Top 100 reader novels

Composite: Guardian Design View image in fullscreen Composite: Guardian Design Readers’ top 100 novels of all time After critics and authors picked their top 100 novels we asked for your favourites. From Uruguay to the Isle of Skye, more than 3,000 readers cast their votes. Here’s your list – topped by a new number 1 Read about your choices here 100 A Dance to the Music of Time , Alberta, Canada, 68, retired art historian: “A series of novels that concerns several specific tiers of English society in the first three-quarters of the 20th century – upper class, bohemian, military, political – with comic brio, melancholy and knowing social analyses.” =93 View image in fullscreen A Little Life , Sydney, Australia, 40, engineer: “Devastating. I never want to read this again, yet I will never forget it.” All the Light We Cannot See , Boulder, Colorado, US, 84, retired: “History is brought fully to life in the lives of Marie-Laure and Werner, the storytelling is vivid, the tears are real.” Animal Farm , London, UK, 47: “Reading this as a teen was my entry-level book to socialism. It opened my eyes to injustice, oppression and abuse of power. My parents always blamed my ‘communist’ English teachers for introducing me to Orwell!” Love in the Time of Cholera ía Márquez Adam Glasser, London, UK, 70, musician: “Unsurpassable literary achievement depicting the psychological and emotional reality of passionate love. A phenomenally original story, with fantastical yet totally believable characters, set against the detailed vast canvas of Colombian history and culture at the turn of the century. A tale so poetically bewitching that the reader is compelled to admit the ending is no fairytale but one hundred percent reality.” View image in fullscreen Mrs Dalloway , Heidelberg, Germany, 55, consultant: “I wish I’d written it! All the world of emotion and relationships contained in Mrs D’s few hours preparing for her party. Heart-wrenching and most beautifully observed.” Of Human Bondage , Columbus, Ohio, US, 57, former bookseller: “It’s a little bit of a melodrama, and who doesn’t like that? Maugham is eminently readable, and this is his best.” The Magus , Gerringong, Australia, 61, retired lawyer: “Reading this book as a young man I was dazzled , the evocative setting and the complex weaving of ancient Greek mythology into the story.” =80 View image in fullscreen Absalom, Absalom! , Seattle area, US, 60, scientist: “A foundational critique of the mentality of the enslaver. It took me 20 hours to complete and I emerged as if from a religious experience.