This list includes 70 Books that start with N, from “N Is for Noose” to “Nutshell”. Titles span classic novels, award winners, contemporary thrillers, children’s books, and accessible nonfiction.
Books that start with N are titles whose first word begins with the letter N, covering many genres and eras. For example, “Nutshell” by Ian McEwan shows how a single letter can link modern literary fiction to wider cultural conversations.
Below you’ll find the table with Title, Author, Year, and Genre.
Title: The book’s full title, helping you quickly identify the exact work and match it in catalogs or reading lists.
Author: The author’s name, so you can differentiate editions, find more works by the same writer, or verify authorship.
Year: Original publication year or first edition date, useful to place the book in historical or literary context for you.
Genre: Primary genre label that guides you to similar titles and helps prioritize what you want to read next.
Books that start with N
| Title | Author(s) | Original publication year | Primary genre |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nineteen Eighty-Four | Orwell, George | 1949 | Dystopian fiction |
| Night | Wiesel, Elie | 1960 | Memoir |
| Native Son | Wright, Richard | 1940 | Literary fiction |
| Neuromancer | Gibson, William | 1984 | Science fiction |
| Never Let Me Go | Ishiguro, Kazuo | 2005 | Dystopian fiction |
| Normal People | Rooney, Sally | 2018 | Contemporary fiction |
| Naked Lunch | Burroughs, William S. | 1959 | Experimental fiction |
| Notes from Underground | Dostoevsky, Fyodor | 1864 | Philosophical fiction |
| Norwegian Wood | Murakami, Haruki | 1987 | Literary fiction |
| Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave | Douglass, Frederick | 1845 | Autobiography |
| Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness | Thaler, Richard H.; Sunstein, Cass R. | 2008 | Behavioral economics |
| No Country for Old Men | McCarthy, Cormac | 2005 | Crime thriller |
| Number the Stars | Lowry, Lois | 1989 | Historical fiction |
| Notes of a Native Son | Baldwin, James | 1955 | Essays |
| Ninth House | Bardugo, Leigh | 2019 | Fantasy |
| Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century | Bruder, Jessica | 2017 | Non-fiction |
| Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America | Ehrenreich, Barbara | 2001 | Journalism |
| Nausea | Sartre, Jean-Paul | 1938 | Philosophical fiction |
| Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard | Conrad, Joseph | 1904 | Literary fiction |
| Neverwhere | Gaiman, Neil | 1996 | Urban fantasy |
| Noughts & Crosses | Blackman, Malorie | 2001 | Young adult |
| Nimona | Stevenson, ND | 2015 | Graphic novel |
| Needful Things | King, Stephen | 1991 | Horror |
| Northern Lights | Pullman, Philip | 1995 | Fantasy |
| Northanger Abbey | Austen, Jane | 1817 | Satirical fiction |
| No Logo | Klein, Naomi | 1999 | Non-fiction |
| No Longer at Ease | Achebe, Chinua | 1960 | Literary fiction |
| Nights at the Circus | Carter, Angela | 1984 | Magical realism |
| Night Film | Pessl, Marisha | 2013 | Thriller |
| Never Split the Difference | Voss, Chris; Raz, Tahl | 2016 | Business |
| Nine Perfect Strangers | Moriarty, Liane | 2018 | Contemporary fiction |
| Naked in Death | Robb, J. D. | 1995 | Romantic suspense |
| Night Shift | King, Stephen | 1978 | Horror |
| Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea | Demick, Barbara | 2009 | Journalism |
| N Is for Noose | Grafton, Sue | 1998 | Mystery |
| Nine Princes in Amber | Zelazny, Roger | 1970 | Fantasy |
| No-No Boy | Okada, John | 1957 | Literary fiction |
| North and South | Gaskell, Elizabeth | 1854 | Classic fiction |
| Network Effect | Wells, Martha | 2020 | Science fiction |
| Nature | Emerson, Ralph Waldo | 1836 | Essays |
| Nate the Great | Sharmat, Marjorie Weinman | 1972 | Children’s |
| Nim’s Island | Orr, Wendy | 1999 | Children’s |
| No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II | Goodwin, Doris Kearns | 1994 | History |
| News of the World | Jiles, Paulette | 2016 | Historical fiction |
| Night of the Hunter | Grubb, Davis | 1953 | Thriller |
| Notes on a Scandal | Heller, Zoë | 2003 | Psychological thriller |
| Nutshell | McEwan, Ian | 2016 | Literary fiction |
