B writes on the humanities.lit.authors.shakespeare list: The
Nobel Prize for Literature Committee is the only world-recognized
authority covering all languages annually, so logically the
best work of fiction should be a work by one of the following
named NPL winners, unless you decide they didn't write fiction
or wrote the work earlier. (Anyone who can name a published
work by 5 of the 25 should get an invitation to play on Jeopardy.
Anyone who can name more than 8 works, and has actually read
them, should get a seat on the NPL Committee, Swedish or not.)
Surely you exaggerate? Or do you only count a fiction as
"read" if it is read in the original language? Because I have
read 26 works by the listed authors, and I am not a particulary
avid reader of contemporary fiction and poetry. More relevantly,
I have seen the plays of the 3 playwrights on the list: 7
productions of Fo, 6 of Walcott (only because he teaches in
Boston and is produced here) and one of Soyinka.
I can't nominate a single "best" work. My personal favorite
body of novels is Iris Murdoch's, particularly "The Sea, the
Sea", "The Black Prince" "the Book and the Brotherhood" and
"The Good Apprentice", but "Best"? I can't even name a Best
Shakespeare Play. My favorites change as my life changes:
what work could be equally relevant to all the people all
the time?
by 
