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
3 In Search of Lost Time Marcel Proust 1913 French French
6 Lolita Vladimir Nabokov 1955 American English
33 Catch-22 Joseph Heller 1961 American English
39 The Master and Margarita Mikhail Bulgakov 1967 Russian Russian
42 Midnight's Children Salman Rushdie 1981 Indian English
51 Fictions Jorge Luis Borges 1944 Argentinian Spanish
53 The Life And Opinions Of Tristram Shandy Laurence Sterne 1759 British English
62 Slaughterhouse-Five Kurt Vonnegut 1969 American English
82 The Golden Notebook Doris May Lessing 1962 British English
87 Orlando Virginia Woolf 1928 British English
92 As I Lay Dying William Faulkner 1930 American English
94 The Metamorphosis Franz Kafka 1915 Czech German
95 The Castle Franz Kafka 1926 Czech German
96 The Tin Drum Günter Grass 1959 German German
97 Under the Volcano Malcolm Lowry 1947 British English
103 Pale Fire Vladimir Nabokov 1962 American English
113 A Clockwork Orange Anthony Burgess 1962 British English
117 Waiting for Godot Samuel Beckett 1953 Irish French
123 The Unbearable Lightness of Being Milan Kundera 1984 Czech Czech
126 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Douglas Adams 1979 British English
128 The Man Without Qualities Robert Musil 1930 Austrian German
141 Steppenwolf Hermann Hesse 1927 German German
142 The Name of the Rose Umberto Eco 1980 Italian Italian
176 Confessions of Zeno Italo Svevo 1923 Italian Italian
179 U.S.A. Trilogy John Dos Passos 1930 American English
192 The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay Michael Chabon 2000 American English
218 Molloy Samuel Beckett 1951 Irish French
219 A Confederacy of Dunces John Kennedy Toole 1980 American English
223 The Moviegoer Walker Percy 1961 American English
231 Gargantua and Pantagruel Francois Rabelais 1532 French French
233 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Hunter S. Thompson 1971 American English
236 The Counterfeiters André Gide 1925 French French
258 Tropic of Cancer Henry Miller 1934 American English
278 Thus Spake Zarathustra Friedrich Nietzsche 1883 German German
290 The Alexandria Quartet Lawrence Durrell 1957 British English
291 Labyrinths Jorge Luis Borges 1962 Argentinian Spanish
292 The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle Haruki Murakami 1994 Japanese Japanese
293 Invisible Cities Italo Calvino 1972 Italian Italian
294 2666 Roberto Bolaño 2004 Chilean Spanish
300 Finnegans Wake James Joyce 1939 Irish English
302 Herzog Saul Bellow 1964 American English
308 Infinite Jest David Foster Wallace 1996 American English
310 A Dance to the Music of Time Anthony Powell 1951 British English
313 Malone Dies Samuel Beckett 1951 Irish French
321 The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Junot Diaz 2007 Dominican English
331 Stranger in a Strange Land Robert A. Heinlein 1961 American English
340 White Noise Don DeLillo 1985 American English
345 At Swim Two-Birds Flann O'Brien 1939 Irish English
354 The Book of Disquiet Fernando Pessoa 1982 Portuguese Portuguese
357 Gravity's Rainbow Thomas Pynchon 1973 American English
365 Austerlitz W. G. Sebald 2001 German German
376 Ferdydurke Witold Gombrowicz 1937 Polish Polish
381 Naked Lunch William S. Burroughs 1959 American English
385 Life, a User's Manual Georges Perec 1978 French French
392 Cloud Atlas David Mitchell 2004 British English
405 Play It As It Lays Joan Didion 1970 American English
406 Ada or Ardor Vladimir Nabokov 1969 American English
408 A Visit From The Goon Squad Jennifer Egan 2010 American English
425 The Savage Detectives Roberto Bolaño 1998 Chilean Spanish
