The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winners, 2010–2020
The top 3 according to 125 votes from people: Tinkers — Paul Harding · A Visit from the Goon Squad — Jennifer Egan · The Sympathizer — Viet Thanh Nguyen. (Updated Mar 20, 2025.)
The novels awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction between 2010 and 2020 (no prize was given in 2012).
Top 10
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1
Tinkers — Paul Harding
2010. A dying clock repairer remembers his father; published by a tiny press.
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2
A Visit from the Goon Squad — Jennifer Egan
2011. Linked stories about the music industry, with a chapter in PowerPoint.
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3
The Sympathizer — Viet Thanh Nguyen
2016. A communist double agent after the fall of Saigon.
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4
The Goldfinch — Donna Tartt
2014. A boy, a museum bombing and a stolen Dutch painting.
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5
The Orphan Master's Son — Adam Johnson
2013. A man's life in North Korea.
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6
The Overstory — Richard Powers
2019. Nine people whose lives are bound up with trees.
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7
Less — Andrew Sean Greer
2018. A failed novelist travels the world to avoid a wedding.
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8
The Underground Railroad — Colson Whitehead
2017. The escape network imagined as a real railway.
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9
All the Light We Cannot See — Anthony Doerr
2015. A blind French girl and a German boy in World War II.
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10
The Nickel Boys — Colson Whitehead
2020. A Florida reform school; Whitehead's second Pulitzer.
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.
Is something missing?
Comments (7)
Colson Whitehead winning twice in three years, incredible.
Less is the funniest Pulitzer winner ever 😄
The Sympathizer is brilliant, and the HBO adaptation was decent too.
The Goldfinch and All the Light We Cannot See, two books I couldn't put down.
Tinkers is short and beautiful, underrated winner.
A Visit from the Goon Squad with the PowerPoint chapter, so creative.
The Overstory changed how I see trees, honestly.