The Greatest Postmodern Books of All Time

Click to learn how this list is calculated.

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.

View: List Grid Table
Filter by: Genres Dates Countries

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
25 Catch-22 Joseph Heller 1961 American English
52 The Master and Margarita Mikhail Bulgakov 1967 Russian Russian
54 Midnight's Children Salman Rushdie 1981 Indian English
62 Slaughterhouse-Five Kurt Vonnegut 1969 American English
67 As I Lay Dying William Faulkner 1930 American English
83 The Golden Notebook Doris May Lessing 1962 British English
91 The Tin Drum Günter Grass 1959 German German
93 Fictions Jorge Luis Borges 1944 Argentinian Spanish
95 A Clockwork Orange Anthony Burgess 1962 British English
96 Waiting for Godot Samuel Beckett 1953 Irish French
100 Pale Fire Vladimir Nabokov 1962 American English
112 Under the Volcano Malcolm Lowry 1947 British English
116 The Castle Franz Kafka 1926 Czech German
117 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Douglas Adams 1979 British English
120 The Metamorphosis Franz Kafka 1915 Czech German
132 The Man Without Qualities Robert Musil 1930 Austrian German
139 Steppenwolf Hermann Hesse 1927 German German
141 Orlando Virginia Woolf 1928 British English
160 The Name of the Rose Umberto Eco 1980 Italian Italian
164 The Unbearable Lightness of Being Milan Kundera 1984 Czech Czech
181 U.S.A. Trilogy John Dos Passos 1930 American English
188 Gargantua and Pantagruel Francois Rabelais 1532 French French
195 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Hunter S. Thompson 1971 American English
204 Tropic of Cancer Henry Miller 1934 American English
211 The Moviegoer Walker Percy 1961 American English
213 Gravity's Rainbow Thomas Pynchon 1973 American English
227 Confessions of Zeno Italo Svevo 1923 Italian Italian
237 Molloy Samuel Beckett 1951 Irish French
239 A Confederacy of Dunces John Kennedy Toole 1980 American English
244 Herzog Saul Bellow 1964 American English
249 The Counterfeiters André Gide 1925 French French
268 At Swim Two-Birds Flann O'Brien 1939 Irish English
269 Thus Spake Zarathustra Friedrich Nietzsche 1883 German German
272 The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay Michael Chabon 2000 American English
285 Finnegans Wake James Joyce 1939 Irish English
287 Stranger in a Strange Land Robert A. Heinlein 1961 American English
289 A Dance to the Music of Time Anthony Powell 1951 British English
309 Labyrinths Jorge Luis Borges 1962 Argentinian Spanish
321 Naked Lunch William S. Burroughs 1959 American English
327 The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle Haruki Murakami 1994 Japanese Japanese
329 Neuromancer William Gibson 1984 American, Canadian English
337 Malone Dies Samuel Beckett 1951 Irish French
360 Infinite Jest David Foster Wallace 1996 American English
361 If on a Winter's Night a Traveller Italo Calvino 1979 Italian Italian
373 The Glass Bead Game Hermann Hesse 1943 German German
375 Ferdydurke Witold Gombrowicz 1937 Polish Polish
376 The Alexandria Quartet Lawrence Durrell 1957 British English
378 Invisible Cities Italo Calvino 1972 Italian Italian
384 Philosophical Investigations Ludwig Wittgenstein 1953 Austrian German
411 Play It As It Lays Joan Didion 1970 American English
413 Collected Poems Wallace Stevens 1954 American English
419 Ragtime E. L. Doctorow 1975 American English
425 White Noise Don DeLillo 1985 American English
426 The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Junot Diaz 2007 Dominican English
435 2666 Roberto Bolaño 2004 Chilean Spanish
448 Ada or Ardor Vladimir Nabokov 1969 American English
449 Solaris Stanislaw Lem 1961 Polish Polish
459 Money Martin Amis 1984 British English
460 The Crying of Lot 49 Thomas Pynchon 1966 American English
461 Poems of W. H. Auden W. H. Auden 1930 British English
469 Possession A. S. Byatt 1990 British English
470 The Unnamable Samuel Beckett 1953 Irish French
476 Cloud Atlas David Mitchell 2004 British English
482 Titus Groan Mervyn Peake 1946 British English
483 Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Robert M. Pirsig 1974 American English
489 The Man in the High Castle Philip K. Dick 1962 American English
493 The French Lieutenant's Woman John Fowles 1969 British English
512 American Psycho Bret Easton Ellis 1991 American English
514 The Magus John Fowles 1965 British English
519 Nights At The Circus Angela Carter 1984 British English
523 The Recognitions William Gaddis 1955 American English
524 The Savage Detectives Roberto Bolaño 1998 Chilean Spanish
540 I'm Not Stiller Max Frisch 1954 Swiss German
541 Being and Nothingness Jean Paul Sartre 1943 French French
549 Cat's Cradle Kurt Vonnegut 1963 American English
554 Three Men in a Boat Jerome K. Jerome 1889 British English
560 Crash J. G. Ballard 1973 British English
566 Hopscotch Julio Cortazar 1963 Argentinian Spanish
567 A Visit From The Goon Squad Jennifer Egan 2010 American English
571 Slouching Towards Bethlehem Joan Didion 1968 American English
577 Underworld Don DeLillo 1997 American English
579 Austerlitz W. G. Sebald 2001 German German
587 Jacques the Fatalist and His Master Denis Diderot 1796 French French
596 Bouvard et Pécuchet Gustave Flaubert 1881 French French
604 Watchmen Alan Moore 1986 American, British English
605 Breakfast of Champions Kurt Vonnegut 1973 American English
608 The Hour of the Star Clarice Lispector 1977 Brazilian Portuguese
609 Murphy Samuel Beckett 1938 Irish English
627 Satanic Verses Salman Rushdie 1988 British English
641 The Third Policeman Flann O'Brien 1967 Irish English
647 The Book of Disquiet Fernando Pessoa 1982 Portuguese Portuguese
664 Manhattan Transfer John Dos Passos 1925 American English
668 V Thomas Pynchon 1963 American English
672 Life, a User's Manual Georges Perec 1978 French French
677 Collected Poems of T.S. Eliot T. S. Eliot 1963 British English
688 Against Nature J. K. Huysmans 1884 French French
698 The Sirens of Titan Kurt Vonnegut 1959 American English
710 Against Interpretation Susan Sontag 1966 American English
720 Jakob Von Gunten Robert Walser 1909 Swiss German
721 The Making of Americans Gertrude Stein 1925 American English
727 Nadja André Breton 1928 French French
734 Flaubert's Parrot Julian Barnes 1984 British English
741 The Death of Artemio Cruz Carlos Fuentes 1962 Mexican Spanish
743 Story of the Eye Georges Bataille 1928 French French
744 Three Trapped Tigers Guillermo Cabrera Infante 1965 Cuban Spanish
753 Ubik Philip K. Dick 1969 American English
761 The Sleepwalkers Hermann Broch 1932 Austrian German
769 A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius Dave Eggers 2000 American English
770 The New York Trilogy Paul Auster 1985 American English
771 Anniversaries Uwe Johnson 1970 German German
795 The Songs of Maldoror Comte de Lautréamont 1868 French French
802 Zazie in the Metro Raymond Queneau 1959 French French
814 Humboldt's Gift Saul Bellow 1975 American English
818 Hadrian the Seventh Frederick Rolfe 1904 British English
832 Dhalgren Samuel R. Delany 1975 American English
844 The Human Stain Philip Roth 2000 American English
858 Prufrock and Other Observations T. S. Eliot 1917 British English