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
28 Catch-22 Joseph Heller 1961 American English
48 The Master and Margarita Mikhail Bulgakov 1967 Russian Russian
55 Midnight's Children Salman Rushdie 1981 Indian English
63 As I Lay Dying William Faulkner 1930 American English
65 Slaughterhouse-Five Kurt Vonnegut 1969 American English
79 The Golden Notebook Doris May Lessing 1962 British English
87 Fictions Jorge Luis Borges 1944 Argentinian Spanish
101 The Tin Drum Günter Grass 1959 German German
103 A Clockwork Orange Anthony Burgess 1962 British English
104 Waiting for Godot Samuel Beckett 1953 Irish French
108 Under the Volcano Malcolm Lowry 1947 British English
110 Pale Fire Vladimir Nabokov 1962 American English
113 The Metamorphosis Franz Kafka 1915 Czech German
121 The Man Without Qualities Robert Musil 1930 Austrian German
124 The Castle Franz Kafka 1926 Czech German
125 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Douglas Adams 1979 British English
133 Orlando Virginia Woolf 1928 British English
143 Steppenwolf Hermann Hesse 1927 German German
162 The Name of the Rose Umberto Eco 1980 Italian Italian
169 The Unbearable Lightness of Being Milan Kundera 1984 Czech Czech
184 U.S.A. Trilogy John Dos Passos 1930 American English
192 Gargantua and Pantagruel Francois Rabelais 1532 French French
198 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Hunter S. Thompson 1971 American English
207 Tropic of Cancer Henry Miller 1934 American English
208 A Confederacy of Dunces John Kennedy Toole 1980 American English
217 The Moviegoer Walker Percy 1961 American English
219 Gravity's Rainbow Thomas Pynchon 1973 American English
230 Confessions of Zeno Italo Svevo 1923 Italian Italian
246 Molloy Samuel Beckett 1951 Irish French
252 Herzog Saul Bellow 1964 American English
256 The Counterfeiters André Gide 1925 French French
275 At Swim Two-Birds Flann O'Brien 1939 Irish English
276 Thus Spake Zarathustra Friedrich Nietzsche 1883 German German
279 The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay Michael Chabon 2000 American English
292 Finnegans Wake James Joyce 1939 Irish English
294 Stranger in a Strange Land Robert A. Heinlein 1961 American English
298 A Dance to the Music of Time Anthony Powell 1951 British English
318 Labyrinths Jorge Luis Borges 1962 Argentinian Spanish
328 The Alexandria Quartet Lawrence Durrell 1957 British English
333 Naked Lunch William S. Burroughs 1959 American English
335 Invisible Cities Italo Calvino 1972 Italian Italian
339 The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle Haruki Murakami 1994 Japanese Japanese
340 Neuromancer William Gibson 1984 American, Canadian English
344 Infinite Jest David Foster Wallace 1996 American English
348 Malone Dies Samuel Beckett 1951 Irish French
371 If on a Winter's Night a Traveller Italo Calvino 1979 Italian Italian
382 The Glass Bead Game Hermann Hesse 1943 German German
384 Ferdydurke Witold Gombrowicz 1937 Polish Polish
391 Philosophical Investigations Ludwig Wittgenstein 1953 Austrian German
416 Play It As It Lays Joan Didion 1970 American English
418 Collected Poems Wallace Stevens 1954 American English
425 Ragtime E. L. Doctorow 1975 American English
431 White Noise Don DeLillo 1985 American English
432 The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Junot Diaz 2007 Dominican English
436 Hopscotch Julio Cortazar 1963 Argentinian Spanish
441 2666 Roberto Bolaño 2004 Chilean Spanish
455 Ada or Ardor Vladimir Nabokov 1969 American English
456 Solaris Stanislaw Lem 1961 Polish Polish
468 Money Martin Amis 1984 British English
469 The Crying of Lot 49 Thomas Pynchon 1966 American English
470 Poems of W. H. Auden W. H. Auden 1930 British English
478 Possession A. S. Byatt 1990 British English
479 The Unnamable Samuel Beckett 1953 Irish French
484 Cloud Atlas David Mitchell 2004 British English
490 Titus Groan Mervyn Peake 1946 British English
491 Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Robert M. Pirsig 1974 American English
497 The Man in the High Castle Philip K. Dick 1962 American English
501 The French Lieutenant's Woman John Fowles 1969 British English
519 The Book of Disquiet Fernando Pessoa 1982 Portuguese Portuguese
525 American Psycho Bret Easton Ellis 1991 American English
528 The Magus John Fowles 1965 British English
534 Nights At The Circus Angela Carter 1984 British English
538 The Recognitions William Gaddis 1955 American English
539 The Savage Detectives Roberto Bolaño 1998 Chilean Spanish
555 I'm Not Stiller Max Frisch 1954 Swiss German
556 Being and Nothingness Jean Paul Sartre 1943 French French
564 Cat's Cradle Kurt Vonnegut 1963 American English
569 Three Men in a Boat Jerome K. Jerome 1889 British English
575 Crash J. G. Ballard 1973 British English
581 A Visit From The Goon Squad Jennifer Egan 2010 American English
585 Slouching Towards Bethlehem Joan Didion 1968 American English
589 Underworld Don DeLillo 1997 American English
591 Austerlitz W. G. Sebald 2001 German German
599 Jacques the Fatalist and His Master Denis Diderot 1796 French French
607 Bouvard et Pécuchet Gustave Flaubert 1881 French French
615 Watchmen Alan Moore 1986 American, British English
616 Breakfast of Champions Kurt Vonnegut 1973 American English
619 The Hour of the Star Clarice Lispector 1977 Brazilian Portuguese
620 Murphy Samuel Beckett 1938 Irish English
637 Satanic Verses Salman Rushdie 1988 British English
651 The Third Policeman Flann O'Brien 1967 Irish English
674 Manhattan Transfer John Dos Passos 1925 American English
678 V Thomas Pynchon 1963 American English
681 Life, a User's Manual Georges Perec 1978 French French
686 Collected Poems of T.S. Eliot T. S. Eliot 1963 British English
697 Against Nature J. K. Huysmans 1884 French French
709 The Sirens of Titan Kurt Vonnegut 1959 American English
721 Against Interpretation Susan Sontag 1966 American English
730 The Human Stain Philip Roth 2000 American English
734 Jakob Von Gunten Robert Walser 1909 Swiss German
735 The Making of Americans Gertrude Stein 1925 American English
741 Nadja André Breton 1928 French French
747 The Passion According to G.H. Clarice Lispector 1964 Brazilian Portuguese
749 Flaubert's Parrot Julian Barnes 1984 British English
756 The Death of Artemio Cruz Carlos Fuentes 1962 Mexican Spanish
758 Story of the Eye Georges Bataille 1928 French French
759 Three Trapped Tigers Guillermo Cabrera Infante 1965 Cuban Spanish
768 Ubik Philip K. Dick 1969 American English
776 The Sleepwalkers Hermann Broch 1932 Austrian German
784 A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius Dave Eggers 2000 American English
785 The New York Trilogy Paul Auster 1985 American English
786 Anniversaries Uwe Johnson 1970 German German
811 The Songs of Maldoror Comte de Lautréamont 1868 French French
818 Zazie in the Metro Raymond Queneau 1959 French French
831 Humboldt's Gift Saul Bellow 1975 American English
835 Hadrian the Seventh Frederick Rolfe 1904 British English
844 The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie Agota Kristof 1986 Hungarian French