The Greatest Books of All Time
How is this list generated?
This list is generated from 130 "best of" book lists from a variety of great sources. An algorithm is used to create a master list based on how many lists a particular book appears on. Some lists count more than others. I generally trust "best of all time" lists voted by authors and experts over user-generated lists. On the lists that are actually ranked, the book that is 1st counts a lot more than the book that's 100th. If you're interested in the details about how the rankings are generated and which lists are the most important(in my eyes) please check out the list details page.
If you have any comments, suggestions, or corrections please feel free to e-mail me.
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751
. Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
What if you could live again and again, until you got it right? On a cold and snowy night in 1910, Ursula Todd is born to an English banker and his wife. She dies before she can draw her first brea...
- Google
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752
. Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. is a 1970 book by Judy Blume, typically categorized as a young adult novel, about a preteen girl in sixth grade who grew up with no religion. Margaret's mother...
-
-
-
753
. The Thinking Reed by Rebecca West
West’s thoughtful romantic novel—now available as an ebook A tale of love found, lost, rekindled, and redefined Isabelle, a wealthy American widow, arrives in France to restart her life and discove...
- Google
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-
-
754
. A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James
A Brief History of Seven Killings is the third novel by Jamaican author Marlon James. It was published by Riverhead Books. The novel spans several decades and explores the attempted assassination ...
-
-
-
755
. The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
In a classic work of alternate history, the United States is divided up and ruled by the Axis powers after the defeat of the Allies during World War II. Reissue. Winner of the Hugo Award for Best N...
- Google
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-
-
756
. The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington
The novel and trilogy traces the growth of the United States through the declining fortunes of three generations of the aristocratic Amberson family in a fictional Midwestern town, between the end ...
-
-
-
757
. The Famished Road by Ben Okri
The Famished Road is the Booker Prize-winning novel written by Nigerian author Ben Okri. The novel, published in 1991, follows Azaro, an abiku or spirit child, living in an unnamed most likely Nige...
-
-
-
758
. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K Rowling
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is the fourth instalment in the Harry Potter series written by J. K. Rowling, published on July 8, 2000. The book attracted additional attention because of a pre...
-
-
-
759
. Dog Soldiers by Robert Stone
Dog Soldiers' is a 1974 novel by American novelist Robert Stone. The story revolves around journalist John Converse, Merchant Marine sailor Ray Hicks, Converse's wife Marge, and their involvement i...
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-
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760
. Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
A little bunny bids goodnight to all the objects in his room before falling asleep.
- Google
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761
. Selected Stories of Lu Hsun by Xun Lu
"Some of these stories, I am sure, will be read as long as the Chinese language exists."—Ha Jin
- Google
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-
762
. The Maias: Episodes from Romantic Life by Eça de Queirós
Carlos, heir to a great fortune, becomes a doctor and drifts along spending time at the theater, reading, and having affairs, until he falls deeply in love but has to hide a terrible secret.
- Google
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-
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763
. Krapp's Last Tape by Samuel Beckett
Krapp's Last Tape was first performed by Patrick Magee at the Royal Court Theatre in October 1958, and has since been played by a host of distinguished actors including Albert Finney and Max Wall. ...
- Google
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764
. The Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard
The Transit of Venus tells the story of two orphan sisters, Caroline and Grace Bell, as they leave Australia to start a new life in post-war England. What happens to these young women — seduction a...
-
-
-
765
. The Golden Ass (Metamorphoses): Or Metamorphoses by Apuleius
Apuleius (c. 125-c. 180) was a student of Platonist philosophy and Latin prose writer who produced the novel "Metamorphoses", more popularly known as "The Golden Ass". This work is the only Latin n...
- Google
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766
. Written on the Body by Jeanette Winterson
A combined love story and philosophical meditation on the body as a physical phenomenon thrusts the reader into the life of a married woman and her erotic relationship with an unidentified lover wh...
- Google
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-
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767
. Studs Lonigan by James T. Farrell
'Studs Lonigan, ' the story of an Irish-American youth growing to adulthood in Chicago, is considered by many to be one of the finest American novels from the first half of the twentieth century, a...
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-
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768
. July's People by Nadine Gordimer
For years, it has been what is called a ‘deteriorating situation'. Now all over South Africa the cities are battlegrounds. The members of the Smales family - liberal whites - are rescued from the t...
