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
6296 Stone Junction Jim Dodge 1990 American English
1408 Amongst Women John McGahern 1990 Irish English
1111 Get Shorty Elmore Leonard 1990 American English
2657 The Daughter Pavlos Matesis 1990 Greek Greek
4761 Vertigo W. G. Sebald 1990 German German
570 American Psycho Bret Easton Ellis 1991 American English
6420 The Laws Connie Palmen 1991 Dutch Dutch
1445 Faceless Killers Henning Mankell 1991 Swedish Swedish
6420 Astradeni Eugenia Fakinou 1991 Greek Greek
849 Regeneration Pat Barker 1991 British English
6420 Typical Padgett Powell 1991 American English
3199 Mao II Don DeLillo 1991 American English
903 Wild Swans Jung Chang 1991 Chinese English
6507 Arcadia Jim Crace 1992 British English
3006 Hideous Kinky Esther Freud 1992 British English
6507 Memories of Rain Sunetra Gupta 1992 Indian English
3324 Asphodel Hilda Doolittle 1921 American English
2356 The Butcher Boy Patrick McCabe 1992 Irish English
862 Smilla's Sense of Snow Peter Høeg 1992 Danish Danish
1709 The Club Dumas Arturo Pérez-Reverte 1993 Spanish Spanish
3845 Written on the Body Jeanette Winterson 1992 British English
2437 The Crow Road Iain Banks 1992 British English
6507 Indigo Marina Warner 1992 British English
644 The English Patient Michael Ondaatje 1992 Canadian English
2596 Possessing the Secret of Joy Alice Walker 1992 American English
751 All the Pretty Horses Cormac McCarthy 1992 American English
6507 The Triple Mirror of the Self Zulfikar Ghose 1992 Pakistani English
6507 Uncle Petros and Goldbach's Conjecture Apostolos Doxiadis 1992 Greek Greek
971 The Discovery of Heaven Harry Mulisch 1992 Dutch Dutch
5039 Life is a Carawanserai Has Two Doors I Went in One I Came out the Other Emine Sevgi Özdamar 1992 Turkish German
3280 Before Night Falls Reinaldo Arenas 1992 Cuban Spanish
279 The Secret History Donna Tartt 1992 American English
3275 The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll Alvaro Mutis 1993 Colombian Spanish
2399 Remembering Babylon David Malouf 1993 Australian English
5236 Holder of the World Bharati Mukherjee 1993 Indian English
1972 The Virgin Suicides Jeffrey Eugenides 1993 American English
1697 The Stone Diaries Carol Shields 1993 Canadian English
735 A Suitable Boy Vikram Seth 1993 Indian English
2325 What a Carve Up! Jonathan Coe 1994 British English
5236 Deep River Shūsaku Endō 1993 Japanese Japanese
3270 The Twins Tessa De Loo 1993 Dutch Dutch
6622 Looking For The Possible Dance A. L. Kennedy 1993 British English
1070 Birdsong Sebastian Faulks 1993 British English
488 The Shipping News Annie Proulx 1993 Canadian English
6622 Waiting for the Dark, Waiting for the Light Ivan Klima 1993 Czech Czech
6622 The Invention of Curried Sausage Uwe Timm 1993 German German
6622 Disappearance David Dabydeen 1993 Guyanese English
2185 On Love Alain de Botton 1993 British English
2067 How Late It Was, How Late James Kelman 1994 Scottish English
3188 City, Sister, Silver Jáchym Topol 1994 Czech Czech
1882 Pereira Maintains Antonio Tabucchi 1994 Italian Italian
473 The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle Haruki Murakami 1994 Japanese Japanese
3320 Our Lady of the Assassins Fernando Vallejo 1994 Colombian Spanish
4206 Land Pak Kyongni 1969 Korean Korean
2609 Whatever Michel Houellebecq 1994 French French
3845 Troubling Love Elena Ferrante 1992 Italian Italian
6873 The Late-night News Petros Markaris 1995 Greek Greek
6873 The End of the Story Lydia Davis 1995 American English
6873 Love's Work Gillian Rose 1995 British English
