1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die

This is one of the 759 lists we use to generate our main The Greatest Books list.

About this list

The Book, 1001 Books

A book edited by Peter Boxall, and written by over 100 hundred international critics.

This list was originally published in 2006 and was added to this site about 7 years ago.

View: List Grid Table
Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
493 Auto Da Fé Elias Canetti 1935 Bulgarian German
1954 They Shoot Horses, Don't They? Horace McCoy 1935 American English
1183 Mr Norris Changes Trains Christopher Isherwood 1935 British English
1225 Untouchable Mulk Raj Anand 1935 Indian English
288 Independent People Halldor Laxness 1934 Icelandic Icelandic
269 Nightwood Djuna Barnes 1936 American English
710 At the Mountains of Madness H. P. Lovecraft 1936 American English
43 Absalom, Absalom! William Faulkner 1936 American English
776 War with the Newts Karel Čapek 1936 Czech Czech
2557 Keep the Aspidistra Flying George Orwell 1936 British English
58 Gone With the Wind Margaret Mitchell 1936 American English
2546 The Thinking Reed Rebecca West 1936 British English
3324 Eyeless in Gaza Aldous Huxley 1936 British English
3324 Summer Will Show Sylvia Townsend Warner 1936 British English
817 Rickshaw Boy Lao She 1936 Chinese Chinese
416 Out of Africa Isak Dinesen 1937 Danish Danish
2031 In Parenthesis David Jones 1937 British English
384 Ferdydurke Witold Gombrowicz 1937 Polish Polish
604 The Blind Owl Ṣādiq Hidāyat 1937 Iranian Persian
146 The Hobbit J. R. R. Tolkien 1937 British English
68 Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neale Hurston 1937 American English
170 Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck 1937 American English
1026 Murphy Samuel Beckett 1938 Irish English
185 U.S.A. Trilogy John Dos Passos 1930 American English
219 Brighton Rock Graham Greene 1938 British English
3324 Cause for Alarm Eric Ambler 1938 British English
2556 Alamut Vladimir Bartol 1938 Slovenian Slovene
59 Rebecca Daphne du Maurier 1938 British English
245 Nausea Jean Paul Sartre 1938 French French
2543 Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day Winifred Watson 1938 British English
1603 On the Edge of Reason Miroslav Krleža 1938 Croatian Croatian
120 The Big Sleep Raymond Chandler 1939 American English
761 Goodbye to Berlin Christopher Isherwood 1939 British English
26 The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck 1939 American English
107 Native Son Richard Wright 1940 American English
263 The Tartar Steppe Dino Buzzati 1940 Italian Italian
187 The Power and the Glory Graham Greene 1940 British English
97 For Whom the Bell Tolls Ernest Hemingway 1940 American English
472 The Man Who Loved Children Christina Stead 1940 Australian English
3324 Broad and Alien is the World Ciro Alegría 1941 Peruvian Spanish
3324 The Living and the Dead Patrick White 1941 Australian English
3324 The Harvesters Cesare Pavese 1941 Italian Unknown
3324 Conversations in Sicily Elio Vittorini 1941 Italian Italian
23 The Stranger Albert Camus 1942 French French
474 Embers Sandor Marai 1942 Hungarian Hungarian
794 The Royal Game Stefan Zweig 1941 Austrian German
348 The Glass Bead Game Hermann Hesse 1943 German German
446 Joseph and His Brothers Thomas Mann 1933 German German
44 The Little Prince Antoine de Saint-Exupéry 1943 French French
2554 Dangling Man Saul Bellow 1944 American English
410 The Razor's Edge W. Somerset Maugham 1944 British English
1023 Transit Anna Seghers 1944 German German
267 Pippi Longstocking Astrid Lindgren 1945 Swedish Swedish
734 Loving Henry Green 1945 British English
55 Animal Farm George Orwell 1945 British English
