge your own path of discovery, one page at a time.
FICTION
- The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead
- Journey to the Center of the Earth, Jules Verne
- Dreams of Maryam Tair, Mhani Alaoui
- Neverwhere, Neil Gaiman
- The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Rachel Joyce
- Becoming Kirrali Lewis, Jane Harrison
- Out of the Silent Planet, C. S. Lewis
- Possession, A. S. Byatt
- The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum
- Go Set a Watchman, Harper Lee
- A Guide for the Perplexed, Dara Horn
- The Lost Civilization of Suolucidir, Susan Daitch
- Seven Wonders, Ben Mezrich
- A Wrinkle in Time, Madeleine L’Engle
- The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin
- Oryx and Crake, Margaret Atwood
- The Hidden Keys, André Alexis
- Home, Toni Morrison
- Lord of the Rings, J. R. R. Tolkien
- House of Leaves, Mark Danielewski
- Kafka’s Son, Curt Leviant
- The Autograph Man, Zadie Smith
- A Single Stone, Meg McKinlay
- Katherine Carlyle, Rupert Thomson
- Minnow, James McTeer
- The Girl Who Drank the Moon, Kelly Barnhill
- The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Haruki Murakami
- State of Wonder, Ann Patchett
- Pictures at an Exhibition, Sara Houghteling
- Paradise Lost, John Milton
- The Theory of Clouds, Stephane Audeguy
- The Reeducation of Cherry Truong, Aimee Phan
- The Last Unicorn, Peter S. Beagle
- The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers, Tom Rachman
- The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
- The Sea Beach Line, Ben Nadler
- The Arrival, Shaun Tan
- Gentleman’s Agreement, Laura Z. Hobson
- The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared, Jonas Jonasson
- Open City, Teju Cole
- Parable of the Sower, Octavia Butler
- All We Have Left, Wendy Mills
- Everything is Illuminated, Jonathan Safran Foer
- The Thinking Woman’s Guide to Real Magic, Emily Croy Barker
- Searching for Caleb, Anne Tyler
- The Divine Comedy, Dante
- The DaVinci Code, Dan Brown
- Life After Life, Kate Atkinson
- Daughter of Fortune, Isabel Allende
- The Neverending Story, Michael Ende
- By Blood, Ellen Ullman
- The Distant Hours, Kate Morton
- Do Not Say We Have Nothing, Madeleine Thien
- Little, Big, John Crowley
- Contact, Carl Sagan
- Station Eleven, Emily St. John Mandel
- Foucault’s Pendulum, Umberto Eco
- The Drowned World, J. G. Ballard
- Solaris, Stanislaw Lem
- Alphabet of Thorn, Patricia McKillip
- Jitterbug Perfume, Tom Robbins
- The Buried Giant, Kazuo Ishiguro
- Mr. Fox, Helen Oyeyemi
- The Lost Book of the Grail, Charlie Lovett
- Home, Marilynne Robinson
- Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut
- Forgotten Country, Catherine Chung
- Valis, Philip K. Dick
- The Invisible Bridge, Julie Orringer
- Labyrinth, Kate Mosse
- The Calcutta Chromosome, Amitav Ghosh
- The Princess and the Goblin, George MacDonald
- Gold Fame Citrus, Claire Vaye Watkins
- Sarah’s Key, Tatiana de Rosnay
- The Odyssey, Homer
- The Gloaming, Melanie Finn
NONFICTION
77. A Long Way Home, Saroo Brierley
78. In the Darkroom, Susan Faludi
79. The River of Doubt, Candice Millard
80. The Orpheus Clock, Simon Goodman
81. Walking the Llano, Shelley Armitage
82. In Search of King Solomon’s Mines, Tahir Shah
83. Full Moon Over Noah’s Ark, Rick Antonson
84. The Beautiful Struggle, Ta-Nehisi Coates
85. Wild, Cheryl Strayed
86. Catfish and Mandala, Andrew X. Pham
87. The Unconquered, Scott Wallace
88. The Lost Ark of the Covenant, Tudor Parfitt
89. One Drop, Bliss Broyard
90. Sacred Trash, Adina Hoffman and Peter Cole
91. The Fire Next Time, James Baldwin
92. A Princess’s Pilgrimage, Nawab Sikandar Begum
93. The Lost City of Z, David Grann
94. The Return, Hisham Matar
95. Dreams from My Father, Barack Obama
96. Ordinary Light, Tracy K. Smith
97. The Lost, Daniel Mendelsohn
98. The Warmth of Other Suns, Isabel Wilkerson
99. The Book of Wanderings, Kimberly Meyer
100. Valverde’s Gold, Mark Honigsbaum