- Google
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-
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769
. Bérénice by Jean Racine
Bérénice is a five-act tragedy by the French 17th-century playwright Jean Racine. Bérénice was not played often between the 17th and the 20th centuries. Today it is one of Racine's more popular pla...
-
-
-
770
. Flaubert's Parrot by Julian Barnes
A kind of detective story, relating a cranky amateur scholar's search for the truth about Gustave Flaubert, and the obsession of this detective whose life seems to oddly mirror those of Flaubert's ...
- Google
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-
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771
. My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
A modern masterpiece from one of Italy’s most acclaimed authors, My Brilliant Friend is a rich, intense, and generous-hearted story about two friends, Elena and Lila. Ferrante’s inimitable style le...
- Google
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773
. The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman
His Dark Materials is a trilogy of fantasy novels by Philip Pullman comprising Northern Lights (1995, published as The Golden Compass in North America), The Subtle Knife (1997) and The Amber Spygla...
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774
. Lost Horizon by James Hilton
Hilton’s bestselling classic about a man who stumbles on the world’s last great hope for peace: Shangri-La Hugh Conway saw humanity at its worst while fighting in the trenches of the First World Wa...
- Google
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775
. The Short Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald by F. Scott Fitzgerald
F. Scott Fitzgerald is best known for his novels such as THE GREAT GATSBY, but during his all-too-brief literary life, he sold some 160 short stories to popular magazines. Here, noted scholar and b...
- Google
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776
. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
Oryx and Crake is a 2003 novel by Canadian author Margaret Atwood. She has described the novel as speculative fiction and adventure romance, rather than pure science fiction, because it does not de...
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777
. The Collected Stories of Isaac Babel by Isaac Babel
Babel was best known for his mastery of the short story form-in which he ranks alongside Kafka and Hemingway-but his career was tragically cut short when he was murdered by Stalin's secret police. ...
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778
. Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
Fingersmith is a 2002 Victorian-inspired crime fiction novel by Sarah Waters.
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779
. Sophie's World: A Novel About the History of Philosophy by Jostein Gaarder
One day Sophie comes home from school to find two questions in her mail: "Who are you?" and "Where does the world come from?" Before she knows it she is enrolled in a correspondence course with a m...
- Google
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780
. The Marriage Of Cadmus And Harmony by Roberto Calasso
THE MARRIAGE OF CADMUS AND HARMONY is a book without any modern parallel. Forming an active link in a chain that reaches back through Ovid's METAMORPHOSES directly to Homer, Roberto Calasso's re-ex...
- Google
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781
. Billy Budd by Herman Melville
Billy Budd, Sailor is a novella by American writer Herman Melville, first published posthumously in London in 1924. Melville began writing the work in November 1888, but left it unfinished at his d...
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782
. Omeros by Derek Walcott
A poem in five books, of circular narrative design, titled with the Greek name for Homer, which simultaneously charts two currents of history: the visible history charted in events -- the tribal lo...
- Google
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-
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783
. A Lost Lady by Willa Cather
Willa Cather's A Lost Lady was first published in 1923. It tells the story of Marian Forrester and her husband, Captain Daniel Forrester who live in the Western town of Sweet Water, along the Trans...
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784
. Nectar in a Sieve by Kamala Markandaya
Set in a village in southern India shortly after India gained Independence, Nectar in a Sieve portrays, through the lives of its characters ̶̶ Rukmani, Nathan and their children ̶̶ the hopes and as...
- Google
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-
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785
. Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine
A provocative meditation on race, Claudia Rankine's long-awaited follow up to her groundbreaking book Don't Let Me Be Lonely: An American Lyric. Claudia Rankine's bold new book recounts mounting ra...
- Google
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786
. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K Rowling
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is the seventh and final of the Harry Potter novels written by British author J. K. Rowling.
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787
. Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell
Cranford is one of the better-known novels of the 19th-century English writer Elizabeth Gaskell. It was first published in 1851 as a serial in the magazine Household Words, which was edited by Char...
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788
. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time is a 2003 novel by British writer Mark Haddon. It won the 2003 Whitbread Book of the Year and the 2004 Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First B...
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789
. The Lady with the Dog by Anton Chekhov
"The Lady with the Dog" (Russian: Дама с собачкой, Dama s sobachkoy)[1] is a short story by Anton Chekhov first published in 1899. It tells the story of an adulterous affair between a Russian banke...
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790
. Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre
Vernon God Little is the Booker Prize winning debut novel of Australian-born author DBC Pierre, the pseudonym used by Peter Warren Finlay.
