Which 21st-century novel will still be read in 100 years?

John Crace flicks back through his 14 years of Digested Reads and finds the book that is most likely to become a classic – and the one that almost certainly won't

• • John Crace - The Guardian, Monday 7 April 2014 

'The Queen's head has become detached' Hilary Mantel's Bring Up the Bodies. Illustration: Matt Blease. 

Between the start of the 20th century and the beginning of the first world war, L Frank Baum wrote The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Colette wrote Claudine in Paris, Joseph Conrad wrote Heart of Darkness, Baroness Orczy wrote The Scarlet Pimpernel, EM Forster wrote Howards End, Thomas Mann wrote Death in Venice and Marcel Proust wrote Swann's Way: all books that have become classics and are still read today.

The Digested Read column began in early 2000 and has been running continuously in the Guardian ever since. Its premise is quite simple: to take the book that has been receiving the most media attention in any given week and rewrite it in about 700 words, retelling the story in the style of the author. Though with the emphasis on those aspects of the book that the author might have preferred to have gone unnoticed: the clunky plot devices, fairytale psychology, poor dialogue, stylistic tics, unedited longueurs and statements of the obvious.
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