The best Latin American novels
The top 3 according to 7 votes from people: 2666 · One Hundred Years of Solitude · Conversation in The Cathedral. (Updated May 22, 2025.)
The Latin American novels that appear most often in lists by critics, booksellers and readers: the Boom, its forerunners and the best of recent decades.
Automatically translated (original in Español). See the original
Top 25
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1
2666
Roberto Bolaño (Chile), 2004. Five parts around the femicides of Santa Teresa; published after his death.
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2
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Gabriel García Márquez (Colombia), 1967. Seven generations of the Buendía family in Macondo; the peak of magical realism.
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3
Conversation in The Cathedral
Mario Vargas Llosa (Peru), 1969. 'At what precise moment had Peru fucked itself up?': the Odría dictatorship in a four-hour conversation.
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4
Love in the Time of Cholera
Gabriel García Márquez (Colombia), 1985. Florentino Ariza waits more than half a century for Fermina Daza.
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5
Where the Air Is Clear
Carlos Fuentes (Mexico), 1958. A choral portrait of Mexico City in the mid-20th century.
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6
Paradiso
José Lezama Lima (Cuba), 1966. José Cemí's coming of age in a uniquely baroque prose.
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7
Pedro Páramo
Juan Rulfo (Mexico), 1955. Juan Preciado arrives in Comala, a village of murmuring dead.
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8
Hopscotch
Julio Cortázar (Argentina), 1963. Horacio Oliveira between Paris and Buenos Aires; it can be read in more than one order.
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9
The Devil to Pay in the Backlands
João Guimarães Rosa (Brazil), 1956. The bandit Riobaldo tells his life in a reinvented Portuguese.
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10
The Invention of Morel
Adolfo Bioy Casares (Argentina), 1940. A fugitive on an island with visitors who repeat themselves; Borges called it perfect.
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11
The Savage Detectives
Roberto Bolaño (Chile), 1998. Two 'visceral realist' poets search for Cesárea Tinajero; Rómulo Gallegos Prize.
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12
The Feast of the Goat
Mario Vargas Llosa (Peru), 2000. Trujillo's last days in the Dominican Republic.
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13
Explosion in a Cathedral
Alejo Carpentier (Cuba), 1962. The French Revolution reaches the Caribbean aboard Victor Hugues' ship.
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14
The House of the Spirits
Isabel Allende (Chile), 1982. Four generations of the Trueba family up to the coup d'état.
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15
Recollections of Things to Come
Elena Garro (Mexico), 1963. The town of Ixtepec narrates the Cristero War; for many, the best Latin American novel written by a woman.
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16
A Brief Life
Juan Carlos Onetti (Uruguay), 1950. Brausen invents Santa María, the city of all Onetti's work.
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17
Chronicle of a Death Foretold
Gabriel García Márquez (Colombia), 1981. The whole town knew Santiago Nasar was going to be killed.
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18
On Heroes and Tombs
Ernesto Sabato (Argentina), 1961. Martín and Alejandra, with the 'Report on the Blind' at its heart.
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19
The Tunnel
Ernesto Sabato (Argentina), 1948. The painter Juan Pablo Castel confesses from prison that he killed María Iribarne.
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20
A World for Julius
Alfredo Bryce Echenique (Peru), 1970. The childhood of a boy from Lima's upper class.
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21
Dom Casmurro
Machado de Assis (Brazil), 1899. Did Capitu betray Bentinho? The great doubt of Brazilian literature.
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22
The President
Miguel Ángel Asturias (Guatemala), 1946. A dictator novel by the future Nobel laureate.
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23
The Truce
Mario Benedetti (Uruguay), 1960. The diary of a widowed office worker about to retire who falls in love.
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24
Son of Man
Augusto Roa Bastos (Paraguay), 1960. Paraguay's history from Dr Francia's dictatorship to the Chaco War.
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25
Like Water for Chocolate
Laura Esquivel (Mexico), 1989. Tita expresses her feelings through cooking; a worldwide success.
Candidates
They don't make it into the top 25… yet. Vote for them to move them up.
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26
The Time of the Hero
Mario Vargas Llosa (Peru), 1963. Cadets at the Leoncio Prado military school; it opened the Boom.
How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.
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Comments (5)
Dom Casmurro y Gran Sertón en una lista de novelas latinoamericanas, por fin alguien se acuerda de Brasil 🇧🇷
Me alegra ver Los recuerdos del porvenir de Elena Garro, muy poco conocida fuera de México.
2666 es una obra maestra pero hay que tener paciencia con la parte de los crímenes
Cien años de soledad primera, imposible otra. Lo leí con 17 años y me cambió la vida.
Pedro Páramo segunda, cortita pero perfecta. Rulfo con dos libros hizo más que muchos con cuarenta.