430 The Bridge on the Drina Ivo Andrić 1945 Bosnian Serbo-croatian
559 Christ Stopped at Eboli Carlo Levi 1945 Italian Italian
3324 Arcanum 17 André Breton 1944 French French
141 Brideshead Revisited Evelyn Waugh 1945 British English
2547 Bosnian Chronicle Ivo Andrić 1945 Bosnian Serbo-croatian
3324 The Tin Flute Gabrielle Roy 1945 Canadian French
949 Nada Carmen Laforet 1944 Spanish Spanish
231 Death of Virgil Hermann Broch 1945 Austrian German
629 Titus Groan Mervyn Peake 1946 British English
207 Zorba the Greek Nikos Kazantzakis 1946 Greek Greek
3324 Back Henry Green 1946 British English
3324 House in the Uplands Erskine Caldwell 1946 American English
1418 The Path to the Nest of Spiders Italo Calvino 1947 Italian Italian
63 Under the Volcano Malcolm Lowry 1947 British English
126 If This Is a Man Primo Levi 1947 Italian Italian
1737 Exercises in Style Raymond Queneau 1947 French French
76 The Plague Albert Camus 1947 French French
135 Doctor Faustus Thomas Mann 1947 German German
857 Midaq Alley Naguib Mahfouz 1947 Egyptian Arabic
496 Froth on the daydream Boris Vian 1947 French French
3324 Journey to the Alcarria Camilo José Cela 1948 Spanish Spanish
1131 Ashes and Diamonds Jerzy Andrzejewski 1948 Polish Polish
2553 Disobedience Alberto Moravia 1948 Italian Italian
1991 All about H. Hatterr G. V. Desani 1948 Indian English
265 Cry, the Beloved Country Alan Paton 1948 South African English
1199 This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen Tadeusz Borowski 1947 Polish Polish
2559 Death Sentence Maurice Blanchot 1948 French French
6 Nineteen Eighty Four George Orwell 1949 British English
587 The Man with the Golden Arm Nelson Algren 1949 American English
725 The Kingdom of This World Alejo Carpentier 1949 Cuban Spanish
967 The Heat of the Day Elizabeth Bowen 1949 British English
1208 Love in a Cold Climate Nancy Mitford 1949 British English
763 The Case of Comrade Tulayev Victor Serge 1949 French French
1595 The Garden Where the Brass Band Played Simon Vestdijk 1950 Dutch Dutch
822 I, Robot Isaac Asimov 1950 American English
989 The Grass Is Singing Doris May Lessing 1950 British English
879 A Town Like Alice Nevil Shute 1950 British English
426 The Moon and the Bonfires Cesare Pavese 1950 Italian Italian
525 Gormenghast Mervyn Peake 1950 British English
1288 The 13 Clocks James Thurber 1950 American English
756 The Labyrinth of Solitude Octavio Paz 1950 Mexican Spanish
3324 L'Abbé C Georges Bataille 1950 French French
3324 The Guiltless Hermann Broch 1950 Austrian German
603 Barabbas Par Lagerkvist 1950 Swedish Swedish
176 The End of the Affair Graham Greene 1951 British English
151 Molloy Samuel Beckett 1951 Irish French
616 The Rebel Albert Camus 1951 French French
4 The Catcher in the Rye J. D. Salinger 1951 American English
609 The Opposing Shore Julien Gracq 1951 French French
361 Foundation Isaac Asimov 1951 American English
270 Malone Dies Samuel Beckett 1951 Irish French
917 The Day of the Triffids John Wyndham 1951 British English
123 Memoirs of Hadrian Marguerite Yourcenar 1951 French French
692 The Hive Camilo José Cela 1951 Spanish Spanish
362 Wise Blood Flannery O'Connor 1952 American English
54 The Old Man and the Sea Ernest Hemingway 1952 American English
36 Invisible Man Ralph Ellison 1952 American English
997 The Judge and His Hangman Friedrich Dürrenmatt 1950 Swiss German
691 Excellent Women Barbara Pym 1952 British English
719 Thousand Cranes Yasunari Kawabata 1952 Japanese Japanese
353 Go Tell it on the Mountain James Baldwin 1953 American English
495 Casino Royale Ian Fleming 1953 British English
1868 Junky William S. Burroughs 1953 American English
392 Lucky Jim Kingsley Amis 1954 British English
833 The Lost Steps Alejo Carpentier 1953 Cuban Spanish