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
1061 The Hothouse Wolfgang Koeppen 1953 German German
161 The Long Goodbye Raymond Chandler 1953 American English
602 The Go-Between L. P. Hartley 1953 British English
818 The African Child Camara Laye 1953 Guinean French
3324 A Day in Spring Ciril Kosmač 1953 Slovenian Slovene
1044 A Ghost at Noon Alberto Moravia 1954 Italian Italian
834 Story of O Pauline Reage 1954 French French
902 Under the Net Iris Murdoch 1954 British English
52 Lord of the Flies William Golding 1954 British English
568 The Mandarins Simone de Beauvoir 1954 French French
186 Bonjour Tristesse Francoise Sagan 1954 French French
2547 Death in Rome Wolfgang Koeppen 1954 German German
3324 The Sound of Waves Yukio Mishima 1954 Japanese Japanese
1269 The Unknown Soldier Väinö Linna 1954 Finnish Finnish
445 I'm Not Stiller Max Frisch 1954 Swiss German
561 The Recognitions William Gaddis 1955 American English
973 The Burning Plain and Other Stories Juan Rulfo 1953 Mexican Spanish
637 The Quiet American Graham Greene 1955 British English
767 The Tree of Man Patrick White 1955 Australian English
2552 The Last Temptation of Christ Nikos Kazantzakis 1955 Greek Greek
272 The Devil to Pay in the Backlands Joao Guimaraes Rosa 1956 Brazilian Portuguese
14 Lolita Vladimir Nabokov 1955 American English
143 The Talented Mr. Ripley Patricia Highsmith 1955 American English
17 The Lord Of The Rings J. R. R. Tolkien 1959 English English
989 The Lonely Londoners Sam Selvon 1956 Trinidadian English
1632 The Roots of Heaven Romain Gary 1956 French French
1213 The Floating Opera John Barth 1956 American English
167 Giovanni's Room James Baldwin 1956 American English
1015 Justine Lawrence Durrell 1957 British English
3409 The Glass Bees Ernst Jünger 1957 German German
112 Doctor Zhivago Boris Pasternak 1957 Russian Russian
617 Pnin Vladimir Nabokov 1957 Russian English
41 On the Road Jack Kerouac 1957 American English
3409 The Manila Rope Veijo Meri 1957 Finnish Finnish
3409 The deadbeats Ward Ruyslinck 1957 Belgian Dutch
884 Homo Faber Max Frisch 1957 Swiss German
2180 Blue of Noon Georges Bataille 1957 French French
1071 The Midwich Cuckoos John Wyndham 1957 British English
826 Voss Patrick White 1957 Australian English
546 Jealousy Alain Robbe-Grillet 1957 French French
3409 The Birds Tarjei Vesaas 1957 Norwegian Norwegian
286 The Once and Future King T. H. White 1958 British English
1385 The Bell Iris Murdoch 1958 British English
1575 Borstal Boy Brendan Behan 1958 Irish English
1029 Gabriela, Clove and Cinnamon Jorge Amado 1958 Brazilian Portuguese
1006 Saturday Night and Sunday Morning Alan Sillitoe 1958 British English
60 Things Fall Apart Chinua Achebe 1958 Nigerian English
3444 The Bitter Glass Eilís Dillon 1958 Irish English
1300 The Guide R. K. Narayan 1958 Indian English
56 The Leopard Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa 1958 Italian Italian
1577 Deep Rivers José María Arguedas 1958 Peruvian Spanish
704 Breakfast at Tiffany's Truman Capote 1958 American English
3444 Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids Kenzaburō Ōe 1958 Japanese Japanese
2236 Billiards at Half-Past Nine Heinrich Böll 1959 German German
1662 Down Second Avenue Es'kia Mphahlele 1959 South African English
1077 Cider with Rosie Laurie Lee 1959 British English
91 The Tin Drum Günter Grass 1959 German German
259 Naked Lunch William S. Burroughs 1959 American English
1216 Billy Liar Keith Waterhouse 1959 British English
1253 Absolute Beginners Colin MacInnes 1959 British English
626 Promise at Dawn Romain Gary 1960 French French
