Thomas Berger Standalone Novels books in order

The complete list of Thomas Berger's standalone novels in order, spanning four decades of satire, genre parody, and literary experimentation.

Reading order

# Title Published Author Buy on Amazon
1 Killing Time 1967 Thomas Berger Buy
2 Regiment of Women 1973 Thomas Berger Buy
3 Sneaky People 1975 Thomas Berger Buy
4 Who is Teddy Villanova? 1977 Thomas Berger Buy
5 Arthur Rex 1978 Thomas Berger Buy
6 Neighbors 1980 Thomas Berger Buy
7 The Feud 1983 Thomas Berger Buy
8 Nowhere 1985 Thomas Berger Buy
9 Being Invisible 1987 Thomas Berger Buy
10 The Houseguest 1988 Thomas Berger Buy
11 Changing the Past 1989 Thomas Berger Buy
12 Orrie’s Story 1990 Thomas Berger Buy
13 Meeting Evil 1992 Thomas Berger Buy
14 Robert Crews 1994 Thomas Berger Buy
15 Suspects 1996 Thomas Berger Buy
16 Best Friends 2003 Thomas Berger Buy
17 Adventures of the Artificial Woman 2004 Thomas Berger Buy

Thomas Berger’s standalone novels cover an unusually broad range of genres and subjects. Killing Time is a crime novel. Regiment of Women is a gender-role satire. Who is Teddy Villanova? is a send-up of hardboiled detective fiction. Arthur Rex retells the King Arthur legends in mock-archaic prose. Being Invisible and Changing the Past play with speculative premises. Berger treated genre conventions as raw material to be shaped by his satirical intelligence.

Several of these books attracted significant attention. Neighbors, a dark comedy about a man terrorized by new arrivals on his street, was adapted into a 1981 film. Meeting Evil, about a homeowner who opens his door to a stranger and ends up on a crime spree, was filmed in 2012. The Feud, set in a small town torn apart by a petty conflict, was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. Across the 17 standalones, Berger maintained a remarkably consistent quality while refusing to repeat himself.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many books are in the Thomas Berger Standalone Novels series?

There are seventeen books in the Thomas Berger Standalone Novels series, published between 1967 and 2004.

What is the first book in the Thomas Berger Standalone Novels series?

The first book in the Thomas Berger Standalone Novels series is Killing Time, published in 1967.

Which Thomas Berger standalone novel should I start with?

Neighbors, published in 1980, is a good entry point. The darkly funny novel about a quiet man whose life is destroyed by his new neighbors was adapted into a 1981 film and shows Berger at his most accessible and most unsettling.

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