The Greatest Postmodern 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
2 Ulysses James Joyce 1922 Irish English
5 In Search of Lost Time Marcel Proust 1913 French French
7 Lolita Vladimir Nabokov 1955 American English
26 Catch-22 Joseph Heller 1961 American English
54 The Master and Margarita Mikhail Bulgakov 1967 Russian Russian
56 The Life And Opinions Of Tristram Shandy Laurence Sterne 1759 British English
58 Midnight's Children Salman Rushdie 1981 Indian English
59 Slaughterhouse-Five Kurt Vonnegut 1969 American English
64 As I Lay Dying William Faulkner 1930 American English
87 The Golden Notebook Doris May Lessing 1962 British English
93 Fictions Jorge Luis Borges 1944 Argentinian Spanish
100 Waiting for Godot Samuel Beckett 1953 Irish French
104 Pale Fire Vladimir Nabokov 1962 American English
109 A Clockwork Orange Anthony Burgess 1962 British English
112 The Tin Drum Günter Grass 1959 German German
113 Under the Volcano Malcolm Lowry 1947 British English
118 The Metamorphosis Franz Kafka 1915 Czech German
122 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Douglas Adams 1979 British English
124 The Castle Franz Kafka 1926 Czech German
139 The Man Without Qualities Robert Musil 1930 Austrian German
142 Orlando Virginia Woolf 1928 British English
145 Steppenwolf Hermann Hesse 1927 German German
166 The Unbearable Lightness of Being Milan Kundera 1984 Czech Czech
173 The Name of the Rose Umberto Eco 1980 Italian Italian
176 U.S.A. Trilogy John Dos Passos 1930 American English
179 Gargantua and Pantagruel Francois Rabelais 1532 French French
193 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Hunter S. Thompson 1971 American English
200 Tropic of Cancer Henry Miller 1934 American English
203 The Moviegoer Walker Percy 1961 American English
228 Molloy Samuel Beckett 1951 Irish French
231 Confessions of Zeno Italo Svevo 1923 Italian Italian
233 A Confederacy of Dunces John Kennedy Toole 1980 American English
239 Gravity's Rainbow Thomas Pynchon 1973 American English
244 Herzog Saul Bellow 1964 American English
246 The Counterfeiters André Gide 1925 French French
258 Thus Spake Zarathustra Friedrich Nietzsche 1883 German German
264 Stranger in a Strange Land Robert A. Heinlein 1961 American English
284 At Swim Two-Birds Flann O'Brien 1939 Irish English
294 Labyrinths Jorge Luis Borges 1962 Argentinian Spanish
296 A Dance to the Music of Time Anthony Powell 1951 British English
300 Finnegans Wake James Joyce 1939 Irish English
307 The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay Michael Chabon 2000 American English
320 Naked Lunch William S. Burroughs 1959 American English
333 Malone Dies Samuel Beckett 1951 Irish French
337 The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle Haruki Murakami 1994 Japanese Japanese
348 Neuromancer William Gibson 1984 American, Canadian English
357 Invisible Cities Italo Calvino 1972 Italian Italian
358 The Glass Bead Game Hermann Hesse 1943 German German
359 If on a Winter's Night a Traveller Italo Calvino 1979 Italian Italian
378 Ferdydurke Witold Gombrowicz 1937 Polish Polish
390 Infinite Jest David Foster Wallace 1996 American English
401 The Alexandria Quartet Lawrence Durrell 1957 British English
406 Ragtime E. L. Doctorow 1975 American English
412 Play It As It Lays Joan Didion 1970 American English
414 Collected Poems Wallace Stevens 1954 American English
419 White Noise Don DeLillo 1985 American English
422 Solaris Stanislaw Lem 1961 Polish Polish
433 Philosophical Investigations Ludwig Wittgenstein 1953 Austrian German
436 Possession A. S. Byatt 1990 British English