The title character is a fifteen-year-old boy who lives...
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791
. The Gathering by Anne Enright
The Gathering is the fourth novel by Irish author Anne Enright. It won the 2007 Man Booker Prize.
The novel traces the narrator's inner journey, setting out to derive meaning from past and prese...
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792
. G. by John Berger
G. is a 1972 novel by John Berger. The novel's setting is pre-First World War Europe, and its protagonist, named "G.", is a Don Juan or Casanova-like lover of women who gradually comes to political...
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-
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793
. How Late It Was, How Late by James Kelman
How late it was, how late is a 1994 stream of consciousness novel written by Scottish writer James Kelman. The Glasgow-centred work is written in a working class Scottish dialect, and follows Sammy...
-
-
-
794
. The Old Devils by Kingsley Amis
The Old Devils is a novel by Kingsley Amis, first published in 1986. The novel won the Booker Prize.
Alun Weaver, a notable but obnoxious author, returns to his native Wales with his wife Rhianno...
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795
. Mao II by Don DeLillo
A reclusive novelist named Bill Gray toils endlessly on a novel he can't finish. After publishing two celebrated novels he is stuck perpetually editing and rewriting his much anticipated new work, ...
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796
. In a Free State by V. S. Naipaul
In a Free State is a short story by V. S. Naipaul. It was published in 1971 as one of three short stories within a book of the same name, but is by far the longest. Surrounding them is the narrator...
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797
. The Sea by John Banville
The Sea (2005) is the eighteenth novel by Irish author John Banville.
The story is told by Max Morden, a self-aware, retired art historian attempting to reconcile himself to the deaths of those ...
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798
. The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem
The Fortress of Solitude is a 2003 semi-autobiographical novel by Jonathan Lethem set in Brooklyn and spanning the 1970s, '80s, and '90s. It follows two teenage friends, Dylan Ebdus and Mingus Rude...
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799
. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
After 103 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and with four million copies of The Kite Runner shipped, Khaled Hosseini returns with a beautiful, riveting, and haunting novel that confirms h...
- Google
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-
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800
. Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie
During the Chinese Cultural Revolution, two boys are sent to the country for reeducation, where their lives take an unexpected turn when they meet the beautiful daughter of a local tailor and stumb...
- Google
-
-
This list is generated from 130 "best of" book lists from a variety of great sources. An algorithm is used to create a master list based on how many lists a particular book appears on. Some lists count more than others. I generally trust "best of all time" lists voted by authors and experts over user-generated lists. On the lists that are actually ranked, the book that is 1st counts a lot more than the book that's 100th. If you're interested in the details about how the rankings are generated and which lists are the most important(in my eyes) please check out the list details page.
If you have any comments, suggestions, or corrections please feel free to e-mail me.
-
751 . Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
What if you could live again and again, until you got it right? On a cold and snowy night in 1910, Ursula Todd is born to an English banker and his wife. She dies before she can draw her first brea...
- Google -
752 . Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. is a 1970 book by Judy Blume, typically categorized as a young adult novel, about a preteen girl in sixth grade who grew up with no religion. Margaret's mother...
-
753 . The Thinking Reed by Rebecca West
West’s thoughtful romantic novel—now available as an ebook A tale of love found, lost, rekindled, and redefined Isabelle, a wealthy American widow, arrives in France to restart her life and discove...
- Google -
754 . A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James
A Brief History of Seven Killings is the third novel by Jamaican author Marlon James. It was published by Riverhead Books. The novel spans several decades and explores the attempted assassination ...
-
755 . The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick
In a classic work of alternate history, the United States is divided up and ruled by the Axis powers after the defeat of the Allies during World War II. Reissue. Winner of the Hugo Award for Best N...
- Google -
756 . The Magnificent Ambersons by Booth Tarkington
The novel and trilogy traces the growth of the United States through the declining fortunes of three generations of the aristocratic Amberson family in a fictional Midwestern town, between the end ...
-
757 . The Famished Road by Ben Okri
The Famished Road is the Booker Prize-winning novel written by Nigerian author Ben Okri. The novel, published in 1991, follows Azaro, an abiku or spirit child, living in an unnamed most likely Nige...
-
758 . Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J. K Rowling
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is the fourth instalment in the Harry Potter series written by J. K. Rowling, published on July 8, 2000. The book attracted additional attention because of a pre...
