Penguin Random House | New York, 11/19/2019

‘Time Magazine’ Selects Books Of The Decade

Every ten years, the renowned U.S. periodical “Time Magazine” selects what it considers to be the best novels and nonfiction books of the decade. Penguin Random House publishes six of the ten best novels of 2010 through 2019, and fully eight of the ten best nonfiction books.

Bestseller lists are among the book industry’s most important and effective marketing tools. If a book appears on the weekly “New York Times,” “Sunday Times,” or “Spiegel” bestseller lists, that’s already at least a sign of a certain level of quality. The annual bestseller lists are also very popular with publishers, because who wouldn’t want to use the label “Best Book of the Year” to promote a book? “Time Magazine” in the U.S. has now gone a step further, selecting the ten best novels and nonfiction books of the decade now coming to a close. And Penguin Random House imprints are the publishers of six of the ten best novels and eight of the ten best nonfiction bestsellers on this list. The titles on the two “Best Books of the 2010s” lists were selected by the editorial staff of “Time Magazine.”

“It’s as hard to write a page-turner as it is to write fiction that brings fresh perspective and meaning to the world,” writes “Times Magazine.” “Achieving both in a single work is a feat accomplished by only the best of writers – but the 2010s produced multiple works that will go down in history as propulsive and deep, moving and timeless.” “Time Magazine” says these attributes apply to the following books published by Penguin Random House imprints: “Americanah” by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Knopf/Anchor), “A Visit From The Goon Squad” by Jennifer Egan (Knopf/Anchor), “Gone Girl” by Gillian Flynn (Crown/Broadway), “Little Fires Everywhere” by Celeste Ng (Penguin Press), “Tenth Of December” by George Saunders (Random House), and “Nickel Boys” by Colson Whitehead (Doubleday).

“Many of the best nonfiction books of the decade tap into the lives of individuals to speak to universal human experiences – those of grief and recovery, hubris and failure, dreams and disappointments,” writes “Time Magazine” about the decade’s best nonfiction books. Fully eight of the ten titles praised in this way are published by Penguin Random House: “Behind The Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, And Hope In A Mumbai Undercity” by Katherine Boo (Random House), “Bad Blood: Secrets And Lies In A Silicon Valley Startup” by John Carreyrou (Knopf), “Between The World And Me” by Ta-Nehisi Coates (Spiegel & Grau/Random House), “Wave” by Sonali Deraniyagala (Knopf/Vintage), “Evicted: Poverty And Profit In The American City” by Matthew Desmond (Crown/Broadway), “The Order Of Time” by Carlo Rovelli (Riverhead), “Wild: From Lost To Found On The Pacific Crest Trail” by Cheryl Strayed (Knopf/Vintage), and “The Warmth Of Other Suns: The Epic Story Of America’s Great Migration” by Isabel Wilkerson (Random House/Vintage).