426 Bouvard et Pécuchet Gustave Flaubert 1881 French French
432 Hopscotch Julio Cortazar 1963 Argentinian Spanish
440 The Glass Bead Game Hermann Hesse 1943 German German
441 If on a Winter's Night a Traveller Italo Calvino 1979 Italian Italian
442 Collected Poems Wallace Stevens 1954 American English
447 The Unnamable Samuel Beckett 1953 Irish French
449 American Psycho Bret Easton Ellis 1991 American English
454 Jacques the Fatalist and His Master Denis Diderot 1796 French French
457 Titus Groan Mervyn Peake 1946 British English
461 The Human Stain Philip Roth 2000 American English
478 I'm Not Stiller Max Frisch 1954 Swiss German
490 Satanic Verses Salman Rushdie 1988 British English
491 Philosophical Investigations Ludwig Wittgenstein 1953 Austrian German
492 Slouching Towards Bethlehem Joan Didion 1968 American English
506 Ragtime E. L. Doctorow 1975 American English
512 A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius Dave Eggers 2000 American English
517 The Crying of Lot 49 Thomas Pynchon 1966 American English
519 Poems of W. H. Auden W. H. Auden 1930 British English
524 Nights At The Circus Angela Carter 1984 British English
528 Neuromancer William Gibson 1984 American, Canadian English
540 The Passion According to G.H. Clarice Lispector 1964 Brazilian Portuguese
552 The Third Policeman Flann O'Brien 1967 Irish English
564 Possession A. S. Byatt 1990 British English
570 The Magus John Fowles 1965 British English
576 The Blind Owl Ṣādiq Hidāyat 1937 Iranian Persian
583 Crash J. G. Ballard 1973 British English
586 The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie Agota Kristof 1986 Hungarian French
591 Solaris Stanislaw Lem 1961 Polish Polish
597 Watchmen Alan Moore 1986 American, British English
599 Cat's Cradle Kurt Vonnegut 1963 American English
600 Jakob Von Gunten Robert Walser 1909 Swiss German
601 The Hour of the Star Clarice Lispector 1977 Brazilian Portuguese
611 Collected Poems of T.S. Eliot T. S. Eliot 1963 British English
615 V Thomas Pynchon 1963 American English
621 Nadja André Breton 1928 French French
627 Underworld Don DeLillo 1997 American English
628 Little, Big John Crowley 1981 American English
647 Jealousy Alain Robbe-Grillet 1957 French French
649 The French Lieutenant's Woman John Fowles 1969 British English
655 If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem William Faulkner 1939 American English
661 Money Martin Amis 1984 British English
662 Breakfast of Champions Kurt Vonnegut 1973 American English
664 The Songs of Maldoror Comte de Lautréamont 1868 French French
673 The Manuscript Found in Saragossa Jan Potocki 1805 Polish French
676 Death on Credit Louis-Ferdinand Céline 1936 French French
696 Conversation in the Cathedral Mario Vargas Llosa 1969 Peruvian Spanish
698 Manhattan Transfer John Dos Passos 1925 American English
700 W, or the Memory of Childhood Georges Perec 1975 French French
716 The Recognitions William Gaddis 1955 American English
737 A Heart So White Javier Marias 1992 Spanish Spanish
741 Three Trapped Tigers Guillermo Cabrera Infante 1965 Cuban Spanish
744 Zazie in the Metro Raymond Queneau 1959 French French
747 The Sympathizer Viet Thanh Nguyen 2015 American English
750 Les Enfants Terribles Jean Cocteau 1929 French French
753 Anniversaries Uwe Johnson 1970 German German
763 Being and Nothingness Jean Paul Sartre 1943 French French
780 Hadrian the Seventh Frederick Rolfe 1904 British English
795 Humboldt's Gift Saul Bellow 1975 American English
816 Moravagine Blaise Cendrars 1926 Swiss French
830 The Rings of Saturn W. G. Sebald 1995 German German