The 100 best books from Canada

Questions people actually ask

What are the best books from Canada?

By literary regard, which weighs canonical status, critical standing and influence: The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, Friend of My Youth by Alice Munro, The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje, Dance of the Happy Shades by Alice Munro and Runaway by Alice Munro. ReadingRate ranks 100 such books, each with a difficulty score and a reading-time estimate.

Which books from Canada should I read first?

Start from difficulty, not from rank. The most approachable books on this list that still carry top literary regard are Runaway by Alice Munro (about 5.5 hours), Dance of the Happy Shades by Alice Munro and The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood.

What are the shortest of the best books from Canada?

Among the top 25, the shortest are Glass, Irony and God by Anne Carson (about 1.9 hours), Sweat by Emma Healey (about 1.9 hours) and Autobiography of Red by Anne Carson (about 4.6 hours), at an average pace of 250 words a minute adjusted for each book's difficulty.

Which of the best books from Canada are the established classics?

By canonical status, how firmly a book sits in curricula, anthologies and the canon: The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood, The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje, Friend of My Youth by Alice Munro, Dance of the Happy Shades by Alice Munro and Fifth Business by Robertson Davies.

How long would it take to read the top ten?

About 87 hours, at an average pace of 250 words a minute adjusted for each book's difficulty: 44 days at two hours a day. Set your own pace on the page and the list's reading times change to it.

How hard are books from Canada to read?

Most of this list sits between 45 and 60 on ReadingRate's 100-point difficulty scale, where 40 to 55 is moderate. The summit is Fifth Business at 77. Every entry carries its own score, so a reader can pick a great book at a difficulty they will finish.

Where should I start with Alice Munro?

Dance of the Happy Shades or Runaway — both hold high regard at moderate difficulty scores, lower than Friend of My Youth, which ranks highest but reads harder.

What is Anatomy of Criticism?

Northrop Frye's 1957 study of literary structure — modes, symbols, myths, and genres. It is the framework behind ReadingRate's map of stories, and one of the highest-regarded works of criticism written anywhere.

How is this list ranked?

On literary-regard data: how canonically established a work is, its critical standing, and its influence on later writing. It is not a readers’ poll, which is why recent bestsellers rarely appear. Membership follows authors and co-authors, not translators or editors. Lists by country, author, period, theme or difficulty keep to literature (fiction, poetry, drama and philosophy), their novels, poems and plays first and their philosophy after them; a list of a kind of book, such as memoir or criticism, keeps every book of that kind. Every list holds at most three works by one author.