The New York Times has launched a list of the best 100 books of the 21st century, and here we pause to highlight the top ten books from the American New York Times list, which has spread widely, especially since it holds great credibility in the United States, as the editors of the New York Times rely on the opinions of dozens of literary editors, experts, and writers in the United States.

And here is the list of the top ten books:

1- My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante

In first place is the series of novels by Italian author Elena Ferrante, "My Brilliant Friend", an engaging four-part story for readers about two girls who grew up in a poor and violent neighborhood in Naples, Italy: the diligent and obedient Elena and her attractive friend Lila.

The novels explore ideas about art and politics, class and gender, philosophy and destiny, all through focusing on the conflicting competitive friendship between Elena and Lila as they grow up to become adults.

The events begin in the 1950s in a poor yet vibrant neighborhood on the outskirts of Naples, spanning nearly sixty years, where the first novel in the series follows Lila and Elena from the time they met at the age of ten through their school years and adolescence.

2- The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
The Warmth of Other Suns tells the story of the Great Migration, the movement of African Americans from the rural South to the Midwest, Northeast, and West from about 1915 to 1970. Throughout the 20th century, this mass migration of nearly six million people changed the face of America.

Isabel Wilkerson conducted interviews with over a thousand people and was able to access new data and official records to write about how these American journeys developed and changed cities, America, and the American people.

With historical details, Wilkerson tells this story through the lives of three individuals: Ida Mae Gladney, who left farming and discrimination in Mississippi in 1937 and moved to Chicago, where she achieved a quiet success among workers, and in her old age, she voted for Barack Obama when he ran for a Senate seat in Illinois.

3- Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
A novel by English author Hilary Mantel, it is the first installment of the trilogy (Thomas Cromwell), whose events revolve around the character who documents his rapid rise to power during the reign of Henry VIII of England from 1500 to 1535.

The second part of the series was released in 2012 titled (Bring Up the Bodies), which also won the Man Booker Prize that same year, and the third part in 2020 titled (The Mirror and the Light) was nominated for the same prize in the 2020 list.

4- The Known World by Edward P. Jones
The novel was highly acclaimed in American literary circles upon its release in 2005. Novelist Jeffrey Lent describes it as “the deepest and most affecting novel as Edward P. Jones crafted a contemporary masterpiece that tells an unforgettable tale while doing so with grace, charm, and lyricism that captivates the imagination, set in Virginia during the pre-American war era, addressing issues related to the ownership of black slaves by white and black Americans.

5- The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
A novel released in 2011 by American author Jonathan Franzen, it revolves around the struggles faced by an elderly couple in the Midwest of the United States and their three adult children, tracing their lives from the mid-20th century to a "final birthday" near the end of the millennium.

6- 2066 by Roberto Bolaño
It is the last novel by author Roberto Bolaño, published in 2004, a year after Bolaño's death. The themes of this novel revolve around a slippery German writer and ongoing unsolved murders of women in Santa Teresa, a dangerous city inspired by Ciudad Juárez, known for its femicides.

7- The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
A historical novel by American writer Colson Whitehead published on August 2, 2016. The novel won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2017.

8- Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald
A novel published in 2001 by German writer W.G. Sebald. It was Sebald's last novel. The book received the National Book Critics Circle Award.

9- Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
A novel by the renowned Japanese author that revolves around three friends who grew up in a closed environment, similar to a boarding school, and gradually realized that they have no parents and are unable to have children.

10- Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
A novel written by Marilynne Robinson and published in 2004, it won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 2005 and the National Book Critics Circle Award. It is Robinson's second novel after Housekeeping (1980), and it is an epistolary novel, where the entire narrative is a single continuous document, albeit casual, written on several occasions in a form that combines a journal and memoir consisting of the fictional autobiography of John Ames, an elderly white minister in the small isolated town of Gilead, Iowa.