* _Einstein's Dreams_ (1993)
* _Good Benito_ (1994)
* _The Diagnosis_ (1996)
* _Reunion_ (1999)
* _Galileo: A Play in Three Acts_ (2011)
* _Ghost: A Love Story_ (2016)
Nonfiction
* _Time for the Stars: A Short History of Cosmology_ (1990)
* _Ancient Light: Our Changing View of the Universe_ (1991)
* _Great Ideas in Physics_ (1992)
* _Origins: The Lives and Worlds of Modern Cosmologists_ (1997)
* _The Discoveries: Great Breakthroughs in Twentieth-Century Science_ (2005)
* _Searching for Stars on an Island in Maine_ (2009)
* _Mr g: A Novel About the Invention and Discovery of Gravity_ (2014)
* _The Accidental Universe_ (2020)
* _The Order of Time_ (2022)
Essays and articles
Lightman has written extensively for both popular and scientific publications, including _The New York Times_, _The Atlantic Monthly_, _Harper's Magazine_, and _The Sciences_. His work has been translated into more than 30 languages.