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
7 Lolita Vladimir Nabokov 1955 American English
34 Catch-22 Joseph Heller 1961 American English
36 The Master and Margarita Mikhail Bulgakov 1967 Russian Russian
44 Midnight's Children Salman Rushdie 1981 Indian English
50 Fictions Jorge Luis Borges 1944 Argentinian Spanish
56 The Life And Opinions Of Tristram Shandy Laurence Sterne 1759 British English
64 Slaughterhouse-Five Kurt Vonnegut 1969 American English
74 Orlando Virginia Woolf 1928 British English
76 The Golden Notebook Doris May Lessing 1962 British English
81 The Castle Franz Kafka 1926 Czech German
82 The Metamorphosis Franz Kafka 1915 Czech German
91 Under the Volcano Malcolm Lowry 1947 British English
92 As I Lay Dying William Faulkner 1930 American English
96 Pale Fire Vladimir Nabokov 1962 American English
101 Waiting for Godot Samuel Beckett 1953 Irish French
109 The Man Without Qualities Robert Musil 1930 Austrian German
112 The Tin Drum Günter Grass 1959 German German
127 A Clockwork Orange Anthony Burgess 1962 British English
133 The Name of the Rose Umberto Eco 1980 Italian Italian
135 The Unbearable Lightness of Being Milan Kundera 1984 Czech Czech
152 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Douglas Adams 1979 British English
163 Steppenwolf Hermann Hesse 1927 German German
166 Confessions of Zeno Italo Svevo 1923 Italian Italian
188 Molloy Samuel Beckett 1951 Irish French
194 The Counterfeiters André Gide 1925 French French
199 Gargantua and Pantagruel Francois Rabelais 1532 French French
203 U.S.A. Trilogy John Dos Passos 1930 American English
209 A Confederacy of Dunces John Kennedy Toole 1980 American English
233 2666 Roberto Bolaño 2004 Chilean Spanish
234 Finnegans Wake James Joyce 1939 Irish English
237 Invisible Cities Italo Calvino 1972 Italian Italian
238 Tropic of Cancer Henry Miller 1934 American English
239 The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay Michael Chabon 2000 American English
244 Malone Dies Samuel Beckett 1951 Irish French
246 The Moviegoer Walker Percy 1961 American English
248 Austerlitz W. G. Sebald 2001 German German
249 The Book of Disquiet Fernando Pessoa 1982 Portuguese Portuguese
268 Life, a User's Manual Georges Perec 1978 French French
274 Thus Spake Zarathustra Friedrich Nietzsche 1883 German German
276 Naked Lunch William S. Burroughs 1959 American English
277 The Alexandria Quartet Lawrence Durrell 1957 British English
282 Gravity's Rainbow Thomas Pynchon 1973 American English
285 Herzog Saul Bellow 1964 American English
312 White Noise Don DeLillo 1985 American English
313 Labyrinths Jorge Luis Borges 1962 Argentinian Spanish
314 The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle Haruki Murakami 1994 Japanese Japanese
316 A Dance to the Music of Time Anthony Powell 1951 British English
323 Infinite Jest David Foster Wallace 1996 American English
326 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Hunter S. Thompson 1971 American English
331 The Unnamable Samuel Beckett 1953 Irish French
334 At Swim Two-Birds Flann O'Brien 1939 Irish English
339 The Human Stain Philip Roth 2000 American English
342 If on a Winter's Night a Traveller Italo Calvino 1979 Italian Italian
344 The Savage Detectives Roberto Bolaño 1998 Chilean Spanish
368 Cloud Atlas David Mitchell 2004 British English
374 A Visit From The Goon Squad Jennifer Egan 2010 American English
375 Hopscotch Julio Cortazar 1963 Argentinian Spanish
380 Ferdydurke Witold Gombrowicz 1937 Polish Polish
382 The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Junot Diaz 2007 Dominican English
400 Solaris Stanislaw Lem 1961 Polish Polish
406 Philosophical Investigations Ludwig Wittgenstein 1953 Austrian German
413 Collected Poems Wallace Stevens 1954 American English
419 W, or the Memory of Childhood Georges Perec 1975 French French
422 Stranger in a Strange Land Robert A. Heinlein 1961 American English
426 The Glass Bead Game Hermann Hesse 1943 German German
430 The Crying of Lot 49 Thomas Pynchon 1966 American English
435 Ragtime E. L. Doctorow 1975 American English
436 Play It As It Lays Joan Didion 1970 American English
438 Jacques the Fatalist and His Master Denis Diderot 1796 French French
447 Bouvard et Pécuchet Gustave Flaubert 1881 French French
461 Ada or Ardor Vladimir Nabokov 1969 American English
468 The Passion According to G.H. Clarice Lispector 1964 Brazilian Portuguese
476 Titus Groan Mervyn Peake 1946 British English
503 Neuromancer William Gibson 1984 American, Canadian English
506 I'm Not Stiller Max Frisch 1954 Swiss German
507 American Psycho Bret Easton Ellis 1991 American English
514 Satanic Verses Salman Rushdie 1988 British English
523 Nights At The Circus Angela Carter 1984 British English
539 Les Enfants Terribles Jean Cocteau 1929 French French
549 Jakob Von Gunten Robert Walser 1909 Swiss German
552 Nadja André Breton 1928 French French
557 Poems of W. H. Auden W. H. Auden 1930 British English
560 The Blind Owl Ṣādiq Hidāyat 1937 Iranian Persian
569 The Third Policeman Flann O'Brien 1967 Irish English
570 V Thomas Pynchon 1963 American English
574 The Magus John Fowles 1965 British English
575 Watchmen Alan Moore 1986 American, British English
576 Collected Poems of T.S. Eliot T. S. Eliot 1963 British English
589 The Recognitions William Gaddis 1955 American English
614 Crash J. G. Ballard 1973 British English
622 The French Lieutenant's Woman John Fowles 1969 British English
634 Breakfast of Champions Kurt Vonnegut 1973 American English
636 Underworld Don DeLillo 1997 American English
642 A Heart So White Javier Marias 1992 Spanish Spanish
647 The Songs of Maldoror Comte de Lautréamont 1868 French French
648 Pnin Vladimir Nabokov 1957 Russian English
656 Anniversaries Uwe Johnson 1970 German German
658 Slouching Towards Bethlehem Joan Didion 1968 American English
659 Money Martin Amis 1984 British English
664 The Elementary Particles Michel Houellebecq 1998 French French
665 If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem William Faulkner 1939 American English
670 Three Trapped Tigers Guillermo Cabrera Infante 1965 Cuban Spanish
671 A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius Dave Eggers 2000 American English
683 Manhattan Transfer John Dos Passos 1925 American English
685 Jealousy Alain Robbe-Grillet 1957 French French
686 Possession A. S. Byatt 1990 British English
703 The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie Agota Kristof 1986 Hungarian French
707 The Rings of Saturn W. G. Sebald 1995 German German
715 Zazie in the Metro Raymond Queneau 1959 French French
717 Death on Credit Louis-Ferdinand Céline 1936 French French
732 The Blind Assassin Margaret Atwood 2000 Canadian English
746 Conversation in the Cathedral Mario Vargas Llosa 1969 Peruvian Spanish
756 The Vegetarian Han Kang 2007 Korean Korean
764 Humboldt's Gift Saul Bellow 1975 American English
780 The Manuscript Found in Saragossa Jan Potocki 1805 Polish French
789 The Hour of the Star Clarice Lispector 1977 Brazilian Portuguese
804 Moravagine Blaise Cendrars 1926 Swiss French
806 Cat's Cradle Kurt Vonnegut 1963 American English