174 Rabbit, Run John Updike 1960 American English
16 To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee 1960 American English
1501 The Magician of Lublin Isaac Bashevis Singer 1960 Polish Yiddish
1630 Halbzeit Martin Walser 1960 German German
1202 The Country Girls Edna O'Brien 1960 Irish English
1437 Bébo's Girl Carlo Cassola 1960 Italian Italian
771 God's Bits of Wood Ousmane Sembène 1960 Senegalese French
1478 The Shipyard Juan Carlos Onetti 1961 Uruguayan Spanish
33 Catch-22 Joseph Heller 1961 American English
327 Solaris Stanislaw Lem 1961 Polish Polish
927 Cat and Mouse Günter Grass 1961 German German
169 The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie Muriel Spark 1961 British, Scottish English
1584 A Severed Head Iris Murdoch 1961 British English
1042 Franny and Zooey J. D. Salinger 1961 American English
2187 No One Writes to the Colonel Gabriel García Márquez 1961 Colombian Spanish
3558 Faces In The Water Janet Frame 1961 New Zealander English
3558 Memoirs of a Peasant Boy Xosé Neira Vilas 1961 Spanish Galician
368 Stranger in a Strange Land Robert A. Heinlein 1961 American English
312 Labyrinths Jorge Luis Borges 1962 Argentinian Spanish
61 The Golden Notebook Doris May Lessing 1962 British English
3596 Time of Silence Luis Martín-Santos 1962 Spanish Spanish
72 Pale Fire Vladimir Nabokov 1962 American English
153 A Clockwork Orange Anthony Burgess 1962 British English
154 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Ken Kesey 1962 American English
2062 Girl With Green Eyes Edna O'Brien 1962 Irish English
1280 The Death of Artemio Cruz Carlos Fuentes 1962 Mexican Spanish
687 The Time of the Hero Mario Vargas Llosa 1963 Peruvian Spanish
335 The Garden of the Finzi-Continis Giorgio Bassani 1962 Italian Italian
148 One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 1962 Russian Russian
3596 The Third Wedding Kōstas Tachtsēs 1962 Greek Greek
2791 Dog Years Günter Grass 1963 German German
103 The Bell Jar Sylvia Plath 1963 American English
3802 Inside Mr. Enderby Anthony Burgess 1963 British English
956 The Girls of Slender Means Muriel Spark 1963 British English
233 The Spy Who Came in From the Cold John le Carré 1963 British English
3802 Manon des sources Marcel Pagnol 1963 French French
1341 The Graduate Charles Webb 1963 American English
681 Cat's Cradle Kurt Vonnegut 1963 American English
455 V Thomas Pynchon 1963 American English
298 Herzog Saul Bellow 1964 American English
895 The Ravishing of Lol Stein Marguerite Duras 1964 French French
733 Arrow of God Chinua Achebe 1964 Nigerian English
672 Three Trapped Tigers Guillermo Cabrera Infante 1965 Cuban Spanish
1504 Sometimes a Great Notion Ken Kesey 1964 American English
532 The Passion According to G.H. Clarice Lispector 1964 Brazilian Portuguese
1858 Terug naar Oegstgeest Jan Wolkers 1965 Dutch Dutch
2213 Closely Watched Trains Bohumil Hrabal 1965 Czech Czech
3880 The River Between Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o 1965 Kenyan English
3880 Garden, Ashes Danilo Kiš 1965 Serbian Serbo-croatian
500 Everything That Rises Must Converge Flannery O'Connor 1965 American English
2845 Things Georges Perec 1965 French French
109 In Cold Blood Truman Capote 1966 American English
1254 Death and the Dervish Meša Selimović 1966 Bosnian Serbo-croatian
740 Silence Shūsaku Endō 1966 Japanese Japanese
1317 To Each His Own Leonardo Sciascia 1966 Italian Italian
441 The Crying of Lot 49 Thomas Pynchon 1966 American English
2304 Giles Goat-Boy John Barth 1966 American English
1784 Marks of Identity Juan Goytisolo 1966 Spanish Spanish
3928 The Vice-Consul Marguerite Duras 1966 French French