549 A Fine Balance Rohinton Mistry 1995 Indian English
975 The Reader Bernhard Schlink 1995 German German
2082 Santa Evita Tomás Eloy Martínez 1995 Argentinian Spanish
2166 Morvern Callar Alan Warner 1995 Scottish English
1554 The Unconsoled Kazuo Ishiguro 1995 British English
4472 Alias Grace Margaret Atwood 1996 Canadian English
1715 The Clay Machine-gun Victor Pelevin 1996 Russian Russian
333 Infinite Jest David Foster Wallace 1996 American English
6992 Hallucinating Foucault Patricia Duncker 1996 British English
2956 Fugitive Pieces Anne Michaels 1996 Canadian English
3324 Forever a Stranger Hella S. Haasse 1949 Dutch Dutch
6992 A Light Comedy Eduardo Mendoza 1996 Spanish Spanish
2472 Fall On Your Knees Ann-Marie MacDonald 1996 Canadian English
4088 Silk Alessandro Baricco 1996 Italian Italian
359 The God of Small Things Arundhati Roy 1997 Indian English
7122 Margot en de engelen Kristien Hemmerechts 1997 Belgian Dutch
6622 The Life of Insects Victor Pelevin 1993 Russian Russian
2025 Memoirs of a Geisha Arthur Golden 1997 American English
411 Underworld Don DeLillo 1997 American English
7615 Crossfire Miyuki Miyabe 1998 Japanese Japanese
878 The Poisonwood Bible Barbara Kingsolver 1998 American English
2197 Veronika Decides to Die Paulo Coelho 1998 Brazilian Portuguese
1610 The Hours Michael Cunningham 1998 American English
2114 All Souls' Day Cees Nooteboom 1998 Dutch Dutch
7615 The Heretic Miguel Delibes 1998 Spanish Spanish
657 The Elementary Particles Michel Houellebecq 1998 French French
7615 Dirty Havana Trilogy Pedro Juan Gutierrez 1998 Cuban Spanish
355 The Savage Detectives Roberto Bolaño 1998 Chilean Spanish
255 Disgrace J. M. Coetzee 1999 South African English
7765 As If I Am Not There Slavenka Drakulic 1999 Croatian English
7765 Pavel's Letters Monika Maron 1999 German German
7765 In Search of Klingsor Jorge Volpi Escalante 1999 Mexican Spanish
2846 The Museum of Unconditional Surrender Dubravka Ugrešić 1997 Croatian Croatian
2359 Bartleby & Co Enrique Vila-Matas 2000 Spanish Spanish
1704 Celestial Harmonies Peter Esterhazy 2000 Hungarian Hungarian
3082 Under the Skin Michel Faber 2000 British English
420 The Human Stain Philip Roth 2000 American English
221 White Teeth Zadie Smith 2000 British English
7914 Spring Flowers, Spring Frost Ismail Kadare 2000 Albanian Albanian
7914 The Devil and Miss Prym Paulo Coelho 2000 Brazilian Portuguese
701 The Feast of the Goat Mario Vargas Llosa 2000 Peruvian Spanish
6480 I'm Not Scared Niccolò Ammaniti 2001 Italian Italian
248 Atonement Ian McEwan 2001 British English
1394 Soldiers of Salamis Javier Cercas 2001 Spanish Spanish
262 Austerlitz W. G. Sebald 2001 German German
1142 Life of Pi Yann Martel 2001 Canadian English
237 The Corrections Jonathan Franzen 2001 American English
2424 Platform Michel Houellebecq 2001 French French
1538 Snow Orhan Pamuk 2002 Turkish Turkish
8283 Nowhere Man Aleksandar Hemon 2002 Bosnian English
2886 Everything Is Illuminated Jonathan Safran Foer 2002 American English
1129 The Namesake Jhumpa Lahiri 2003 American English
5734 Vernon God Little DBC Pierre 2003 British English
8464 The Successor Ismail Kadare 2003 Albanian Albanian
8464 La Dama Número Trece José Carlos Somoza 2003 Spanish Spanish
2903 What I Loved Siri Hustvedt 2003 American English
885 A Tale of Love and Darkness Amos Oz 2002 Israeli Hebrew
1989 Your Face Tomorrow Javier Marias 2002 Spanish Spanish
427 Cloud Atlas David Mitchell 2004 British English
5301 The Swarm Frank Schatzing 2004 German German
1448 Suite Française Irène Némirovsky 2004 French French