EL James v Margaret Atwood? The search for America's best-loved novel is on

Broadcaster PBS has launched the Great American Read, setting the nation a summer reading challenge

EL James and Dan Brown have been pitted against some of the greatest names in literature, including Joseph Conrad and Fyodor Dostoevsky, in a search to find America’s most loved novel. The two are among those vying for attention on a list arrived at after a public vote by US public service broadcaster PBS.

Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell’s vision of totalitarianism, is pitched alongside Brown’s less taxing conspiracy bestseller The Da Vinci Code, in a list of 100 novels to feature in The Great American Read, an eight-part TV series that will conclude in the autumn with a second poll to find the nation’s favourite book.

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