| New Grub Street | Gissing, George | 1891 | Classic fiction |
| No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference | Thunberg, Greta | 2019 | Non-fiction |
| Never Cry Wolf | Mowat, Farley | 1963 | Memoir |
| Njal’s Saga | Anonymous | c. 1300 | Epic poetry |
| Nightwood | Barnes, Djuna | 1936 | Modernist fiction |
| Next | Crichton, Michael | 2006 | Techno-thriller |
| Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less | Archer, Jeffrey | 1976 | Thriller |
| Next Year in Havana | Cleeton, Chanel | 2018 | Historical fiction |
| Northern Spy | Berry, Flynn | 2021 | Thriller |
| New and Selected Poems, Volume One | Oliver, Mary | 1992 | Poetry |
| Now We Are Six | Milne, A. A. | 1927 | Children’s poetry |
| Nothing But the Truth | Avi | 1991 | Young adult |
| Nobody’s Fool | Russo, Richard | 1993 | Literary fiction |
| No Place to Hide | Greenwald, Glenn | 2014 | Non-fiction |
| Natural History | Pliny the Elder | c. 77 | Reference |
| No Exit | Sartre, Jean-Paul | 1944 | Play |
| Nexus | Naam, Ramez | 2012 | Science fiction |
| Nevernight | Kristoff, Jay | 2016 | Fantasy |
| Nothing to See Here | Wilson, Kevin | 2019 | Contemporary fiction |
| No Time for Goodbye | Barclay, Linwood | 2007 | Thriller |
| Nightfall | Asimov, Isaac; Silverberg, Robert | 1990 | Science fiction |
| Notes on Camp | Sontag, Susan | 1964 | Essays |
| No Is Not Enough: Resisting Trump’s Shock Politics | Klein, Naomi | 2017 | Political science |
Descriptions
Nineteen Eighty-Four
A classic novel depicting a totalitarian future where Big Brother is always watching. It introduced concepts like thoughtcrime and newspeak, remaining profoundly relevant today.
Night
A harrowing and essential memoir of the author’s experiences as a teenager in Nazi concentration camps during the Holocaust. A Nobel Peace Prize-winning work.
Native Son
A landmark novel in African-American literature that tells the story of Bigger Thomas, a young Black man living in poverty in 1930s Chicago.
Neuromancer
The seminal cyberpunk novel that defined the genre. It follows a washed-up computer hacker hired for one last job, exploring a future of AI and virtual reality.
Never Let Me Go
A poignant and haunting story about three friends at a seemingly idyllic English boarding school who discover a devastating secret about their true purpose.
Normal People
An intimate novel following the complex relationship between two Irish teenagers, Marianne and Connell, from their school days to university, exploring class and connection.
Naked Lunch
A controversial and influential Beat Generation novel written in a non-linear, vignette style. It deals with addiction and societal decay in a surreal, satirical way.
Notes from Underground
An early existentialist novel told from the perspective of a bitter, isolated civil servant. It’s a profound exploration of free will, consciousness, and alienation.
Norwegian Wood
A nostalgic coming-of-age story set in 1960s Tokyo, dealing with themes of love, loss, and mental health. It became a phenomenon and sealed Murakami’s international fame.
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave
A powerful and eloquent firsthand account of slavery and the author’s journey to freedom. It is a foundational text of the abolitionist movement in America.
Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness
This influential book explores how “choice architecture” can be used to steer people toward better decisions without restricting freedom, introducing the concept of libertarian paternalism.
No Country for Old Men
A grim and violent neo-western set in 1980s Texas, following a hunter who stumbles upon a drug deal gone wrong and is pursued by a relentless killer.
Number the Stars
A Newbery Medal-winning children’s novel set in 1943 Copenhagen, telling the story of the Danish Resistance’s effort to smuggle Jewish citizens to safety.
Notes of a Native Son
A seminal collection of ten essays by James Baldwin exploring race, identity, and literature in mid-20th century America and Europe with profound insight and clarity.
Ninth House
A dark academia novel set at Yale University, where a freshman with the ability to see ghosts is tasked with monitoring the secret societies’ occult activities.
Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century
An immersive journalistic account of older Americans who travel the country in RVs looking for seasonal work after losing their savings in the Great Recession.
Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America
A landmark work of undercover journalism in which the author attempts to survive on a series of minimum-wage jobs, exposing the struggles of the working poor.
Nausea
A cornerstone of existentialism, this novel is presented as the diary of a historian who becomes convinced that inanimate objects and situations encroach on his ability to define himself.
Nostromo: A Tale of the Seaboard
A complex modernist novel set in a fictional South American republic, exploring the corrupting influence of material interests and the politics of revolution.
Neverwhere
The story of a young London businessman who stops to help a bleeding girl and finds himself pulled into London Below, a magical realm coexisting with the familiar city.
Noughts & Crosses
A powerful dystopian novel set in a society segregated by race, where the black “Crosses” rule over the white “Noughts.”
Nimona
A National Book Award finalist and Eisner winner about a young shapeshifter who teams up with a supervillain, blending fantasy tropes with humor and heartfelt themes.
Needful Things
In the town of Castle Rock, a new shop opens where customers can find whatever they desire—for a price that involves playing “pranks” on their neighbors, leading to chaos.
Northern Lights
The original UK title for *The Golden Compass*. The first book in the His Dark Materials trilogy, it introduces Lyra Belacqua on an epic journey through parallel worlds.
Northanger Abbey
A delightful satire of Gothic novels, following the imaginative Catherine Morland as she navigates high society in Bath and confronts the mysteries of a spooky abbey.
No Logo
An influential book that became a manifesto for the anti-corporate globalization movement, analyzing the power of branding and the negative effects of corporate behavior.
No Longer at Ease
The second novel in Achebe’s “African Trilogy,” following the grandson of the protagonist from *Things Fall Apart* as he struggles with the pressures of post-colonial Nigeria.
Nights at the Circus
A vibrant, postmodern novel about a winged trapeze artist in 1899 and the journalist who sets out to determine if she is a fraud.
Night Film
An inventive multi-media thriller about a journalist investigating the death of a reclusive, cult-horror film director’s daughter, blurring the lines between reality and fiction.
Never Split the Difference
A former FBI hostage negotiator shares practical, field-tested techniques for high-stakes negotiations that can be applied to any situation in life or business.
Nine Perfect Strangers
At a remote health resort, nine stressed city dwellers are on a path to wellness, but the resort’s enigmatic director has unconventional plans for their transformation.
Naked in Death
The first book in the long-running “In Death” series, introducing Lieutenant Eve Dallas in 2058 New York City as she hunts a serial killer with the help of a mysterious billionaire.
Night Shift
Stephen King’s first collection of short stories, featuring classic tales like “Children of the Corn” and “The Boogeyman,” which solidified his reputation as a master of the genre.
Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea
An award-winning work of non-fiction that weaves together the stories of six North Korean defectors to create a powerful portrait of life under a totalitarian regime.
N Is for Noose
The fourteenth book in the popular Kinsey Millhone “Alphabet” series, in which the private investigator looks into the death of a fellow detective’s husband.
Nine Princes in Amber
The first book in The Chronicles of Amber series, where a man with amnesia discovers he is a prince with the ability to travel through parallel worlds.
No-No Boy
A seminal work of Asian American literature about a young man who, after being imprisoned for refusing to fight in World War II, struggles to find his place in post-war Seattle.
North and South
A Victorian social novel that contrasts the traditional, rural South of England with the industrial, modern North through the eyes of its spirited heroine, Margaret Hale.
Network Effect
The first full-length novel in the “Murderbot Diaries” series. The socially awkward, media-loving security robot must protect its humans from a corporate conspiracy. Hugo Award winner.
Nature
A foundational essay of the transcendentalist movement, in which Emerson outlines his philosophy of the mystical unity between humanity, nature, and God.
Nate the Great
The first book in a beloved series about a young, pancake-loving detective who solves neighborhood mysteries with his dog, Sludge. A classic early reader.
Nim’s Island
An adventure story about a resourceful girl named Nim who lives on a remote island and enlists the help of her favorite author when her scientist father goes missing.
No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II
A Pulitzer Prize-winning history that provides an intimate portrait of the Roosevelts and American life on the home front during the tumultuous years of World War II.
News of the World
In 1870 Texas, an elderly news reader agrees to transport a young girl, recently rescued from the Kiowa tribe who raised her, back to her relatives.
Night of the Hunter
A chilling Southern Gothic novel about a murderous preacher who hunts two children for the fortune their executed father hid. The basis for a classic film noir.
Notes on a Scandal
A lonely history teacher becomes obsessed with a new, charismatic art teacher at her school and chronicles her colleague’s scandalous affair with a teenage student.
Nutshell
A clever and darkly comic retelling of Hamlet, narrated by an unborn fetus who overhears his mother and uncle plotting to murder his father.
New Grub Street
A realist novel that provides a bleak and satirical look at the literary world of late-Victorian London, exploring the conflict between art and commerce.
No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference
A collection of speeches from the young climate activist Greta Thunberg, presenting her powerful and urgent call for global action to combat the climate crisis.
Never Cry Wolf
A classic of nature writing in which a biologist is sent to the Canadian Arctic to study wolves, only to find that they are not the vicious killers of legend.
Njal’s Saga
One of the most famous and powerful of the Icelandic Sagas, this epic tale of friendship, prophecy, and bloody revenge spans five decades of Scandinavian history.
Nightwood
A landmark of modernist and lesbian literature, this experimental novel explores the lives of five eccentric and tormented characters in 1920s Paris and Berlin.
Next
A thriller that explores the legal and ethical dilemmas of genetic research, weaving together multiple plotlines involving gene patenting, transgenic animals, and corporate espionage.
Not a Penny More, Not a Penny Less
The debut novel from the bestselling author, in which four men who were conned out of a million dollars by a crooked financier band together to steal it back.
Next Year in Havana
A Cuban-American woman travels to Havana to fulfill her grandmother’s last wish, uncovering family secrets and a passionate love story from the time of the Cuban Revolution.
Northern Spy
A BBC producer in modern-day Belfast is horrified to see her younger sister on the news as a suspected IRA accomplice, forcing her into a world of espionage and danger.
New and Selected Poems, Volume One
A Pulitzer Prize-winning collection from one of America’s most beloved poets, featuring her clear, attentive, and transcendent observations of the natural world.
Now We Are Six
The classic follow-up to *When We Were Very Young*, this collection features charming and timeless poems about childhood, starring Christopher Robin and his friend Winnie-the-Pooh.
Nothing But the Truth
A Newbery Honor-winning novel, told through documents and transcripts, about a ninth-grader whose humming of the national anthem spirals into a national media controversy.
Nobody’s Fool
A funny and compassionate novel about the lives of the residents in a struggling town in upstate New York, centered on the cantankerous but charming Donald “Sully” Sullivan.
No Place to Hide
The inside story of the Edward Snowden surveillance revelations by the journalist who first reported on the classified documents, detailing the risks and global impact.
Natural History
An encyclopedic work from the Roman Empire that aimed to cover all ancient knowledge of the natural world, from astronomy and botany to art and human physiology.
No Exit
An existentialist play in which three deceased souls are locked in a room together for eternity, ultimately concluding that “hell is other people.” Widely read and performed.
Nexus
A near-future techno-thriller about a nano-drug that can link human minds, and the fierce battle between governments, corporations, and activists to control it.
Nevernight
The first book in a grimdark fantasy series about Mia Corvere, who seeks revenge for her family’s destruction by training at a secret academy for assassins.
Nothing to See Here
A quirky and heartwarming novel about a woman hired to care for two children who spontaneously combust when they get agitated, exploring themes of unconventional family and acceptance.
No Time for Goodbye
A woman’s life is turned upside down when, as a teenager, she wakes up to find her entire family has vanished without a trace, a mystery she tries to solve 25 years later.
Nightfall
A novel-length expansion of Isaac Asimov’s acclaimed short story about a planet with perpetual daylight that is bracing for its first taste of darkness in over 2,000 years.
Notes on Camp
A groundbreaking essay that defined a modern sensibility, “Camp,” as a love of the unnatural, of artifice, and of exaggeration. Published in the collection *Against Interpretation*.
No Is Not Enough: Resisting Trump’s Shock Politics
The author of *No Logo* analyzes the political ascent of Donald Trump as a product of branding and “shock politics,” and argues for a progressive alternative.