Does twenty-first century fiction offer the reader identifiably new fictional styles, themes, characteristics or tropes? What theoretical ideas best describe the uncertain world we appear now to be living in? What are the most interesting and significant novels of the twenty-first century and what do they tell us about the contemporary times we live in? These are the key questions engaged with in this new critical volume of essays on 21st century fiction. The chapters explore the work of writers as diverse as Salman Rushdie, David Peace, Ali Smith, Margaret Atwood, Iain Banks, China Mǐville, Trezza Azzopardi, John Burnside and Hilary Mantel in depth and at length, developing fresh critical approaches to work that is genuinely of our time. Throughout this unique collection the aim is to identify what is distinctive and innovative about the individual novels and about 21st century fiction in general.