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
842 The Making of Americans Gertrude Stein 1925 American English
876 The Wasp Factory Iain Banks 1984 British English
885 Dhalgren Samuel R. Delany 1975 American English
893 Speedboat Renata Adler 1976 American English
917 True History of the Kelly Gang Peter Carey 2000 Australian English
918 Against Nature J. K. Huysmans 1884 French French
922 The Liberal Imagination Lionel Trilling 1950 American English
926 Moscow to the End of the Line Venedikt Yerofeev 1970 Russian Russian
929 The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis José Saramago 1984 Portuguese Portuguese
931 The Gift Vladimir Nabokov 1938 Russian Russian
935 Ubik Philip K. Dick 1969 American English
936 The Elementary Particles Michel Houellebecq 1998 French French
941 A Tomb for Boris Davidovich Danilo Kiš 1976 Serbian Serbo-croatian
942 The Death of Artemio Cruz Carlos Fuentes 1962 Mexican Spanish
949 The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr E. T. A. Hoffmann 1819 German German
948 Invitation To A Beheading Vladimir Nabokov 1935 American Russian
954 Lincoln in the Bardo George Saunders 2017 American English
962 Three Men in a Boat Jerome K. Jerome 1889 British English
967 Flaubert's Parrot Julian Barnes 1984 British English
986 Erewhon Samuel Butler 1872 British English
1006 Drifting Cities Stratis Tsirkas 1960 Greek Greek
1007 The Flanders Road Claude Simon 1960 French French
1013 The Book of Daniel E. L. Doctorow 1971 American English
1017 The New York Trilogy Paul Auster 1985 American English
1026 Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Robert M. Pirsig 1974 American English
1030 The Sea of Fertility Yukio Mishima 1965 Japanese Japanese
1031 Boys Alive Pier Paolo Pasolini 1955 Italian Italian
1060 Extinction Thomas Bernhard 1986 Austrian German
1063 Jurgen James Branch Cabell 1919 American English
1069 The Blind Assassin Margaret Atwood 2000 Canadian English
1070 The Beauty Of The Husband Anne Carson 2001 Canadian English
1082 Jesus' Son Denis Johnson 1992 American English
1091 The Last Samurai Helen DeWitt 2000 American English
1098 The Sleepwalkers Hermann Broch 1932 Austrian German
1122 Second Thoughts Michel Butor 1957 French French
1128 Winter's Tale Mark Helprin 1983 American English
1134 Snow Crash Neal Stephenson 1992 American English
1144 Murphy Samuel Beckett 1938 Irish English
1162 The Sirens of Titan Kurt Vonnegut 1959 American English
1164 House of Leaves Mark Z. Danielewski 2000 American English
1172 Pnin Vladimir Nabokov 1957 Russian English
1186 American Gods Neil Gaiman 2001 British English
1201 Hawksmoor Peter Ackroyd 1985 British English
1213 Erasure Percival Everett 2001 American English
1222 The Forbidden Kingdom Jan Jacob Slauerhoff 1932 Dutch Dutch
1227 Titus Alone Mervyn Peake 1959 British English
1256 Prufrock and Other Observations T. S. Eliot 1917 British English
1266 Living Henry Green 1929 British English
1272 The Vegetarian Han Kang 2007 Korean Korean
1273 Crome Yellow Aldous Huxley 1921 British English
1283 Gödel, Escher, Bach Douglas Hofstadter 1979 American English
1288 Lanark Alasdair Gray 1981 Scottish English
1292 Mumbo Jumbo Ishmael Reed 1972 American English
1300 The Stars My Destination Alfred Bester 1956 American English
1303 Mating Norman Rush 1991 American English
1307 Against Interpretation Susan Sontag 1966 American English
1309 Discipline and Punish Michel Foucault 1975 French French
1319 Earthly Powers Anthony Burgess 1980 British English
1322 Tenth of December George Saunders 2013 American English
1323 Story of the Eye Georges Bataille 1928 French French
1324 Peace Gene Wolfe 1975 American English
