Our list, while not exhaustive, encompasses some of the many fictional (and a few nonfictional) works set in Chicago, from depictions of the absurdities and enchantments of living between the grid of city streets, to intimate chronicles of life on Chicago's South Side, to historical perspectives on the city. Nelson Algren's tender, tough prose poem is a good place to begin.

• Nelson Algren, Chicago: City on the Make (1951)
• Aleksandar Hemon, Question of Bruno (2000)
• Achy Obejas, Memory Mamba (1996)
• Stuart Dybek, I Sailed with Magellan (2004)
• Sara Paretsky, V. I. Warshawski detective novels (1982-present)
• Bayo Ojikutu, 47th Street Black (2003)
• Gwendolyn Brooks, A Street in Bronzeville (1945) and Annie Allen (1949)
• Richard Wright, Native Son (1940)
• James T. Farrell, Studs Lonigan trilogy (1932-5)
• Theodore Dreiser, Sister Carrie (1900)
• Erik Larson, Devil in the White City (2004)
• Saul Bellow, Humboldt's Gift (1975) and The Dean's December (1982)