-
759 . Dog Soldiers by Robert Stone
Dog Soldiers' is a 1974 novel by American novelist Robert Stone. The story revolves around journalist John Converse, Merchant Marine sailor Ray Hicks, Converse's wife Marge, and their involvement i...
-
760 . Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
A little bunny bids goodnight to all the objects in his room before falling asleep.
- Google -
761 . Selected Stories of Lu Hsun by Xun Lu
"Some of these stories, I am sure, will be read as long as the Chinese language exists."—Ha Jin
- Google -
762 . The Maias: Episodes from Romantic Life by Eça de Queirós
Carlos, heir to a great fortune, becomes a doctor and drifts along spending time at the theater, reading, and having affairs, until he falls deeply in love but has to hide a terrible secret.
- Google -
763 . Krapp's Last Tape by Samuel Beckett
Krapp's Last Tape was first performed by Patrick Magee at the Royal Court Theatre in October 1958, and has since been played by a host of distinguished actors including Albert Finney and Max Wall. ...
- Google -
764 . The Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard
The Transit of Venus tells the story of two orphan sisters, Caroline and Grace Bell, as they leave Australia to start a new life in post-war England. What happens to these young women — seduction a...
-
765 . The Golden Ass (Metamorphoses): Or Metamorphoses by Apuleius
Apuleius (c. 125-c. 180) was a student of Platonist philosophy and Latin prose writer who produced the novel "Metamorphoses", more popularly known as "The Golden Ass". This work is the only Latin n...
- Google -
766 . Written on the Body by Jeanette Winterson
A combined love story and philosophical meditation on the body as a physical phenomenon thrusts the reader into the life of a married woman and her erotic relationship with an unidentified lover wh...
- Google -
767 . Studs Lonigan by James T. Farrell
'Studs Lonigan, ' the story of an Irish-American youth growing to adulthood in Chicago, is considered by many to be one of the finest American novels from the first half of the twentieth century, a...
-
768 . July's People by Nadine Gordimer
For years, it has been what is called a ‘deteriorating situation'. Now all over South Africa the cities are battlegrounds. The members of the Smales family - liberal whites - are rescued from the t...
- Google -
769 . Bérénice by Jean Racine
Bérénice is a five-act tragedy by the French 17th-century playwright Jean Racine. Bérénice was not played often between the 17th and the 20th centuries. Today it is one of Racine's more popular pla...
-
770 . Flaubert's Parrot by Julian Barnes
A kind of detective story, relating a cranky amateur scholar's search for the truth about Gustave Flaubert, and the obsession of this detective whose life seems to oddly mirror those of Flaubert's ...
- Google -
771 . My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
A modern masterpiece from one of Italy’s most acclaimed authors, My Brilliant Friend is a rich, intense, and generous-hearted story about two friends, Elena and Lila. Ferrante’s inimitable style le...
- Google -
-
773 . The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman
His Dark Materials is a trilogy of fantasy novels by Philip Pullman comprising Northern Lights (1995, published as The Golden Compass in North America), The Subtle Knife (1997) and The Amber Spygla...
-
774 . Lost Horizon by James Hilton
Hilton’s bestselling classic about a man who stumbles on the world’s last great hope for peace: Shangri-La Hugh Conway saw humanity at its worst while fighting in the trenches of the First World Wa...
- Google -
775 . The Short Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald by F. Scott Fitzgerald
F. Scott Fitzgerald is best known for his novels such as THE GREAT GATSBY, but during his all-too-brief literary life, he sold some 160 short stories to popular magazines. Here, noted scholar and b...
- Google -
776 . Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
Oryx and Crake is a 2003 novel by Canadian author Margaret Atwood. She has described the novel as speculative fiction and adventure romance, rather than pure science fiction, because it does not de...
-
777 . The Collected Stories of Isaac Babel by Isaac Babel
Babel was best known for his mastery of the short story form-in which he ranks alongside Kafka and Hemingway-but his career was tragically cut short when he was murdered by Stalin's secret police. ...
-
778 . Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
Fingersmith is a 2002 Victorian-inspired crime fiction novel by Sarah Waters.
-
779 . Sophie's World: A Novel About the History of Philosophy by Jostein Gaarder
One day Sophie comes home from school to find two questions in her mail: "Who are you?" and "Where does the world come from?" Before she knows it she is enrolled in a correspondence course with a m...
- Google -
780 . The Marriage Of Cadmus And Harmony by Roberto Calasso
THE MARRIAGE OF CADMUS AND HARMONY is a book without any modern parallel. Forming an active link in a chain that reaches back through Ovid's METAMORPHOSES directly to Homer, Roberto Calasso's re-ex...
- Google -
781 . Billy Budd by Herman Melville
Billy Budd, Sailor is a novella by American writer Herman Melville, first published posthumously in London in 1924. Melville began writing the work in November 1888, but left it unfinished at his d...
-
782 . Omeros by Derek Walcott
A poem in five books, of circular narrative design, titled with the Greek name for Homer, which simultaneously charts two currents of history: the visible history charted in events -- the tribal lo...
- Google -
783 . A Lost Lady by Willa Cather
Willa Cather's A Lost Lady was first published in 1923. It tells the story of Marian Forrester and her husband, Captain Daniel Forrester who live in the Western town of Sweet Water, along the Trans...
-
784 . Nectar in a Sieve by Kamala Markandaya
Set in a village in southern India shortly after India gained Independence, Nectar in a Sieve portrays, through the lives of its characters ̶̶ Rukmani, Nathan and their children ̶̶ the hopes and as...
- Google -
785 . Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine
A provocative meditation on race, Claudia Rankine's long-awaited follow up to her groundbreaking book Don't Let Me Be Lonely: An American Lyric. Claudia Rankine's bold new book recounts mounting ra...
- Google -
786 . Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K Rowling
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is the seventh and final of the Harry Potter novels written by British author J. K. Rowling.
-
787 . Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell
Cranford is one of the better-known novels of the 19th-century English writer Elizabeth Gaskell. It was first published in 1851 as a serial in the magazine Household Words, which was edited by Char...
-
788 . The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time is a 2003 novel by British writer Mark Haddon. It won the 2003 Whitbread Book of the Year and the 2004 Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First B...
-
789 . The Lady with the Dog by Anton Chekhov
"The Lady with the Dog" (Russian: Дама с собачкой, Dama s sobachkoy)[1] is a short story by Anton Chekhov first published in 1899. It tells the story of an adulterous affair between a Russian banke...
-
790 . Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre
Vernon God Little is the Booker Prize winning debut novel of Australian-born author DBC Pierre, the pseudonym used by Peter Warren Finlay. The title character is a fifteen-year-old boy who lives...
-
791 . The Gathering by Anne Enright
The Gathering is the fourth novel by Irish author Anne Enright. It won the 2007 Man Booker Prize. The novel traces the narrator's inner journey, setting out to derive meaning from past and prese...
-
792 . G. by John Berger
G. is a 1972 novel by John Berger. The novel's setting is pre-First World War Europe, and its protagonist, named "G.", is a Don Juan or Casanova-like lover of women who gradually comes to political...
-
793 . How Late It Was, How Late by James Kelman
How late it was, how late is a 1994 stream of consciousness novel written by Scottish writer James Kelman. The Glasgow-centred work is written in a working class Scottish dialect, and follows Sammy...
-
794 . The Old Devils by Kingsley Amis
The Old Devils is a novel by Kingsley Amis, first published in 1986. The novel won the Booker Prize. Alun Weaver, a notable but obnoxious author, returns to his native Wales with his wife Rhianno...
-
795 . Mao II by Don DeLillo
A reclusive novelist named Bill Gray toils endlessly on a novel he can't finish. After publishing two celebrated novels he is stuck perpetually editing and rewriting his much anticipated new work, ...
-
796 . In a Free State by V. S. Naipaul
In a Free State is a short story by V. S. Naipaul. It was published in 1971 as one of three short stories within a book of the same name, but is by far the longest. Surrounding them is the narrator...
-
797 . The Sea by John Banville
The Sea (2005) is the eighteenth novel by Irish author John Banville. The story is told by Max Morden, a self-aware, retired art historian attempting to reconcile himself to the deaths of those ...
-
798 . The Fortress of Solitude by Jonathan Lethem
The Fortress of Solitude is a 2003 semi-autobiographical novel by Jonathan Lethem set in Brooklyn and spanning the 1970s, '80s, and '90s. It follows two teenage friends, Dylan Ebdus and Mingus Rude...
-
799 . A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
After 103 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and with four million copies of The Kite Runner shipped, Khaled Hosseini returns with a beautiful, riveting, and haunting novel that confirms h...
- Google -
800 . Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie
During the Chinese Cultural Revolution, two boys are sent to the country for reeducation, where their lives take an unexpected turn when they meet the beautiful daughter of a local tailor and stumb...
- Google