The Great Books List is heavily weighted toward the old and the famous. And the list does end in the 1980s. This isn’t because recent novels or works haven’t lived up to their predecessors, it’s just that they have yet to go through the lens of time wherein popular controversies and prejudices fall away and the truly worthy remaining standing.
In response, here is what I think are the top 25 novels of the last 25. Many certainly could appear in the great books list and many probably will if someone puts together a similar list in one hundred year’s time. It is a highly subjective list. But it’s my website and I’ll list if I want to.
There have been some lists published recently that have attempted the same thing. But I have found them to be too heavily weighted toward either British or Northeastern US male writers. Without being politically correct, I hope this list is a little more global.
Some choices might be seem somewhat lightweight, but I think those that fit that criteria capture something about the zeitgeist.

So, here in order of publication, are the Top 25 Novels of the Last 25 Years.

25.The Name of the Rose. Umberto Eco. Italy. (1983)
CallingThe Name of the Rose a murder mystery set in an Italian monastery is like calling Hamlet a play about some Danish bloke.
Eco’s novel set in 1327, is a complex exploration of the medieval church, beliefs in the apocalypse, religious literature, the clash of science and superstition. It’s also as an old fashioned detective thriller in which the Franciscan Friar William of Baskerville and his apprentice Adso employ deductive reason, logic and empirical observation to solve some strange murders and reveal the hidden mysteries locked awa y in the labyrinthine library of the abbey.

24. The Color Purple. Alice Walker. US. (1983)
Walker’s novel explores the struggles of African American women in the United States in the early part of the 20th century. The book is graphic and violent and explains how a black woman is placed at the lowest rung of society because of race and gender.
The epistemological book traces the journey of Celie as she escapes her sexually-abusive father, through an abusive marriage and motherhood and finally into a relationship with another woman that leads her to a form of enlightenment, emancipation and freedom.

23. Money. Martin Amis. UK. (1983)
Perhaps the best novel of the Thatcher era, Money managed to capture the mix of self loathing and rampant capitalism that seemed to pervade early 1980s Britain.
A very dark, but often hilarious comedy, Money follows the downward spiral of film director John Self whose hedonistic downfall in New York is fuelled by booze, drugs, porn and prostitutes. As a metaphor for Reagan and Thatcher era greed it is brilliantly cutting, edgy and satirical. The novel also allowed Martin to step out from under his famous novelist father's shadow and cemented his reputation as a brilliant young writer.

22. The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Milan Kundera. Czechoslovakia. (1984)
Set in Czechoslovakia during and after the Prague Spring uprising of 1968, the novel follows the lives of four characters; intellectuals and artists, who struggle in the aftermath of the Soviet invasion. The novel explores the lightness and heaviness of existence, infidelity, loyalty, national identity and loss.
The novel describes the life of Tomas, a successful surgeon and serial womanizer and his relationship with his wife Tereza and his lover Sabina. After he criticizes the communist authorities one day he is stripped of his position forced to find menial work which sets off a series of events that lead to the discovery of that life is indeed not light.

21. Neuromancer. William Gibson. US/Canada. (1984)
The early 1980s saw the rise of the computer and a resurgence of science fiction. On screen, films like Blade Runner redefined the future while in literature William Gibson’s dystopian novel Neuromancer introduced the world to phrases like cyberspace and cyberpunk and introduced many people to topics such as artificial intelligence, virtual reality, government control of data and genetic engineering - subjects on the cutting edge of science at the time.
The book would also go on to influence a whole genre of literature and film.

Next, 3, 4, 5.