There’s a reason cities are such fertile terrain for novels: they’re full to the brim with people, in all their variety. Rich, poor, hopeless or spurred by the dream that brought them to the city in the first place, they come from all over the world and speak many languages, many varieties of each of those languages. London epitomizes all of those things, and so here is your list of 100 novels set in London, whether wholly or partly set there — in different parts of the city, in different sort of communities, at different points in history.
This is, of course, not an exhaustive list, and like all non-exhaustive lists the choices made for its content are, to some extent, subjective. But nonetheless, these novels set in London will give you a good feel for the history, culture, and geography of the city.
1. 26a by Diana Evans
2. 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Haff
3. A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers by Xiaolu Guo
4. A Distant Shore by Caryl Phillips
5. A Parcel for Anna Browne by Miranda Dickinson
6. A Week in December by Sebastian Faulks
7. About a Boy by Nick Hornby
8. Absolute Beginners by Colin MacInnes
9. Act Like It by Lucy Parker
10. Adrift in Soho by Colin Wilson
11. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
12. An Equal Music by Vikram Seth
13. Atonement by Ian McEwan
14. Belgravia by Julian Fellowes
15. Brick Lane by Monica Ali
16. Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding
17. Brixton Rock by Alex Wheatle
18. Capital by John Lanchester
19. Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith
20. Chasing Charlie by Linda McLaughlan
21. City of the Mind by Penelope Lively
22. Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella
23. Coram Boy by Jamila Gavin
24. Curtain Call by Anthony Quinn
25. Damage by Josephine Hart
26. Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal
27. Evelina by Frances Burney
28. First Love by Gwendoline Riley
29. Hangover Square by Patrick Hamilton
30. Hearts and Minds by Amanda Craig
31. Her by Harriet Lane
32. Here’s Looking at You by Mhairi McFarlane
33. Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger
34. Honour by Elif Shafak
35. House of Cards by Michael Dobbs
36. How Not To Fall in Love, Actually by Catherine Bennetto
37. I Can’t Think Straight by Shamim Sarif
38. I Heart London by Lindsey Kelk
39. King Solomon’s Carpet by Barbara Vine and Ruth Rendell
40. Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
41. London Belongs to Me by Norman Collins
42. London Belongs to Me by Jacquelyn Middleton
43. London Belongs To Us by Sarra Manning
44. London Does Not Belong to Me by Kok Liang Lee
45. London Fields by Martin Amis
46. London: The Novel by Edward Rutherford
“47. Mother London by Michael Moorcock
48. Mr Loverman by Bernadine Evaristo
49. Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
50. My Best Friend’s Girl by Dorothy Kroomson
51. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
52. Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller
53. Not Working by Lisa Owens
54. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
55. One Day by David Nicholls
56. Ordinary Thunderstorms by William Boyd
57. Paradise City by Elizabeth Day
8. Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman
59. Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch
60. Second Class Citizen by Buchi Emechata
61. Shadow of the Hangman by Edward Marston
62. Small Island by Andrea Levy
63. Single in the City by Michele Gorman
64. Sofia Khan Is Not Obliged by Ayisha Malik
65. Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho
66. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
67. The Ballad of Peckham Rye by Muriel Spark
68. The Book of Lost and Found by Lucy Foley
69. The Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi
70. The Colour of Memory by Geoff Dyer
71. The Crimson Petal and the White by Michael Faber
72. The End of the Affair by Graham Greene
73. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
74. The Hand that First Held Mine by Maggie O’Farrell
75. The Impressionist by Hari Kunzru
76. The Innocents by Francesca Segal
77. The L Shaped Room by Lynne Reid Banks
78. The Lonely Londoners by Sam Selvon
79. The Long Firm by Jake Arnott
80. The Mimic Men by V. S. Naipaul
81. The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson
82. The Napoleon of Notting Hill by G K Chesterton
83. The Night Watch by Sarah Waters
84. The Opposite House by Helen Oyeyemi
85. The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory
86. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
87. The Report by Jessica Francis Kane
88. The Road Home by Rose Tremain
89. The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie
90. The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad
91. The Swimming Pool Library by Alan Hollinghurst
92. The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope
93. Their Finest Hour and a Half by Lissa Evans
94. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John Le Carré
95. Tunnel Vision by Keith Lowe
96. Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackery
97. Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh
98. We Are All Made of Glue by Marina Lewycka
99. White Teeth by Zadie Smith
100. Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel