The Greatest Asian Books of All Time

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This list represents a comprehensive and trusted collection of the greatest books. Developed through a specialized algorithm, it brings together 759 'best of' book lists to form a definitive guide to the world's most acclaimed books. For those interested in how these books are chosen, additional details can be found on the rankings page.

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Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
64 Midnight's Children Salman Rushdie 1981 Indian English
130 The Tale of Genji Murasaki Shikibu 1001 Japanese Classical japanese
323 Mahabharata Vyasa -400 Indian Sanskrit
359 The God of Small Things Arundhati Roy 1997 Indian English
367 Journey to the West Wu Cheng'en 1592 Chinese Chinese
422 Ramayana Valmiki -200 Indian Sanskrit
473 The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle Haruki Murakami 1994 Japanese Japanese
484 Dream of the Red Chamber Cao Xueqin 1754 Chinese Chinese
549 A Fine Balance Rohinton Mistry 1995 Indian English
585 Tao Te Ching Lao Tsu -300 Chinese Classical chinese
621 Analects Confucius -479 Chinese Classical chinese
719 Thousand Cranes Yasunari Kawabata 1952 Japanese Japanese
735 A Suitable Boy Vikram Seth 1993 Indian English
740 Silence Shūsaku Endō 1966 Japanese Japanese
787 Quotations from Chairman Mao Mao 1964 Chinese Chinese
802 Romance of the Three Kingdoms Guanzhong Luo 1400 Chinese Chinese
817 Rickshaw Boy Lao She 1936 Chinese Chinese
835 The Art of War Sun Tzu -500 Chinese Classical chinese
840 Confessions of a Mask Yukio Mishima 1949 Japanese Japanese
858 The Woman in the Dunes Kobo Abé 1962 Japanese Japanese
865 The Pillow Book Sei Shōnagon 1002 Japanese Japanese
873 Call to Arms Lu Xun 1922 Chinese Chinese
903 Wild Swans Jung Chang 1991 Chinese English
1024 Some Prefer Nettles Junichiro Tanizaki 1929 Japanese Japanese
1031 The Temple of the Golden Pavilion Yukio Mishima 1956 Japanese Japanese
1069 The True Story Of Ah Q Lu Xun 1922 Chinese Chinese
1083 Upanishads Unknown -799 Indian Sanskrit
1087 Home and the World Rabindranath Tagore 1916 Indian Bengali
1092 Snow Country Yasunari Kawabata 1937 Japanese Japanese
1102 I Ching China -1000 Chinese Chinese
1151 The Water Margin Shi Naian 1370 Chinese Chinese
1160 Norwegian Wood Haruki Murakami 1987 Japanese Japanese
1201 Kafka On The Shore Haruki Murakami 2002 Japanese Japanese
1225 Untouchable Mulk Raj Anand 1935 Indian English
1236 Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories Ryunosuke Akutagawa 1915 Japanese Japanese
1282 The Plum in the Golden Vase Unknown 1610 Chinese Chinese
1300 The Guide R. K. Narayan 1958 Indian English
1349 Gitanjali Rabindranath Tagore 1910 Indian Bengali
1360 The Makioka Sisters Junichiro Tanizaki 1948 Japanese Japanese
1365 Nectar in a Sieve Kamala Markandaya 1954 Indian English
1375 The Sea of Fertility Yukio Mishima 1965 Japanese Japanese
1487 Kokoro Natsume Sōseki 1914 Japanese Japanese
1553 Beauty and Sadness Yasunari Kawabata 1964 Japanese Japanese
1566 Love In A Fallen City Eileen Chang 1943 Chinese Chinese
1573 The Story Of My Experiments With Truth Mahatma Gandhi 1927 Indian Gujarati
1622 Fortress Besieged Qian Zhongshu 1947 Chinese Chinese
1691 Cat Country Lao She 1932 Chinese Chinese
1719 No Longer Human Osamu Dazai 1948 Japanese Japanese
1723 1Q84 Haruki Murakami 2009 Japanese Japanese
1805 A Hero Born Jin Yong 1957 Chinese Chinese
1869 The Recognition of Sakuntala Kālidāsa -400 Indian Sanskrit
1906 Red Sorghum Yan Mo 1986 Chinese Chinese
1913 Mencius Mencius -300 Chinese Classical chinese
1968 Kama Sutra Vātsyāyana -400 Indian Sanskrit
1986 The Sound of the Mountain Yasunari Kawabata 1954 Japanese Japanese
1991 All about H. Hatterr G. V. Desani 1948 Indian English
2006 The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter Unknown 900 Japanese Japanese
2149 The Book of Songs China -600 Chinese Classical chinese
2164 A Personal Matter Kenzaburō Ōe 1964 Japanese Japanese
2208 Waiting Ha Jin 1999 Chinese English
2228 Exit West Mohsin Hamid 2017 Pakistani English
2239 The Twilight Years Sawako Ariyoshi 1972 Japanese Japanese
2249 Forbidden Colors Yukio Mishima 1951 Japanese Japanese
2295 Family Life Akhil Sharma 2014 Indian English
2298 Out Natsuo Kirino 1997 Japanese Japanese
2328 The Three-Body Problem Cixin Liu 2006 Chinese Chinese
2353 The Box Man Kobo Abé 1973 Japanese Japanese
2355 Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress Dai Sijie 2000 Chinese French
2365 The Sorrow Of War Bao Ninh 1990 Vietnamese Vietnamese
2427 Soul Mountain Xingjian Gao 1990 Chinese Chinese
2539 Clear Light of Day Anita Desai 1980 Indian English
2594 Tales Of Hulan River Xiao Hong 1942 Chinese Chinese
2600 Almost Transparent Blue Ryū Murakami 1976 Japanese Japanese
2620 To Live Yu Hua 1993 Chinese Chinese
2623 Border Town Shen Congwen 1934 Chinese Chinese
2654 The Skeleton Amrita Pritam 1950 Indian Punjabi
2714 The Narrow Road to the Deep North Matsuo Bashō 1684 Japanese Japanese
2752 Satyagraha in South Africa Gandhi 1928 Indian Gujarati
2768 The Dancing Girl of Izu and Other Stories Yasunari Kawabata 1926 Japanese Japanese
2786 The Collected Songs of Cold Mountain Han Shan 600 Chinese Classical chinese
2856 Swami and Friends R. K. Narayan 1935 Indian English
2877 River of Fire Qurratulain Hyder 1959 Indian Urdu
2896 Teahouse Lao She 1957 Chinese Chinese
2930 The Waiting Years Fumiko Enchi 1957 Japanese Japanese
2958 The Inheritance of Loss Kiran Desai 2006 Indian English
2973 The White Tiger Aravind Adiga 2008 Indian English
3079 Paradise of the Blind Dương Thu Hương 1988 Vietnamese Vietnamese
3101 Diary Of A Mad Old Man Junichiro Tanizaki 1961 Japanese Japanese
3122 Kitchen Banana Yoshimoto 1988 Japanese Japanese
3198 The Autobiography Of A Yogi Paramahansa Yogananda 1946 Indian English
3214 Snow Flower and the Secret Fan Lisa See 2005 Chinese English
3228 Ghachar Ghochar Vivek Shanbhag 2015 Indian Kannada
3317 The Kiss Quotient Helen Hoang 2018 Vietnamese English
3324 Retreat Without Song Shahan Shahnur 1929 Armenian Armenian
3324 The Sound of Waves Yukio Mishima 1954 Japanese Japanese
3385 Wandering On The Way Zhuangzi, Victor H. Mair -369 Chinese Classical chinese
3386 The Shadow Lines Amitav Ghosh 1988 Indian English
3389 Death Of A Red Heroine Qiu Xiaolong 2000 Chinese English
3401 Brothers Yu Hua 2005 Chinese Chinese
3406 The Great Indian Novel Shashi Tharoor 1989 Indian English
3417 The Housekeeper And The Professor Yōko Ogawa 2003 Japanese Japanese
3419 Taipei People Pai Hsien-yung 1971 Chinese Chinese
3445 Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids Kenzaburō Ōe 1958 Japanese Japanese
3505 Heavy Wings Jie Zhang 1981 Chinese Chinese
3544 The Good Women Of China Xinran 2002 Chinese Chinese
3565 The Eighth Life Nino Haratishvili 2014 Georgian German
3566 Sultana's Dream Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain 1905 Bangladeshi Bengali
3570 My City Xi Xi 1975 Chinese Chinese
3628 Convenience Store Woman Sayaka Murata 2016 Japanese Japanese
3638 The Tootinameh; Or, Tales of a Parrot India, Iran 1300 Indian Persian
3638 The Life Divine Sri Aurobindo 1942 Indian English
3925 Half of Man is Woman Zhang Xianliang 1985 Chinese Chinese
3927 The Poppy War R. F. Kuang 2018 Chinese English
3933 Tales from the Kathasaritsagara Somadeva 1070 Indian Sanskrit
4062 The Ice Wall Yasushi Inoue 1959 Japanese Japanese
4074 The Song Of Everlasting Sorrow Wang Anyi 1995 Chinese Chinese
4102 Life And Death In Shanghai Nien Cheng 1986 Chinese English
4119 The Honjin Murders Seishi Yokomizo 1946 Japanese Japanese
4151 The Devotion Of Suspect X Keigo Higashino 2005 Japanese Japanese
4197 The Master Of Go Yasunari Kawabata 1951 Japanese Japanese