1346 Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth Chris Ware 2000 American English
1354 The Medium Is The Massage Marshall McLuhan 1967 Canadian English
1358 London Fields Martin Amis 1989 British English
1360 A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again David Foster Wallace 1997 American English
1367 All about H. Hatterr G. V. Desani 1948 Indian English
1369 The Swimming-Pool Library Alan Hollinghurst 1988 British English
1389 The Passion Jeanette Winterson 1987 British English
1404 The Abyss Marguerite Yourcenar 1968 French French
1414 Illuminations Arthur Rimbaud 1886 French French
1416 Foucault's Pendulum Umberto Eco 1988 Italian Italian
1439 Locus Solus Raymond Roussel 1914 French French
1447 The Floating Opera John Barth 1956 American English
1454 Poems, New And Collected, 1957 1997 Wislawa Szymborska 1998 Polish Polish
1467 The Sot-Weed Factor John Barth 1960 American English
1470 The Book of Laughter and Forgetting Milan Kundera 1979 Czech Czech
1479 Blow Up And Other Stories Julio Cortazar 1968 Argentinian Spanish
1488 The Real Life of Sebastian Knight Vladimir Nabokov 1941 Russian English
1496 Phenomenology of Mind G. W. F. Hegel 1807 German German
1499 Residence on Earth Pablo Neruda 1933 Chilean Spanish
1503 The Ravishing of Lol Stein Marguerite Duras 1964 French French
1508 Petersburg Andrei Bely 1913 Russian Russian
1512 Juan De Mairena Antonio Machado 1936 Spanish Spanish
1535 Kafka On The Shore Haruki Murakami 2002 Japanese Japanese
1544 Sabbath's Theater Philip Roth 1995 American English
1553 The Book of the New Sun Gene Wolfe 1980 American English
1568 Scenes From The Life Of A Faun Arno Schmidt 1953 German German
1573 A Void Georges Perec 1969 French French
1578 Sandman Neil Gaiman 1989 British English
1581 The Egghead Republic Arno Schmidt 1957 German German
1583 The Man in the High Castle Philip K. Dick 1962 American English
1593 The Club Dumas Arturo Pérez-Reverte 1993 Spanish Spanish
1598 The Collected Stories Of Lydia Davis Lydia Davis 2009 American English
1607 Flights Olga Tokarczuk 2007 Polish Polish
1617 G. John Berger 1972 British English
1618 The Flamethrowers Rachel Kushner 2013 American English
1622 Mannen utan väg Erik Lindegren 1942 Swedish Swedish
1629 Anglo Saxon Attitudes Angus Wilson 1956 British English
1641 The Corner That Held Them Sylvia Townsend Warner 1948 British English
1642 Spain, Take This Chalice from Me César Vallejo 1939 Peruvian Spanish
1642 Our Ancestors Italo Calvino 1952 Italian Italian
1642 Bomarzo Manuel Mujica Lainez 1962 Argentinian Spanish
1653 Concrete Thomas Bernhard 1982 Austrian German
1658 Something About Eve James Branch Cabell 1927 American English
1666 Rameau's Nephew Denis Diderot 1761 French French
1697 The Infernal Desire Machines Of Doctor Hoffman Angela Carter 1972 British English
1704 Kafka's Other Trial Elias Canetti 1969 Bulgarian German
1706 The Discovery of Heaven Harry Mulisch 1992 Dutch Dutch
1712 Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus Scriblerus Club 1741 British English
1712 None but the Brave Arthur Schnitzler 1895 Austrian German
1712 Impressions of Africa Raymond Roussel 1910 French French
1712 Tarr Wyndham Lewis 1918 British English
1712 I Thought of Daisy Edmund Wilson 1929 American English
1712 The Apes of God Wyndham Lewis 1930 British English
1712 Monica Saunders Lewis 1930 British Welsh
1712 Insatiability Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz 1930 Polish Polish
1712 Eyeless in Gaza Aldous Huxley 1936 British English
1712 Conversations in Sicily Elio Vittorini 1941 Italian Italian
1712 Arcanum 17 André Breton 1944 French French
1712 Exercises in Style Raymond Queneau 1947 French French