438 Money Martin Amis 1984 British English
444 The Crying of Lot 49 Thomas Pynchon 1966 American English
453 The Unnamable Samuel Beckett 1953 Irish French
474 American Psycho Bret Easton Ellis 1991 American English
481 The Man in the High Castle Philip K. Dick 1962 American English
483 The French Lieutenant's Woman John Fowles 1969 British English
489 Nights At The Circus Angela Carter 1984 British English
498 The Recognitions William Gaddis 1955 American English
500 Poems of W. H. Auden W. H. Auden 1930 British English
501 The Magus John Fowles 1965 British English
503 The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Junot Diaz 2007 Dominican English
515 Ada or Ardor Vladimir Nabokov 1969 American English
516 Titus Groan Mervyn Peake 1946 British English
522 Three Men in a Boat Jerome K. Jerome 1889 British English
528 Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Robert M. Pirsig 1974 American English
545 Cat's Cradle Kurt Vonnegut 1963 American English
547 Cloud Atlas David Mitchell 2004 British English
548 Underworld Don DeLillo 1997 American English
549 Crash J. G. Ballard 1973 British English
557 Slouching Towards Bethlehem Joan Didion 1968 American English
561 Hopscotch Julio Cortazar 1963 Argentinian Spanish
570 Jacques the Fatalist and His Master Denis Diderot 1796 French French
579 Bouvard et Pécuchet Gustave Flaubert 1881 French French
580 Being and Nothingness Jean Paul Sartre 1943 French French
582 The Hour of the Star Clarice Lispector 1977 Brazilian Portuguese
586 Breakfast of Champions Kurt Vonnegut 1973 American English
598 Watchmen Alan Moore 1986 American, British English
609 The Third Policeman Flann O'Brien 1967 Irish English
611 Murphy Samuel Beckett 1938 Irish English
618 The Book of Disquiet Fernando Pessoa 1982 Portuguese Portuguese
625 The Savage Detectives Roberto Bolaño 1998 Chilean Spanish
630 A Visit From The Goon Squad Jennifer Egan 2010 American English
640 Life, a User's Manual Georges Perec 1978 French French
644 2666 Roberto Bolaño 2004 Chilean Spanish
645 I'm Not Stiller Max Frisch 1954 Swiss German
650 V Thomas Pynchon 1963 American English
656 Collected Poems of T.S. Eliot T. S. Eliot 1963 British English
659 Manhattan Transfer John Dos Passos 1925 American English
672 The Sirens of Titan Kurt Vonnegut 1959 American English
682 Against Nature J. K. Huysmans 1884 French French
693 Against Interpretation Susan Sontag 1966 American English
698 Jakob Von Gunten Robert Walser 1909 Swiss German
703 Austerlitz W. G. Sebald 2001 German German
709 Flaubert's Parrot Julian Barnes 1984 British English
712 Satanic Verses Salman Rushdie 1988 British English
719 Nadja André Breton 1928 French French
723 The New York Trilogy Paul Auster 1985 American English
739 Story of the Eye Georges Bataille 1928 French French
740 Three Trapped Tigers Guillermo Cabrera Infante 1965 Cuban Spanish
754 Anniversaries Uwe Johnson 1970 German German
757 Ubik Philip K. Dick 1969 American English
760 A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius Dave Eggers 2000 American English
764 The Sleepwalkers Hermann Broch 1932 Austrian German
775 Zazie in the Metro Raymond Queneau 1959 French French
796 The Songs of Maldoror Comte de Lautréamont 1868 French French
803 Humboldt's Gift Saul Bellow 1975 American English
810 Dhalgren Samuel R. Delany 1975 American English
811 Hadrian the Seventh Frederick Rolfe 1904 British English
813 Mumbo Jumbo Ishmael Reed 1972 American English
832 Prufrock and Other Observations T. S. Eliot 1917 British English
842 Snow Crash Neal Stephenson 1992 American English