The Top 25 Great Southern Fiction Books (in order)
Explore the best of Southern literature with our ranked list of The Top 25 Great Southern Fiction Books. Discover timeless classics and hidden gems that capture the essence of the American South.
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Invisible Man
by Ralph Ellison
NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • NATIONAL BESTSELLER • In this deeply compelling novel and epic milestone of American literature, a nameless narrator tells his story …
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Let Us Now Praise Famous Men
by James Agee
Words and photographs describe the daily lives of typical sharecropper families in the American South.
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The Sound and the Fury
by William Faulkner
NOBEL PRIZE WINNER • One of the greatest novels of the twentieth century is the story of a family of Southern aristocrats on the brink …
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Look Homeward, Angel
by Thomas Wolfe
Novel of repressive family life in a common-place southern town, autobiographical in character.
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To Kill a Mockingbird 40th
by Harper Lee
The explosion of racial hate and violence in a small Alabama town is viewed by a little girl whose father defends a Black man accused …
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The Color Purple
by Alice Walker
Set in the period between the world wars, this novel tells of two sisters, their trials, and their survival.
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Their Eyes Were Watching God
by Zora Neale Hurston
Fair and long-legged, independent and articulate, Janie Crawford sets out to be her own person -- no mean feat for a black woman in the …
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Absalom, Absalom!
by William Faulkner
NOBEL PRIZE WINNER • Family drama and the legacy of slavery haunt this epic tale of an enigmatic stranger in Jefferson, Mississippi—from one of the …
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Lanterns on the Levee
by William Alexander Percy
Born and raised in Greenville, Mississippi, within the shelter of old traditions, aristocratic in the best sense, William Alexander Percy in his lifetime (1885--1942) was …
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All the King's Men
by Robert Penn Warren
Character study of a Southern demagogue whose career follows in some respects as that of Huey Long.
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The Civil War, a Narrative
by Shelby Foote
Follows the course of the war from 1862 to 1864, discusses the strategies of both sides in major battles, and assesses the performance of the …
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Tobacco Road
by Erskine Caldwell
Jeeter Lester, a poor Georgia sharecropper, and his family struggle to get by, but when his son Dude is seduced and married by Jeeter's widowed …
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Black Boy
by Richard Wright
Richard Wright describes what it was like growing up in Jim Crow-era Mississippi.
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Native Son
by Richard A. Wright
Right from the start, Bigger Thomas had been headed for jail. It could have been for assault or petty larceny; by chance, it was for …
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As I Lay Dying
by William Faulkner
A true 20th-century classic from the Nobel Prize-winning author of The Sound and the Fury: the famed harrowing account of the Bundren family’s odyssey across …
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Gone with the Wind
by Margaret Mitchell
The classic civil war romanctic tale of Scarlet O'Hara and Rhett Butler and the Civil War conflict.
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Up from Slavery
by Booker T. Washington
The famous autobiography by the African American businessman, activist, and educator.
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The Last Gentleman
by Walker Percy
Will Barrett is the last gentleman, a twenty-five-year-old wanderer from the south living in New York City with no plans for the future and detached …
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A Death in the Family
by James Agee
Jay Follet is healthy, robust, and in the prime of life when he sets out from home one hot summer night to tend to his …
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I Know why the Caged Bird Sings
by Maya Angelou
The moving and beautiful autobiography of a talented black woman. ". . . I have no words for this achievement, but I know that not …
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The View from Pompey's Head
by Hamilton Basso
Sweet, sleepy -- beautiful -- old Pompey's Head, South Carolina. Anson Page thought he'd ground it out of his life for good. Now a Manhattan …
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Beasts of the Southern Wild and Other Stories
by Doris Betts
Back in print at last, the nine beautifully crafted tales in Beasts of the Southern Wild and Other Stories display Doris Betts at the top …
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Dirty Work
by Stuart Woods
Stone Barrington gets a taste of New York City’s devious upper crust in this “sleek and engaging”* mystery in the #1 New York Times bestselling …