The Greatest Experimental 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
1 Ulysses James Joyce 1922 Irish English
64 The Life And Opinions Of Tristram Shandy Laurence Sterne 1759 British English
69 2666 Roberto Bolaño 2004 Chilean Spanish
72 Pale Fire Vladimir Nabokov 1962 American English
87 Austerlitz W. G. Sebald 2001 German German
127 The Waste Land T. S. Eliot 1922 British English
132 The Book of Disquiet Fernando Pessoa 1982 Portuguese Portuguese
158 The Savage Detectives Roberto Bolaño 1998 Chilean Spanish
189 Molloy Samuel Beckett 1951 Irish French
196 Cloud Atlas David Mitchell 2004 British English
204 Infinite Jest David Foster Wallace 1996 American English
225 U.S.A. Trilogy John Dos Passos 1930 American English
226 Gravity's Rainbow Thomas Pynchon 1973 American English
228 Life, a User's Manual Georges Perec 1978 French French
251 The Counterfeiters André Gide 1925 French French
260 If on a Winter's Night a Traveller Italo Calvino 1979 Italian Italian
266 Thus Spake Zarathustra Friedrich Nietzsche 1883 German German
270 Death of Virgil Hermann Broch 1945 Austrian German
275 Naked Lunch William S. Burroughs 1959 American English
284 A Season in Hell Arthur Rimbaud 1873 French French
289 The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle Haruki Murakami 1994 Japanese Japanese
292 Tropic of Cancer Henry Miller 1934 American English
305 Finnegans Wake James Joyce 1939 Irish English
320 Lincoln in the Bardo George Saunders 2017 American English
327 House of Leaves Mark Z. Danielewski 2000 American English
328 The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner James Hogg 1824 Scottish English
339 Malone Dies Samuel Beckett 1951 Irish French
347 Outline Rachel Cusk 2014 British English
367 Nightwood Djuna Barnes 1936 American English
371 My Struggle Karl Ove Knausgård 2009 Norwegian Norwegian
373 Ada or Ardor Vladimir Nabokov 1969 American English
378 Pensées Blaise Pascal 1670 French French
408 The Unnamable Samuel Beckett 1953 Irish French
412 The Education of Henry Adams Henry Adams 1907 American English
415 The Glass Bead Game Hermann Hesse 1943 German German
417 Hopscotch Julio Cortazar 1963 Argentinian Spanish
431 The Vegetarian Han Kang 2007 Korean Korean
432 The Words Jean Paul Sartre 1963 French French
440 Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus Ludwig Wittgenstein 1921 Austrian German
461 Ferdydurke Witold Gombrowicz 1937 Polish Polish
474 At Swim Two-Birds Flann O'Brien 1939 Irish English
479 Nadja André Breton 1928 French French
480 V Thomas Pynchon 1963 American English
483 The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge Rainer Maria Rilke 1910 German German
499 Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Robert M. Pirsig 1974 American English
510 Jacques the Fatalist and His Master Denis Diderot 1796 French French
518 The Rings of Saturn W. G. Sebald 1995 German German
520 Anniversaries Uwe Johnson 1970 German German
521 Philosophical Investigations Ludwig Wittgenstein 1953 Austrian German
523 The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test Tom Wolfe 1968 American English
525 W, or the Memory of Childhood Georges Perec 1975 French French
528 The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas Gertrude Stein 1933 American English
541 The Last Samurai Helen DeWitt 2000 American English
563 Alcools Guillaume Apollinaire 1913 French French
570 Critique of Pure Reason Immanuel Kant 1781 German German
573 The Songs of Maldoror Comte de Lautréamont 1868 French French
584 Four Quartets T. S. Eliot 1943 British English
586 Where I'm Calling From Raymond Carver 1988 American English
589 The Argonauts Maggie Nelson 2015 American English
598 Jakob Von Gunten Robert Walser 1909 Swiss German
603 My Name is Red Orhan Pamuk 1998 Turkish Turkish
614 Auto Da Fé Elias Canetti 1935 Bulgarian German
619 Froth on the daydream Boris Vian 1947 French French
621 The New York Trilogy Paul Auster 1985 American English
633 Speak, Memory Vladimir Nabokov 1951 American English
635 Jealousy Alain Robbe-Grillet 1957 French French
636 Jesus' Son Denis Johnson 1992 American English
648 Gormenghast Mervyn Peake 1950 British English
649 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Hunter S. Thompson 1971 American English
667 The Piano Teacher Elfriede Jelinek 1983 Austrian German
688 The Passion Jeanette Winterson 1987 British English
706 Three Trapped Tigers Guillermo Cabrera Infante 1965 Cuban Spanish
721 Amerika Franz Kafka 1927 Czech German
737 True History of the Kelly Gang Peter Carey 2000 Australian English
741 Against Nature J. K. Huysmans 1884 French French
742 Poet in New York Federico García Lorca 1940 Spanish Spanish
781 The Recognitions William Gaddis 1955 American English
782 Erasure Percival Everett 2001 American English
786 The Hour of the Star Clarice Lispector 1977 Brazilian Portuguese
788 Titus Groan Mervyn Peake 1946 British English
795 Crash J. G. Ballard 1973 British English
799 Mythologies Roland Barthes 1957 French French
802 Being and Nothingness Jean Paul Sartre 1943 French French
831 The Emigrants W. G. Sebald 1992 German German
838 The Clay Machine-gun Victor Pelevin 1996 Russian Russian
846 The Hours Michael Cunningham 1998 American English
855 The Beauty Of The Husband Anne Carson 2001 Canadian English
864 The Hive Camilo José Cela 1951 Spanish Spanish
887 Citizen Claudia Rankine 2014 American English
904 Howl and Other Poems Allen Ginsberg 1956 American English
909 Mason & Dixon Thomas Pynchon 1997 American English
924 Lanark Alasdair Gray 1981 Scottish English
930 The Street of Crocodiles Bruno Schulz 1934 Polish Polish
931 Extinction Thomas Bernhard 1986 Austrian German
935 James Percival Everett 2024 American English
953 The Labyrinth of Solitude Octavio Paz 1950 Mexican Spanish
955 Solenoid Mircea Cărtărescu 2015 Romanian Romanian
964 A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again David Foster Wallace 1997 American English
986 Gödel, Escher, Bach Douglas Hofstadter 1979 American English
993 Second Thoughts Michel Butor 1957 French French
997 Malina Ingeborg Bachmann 1971 Austrian German
1010 The Collected Stories Of Lydia Davis Lydia Davis 2009 American English
1032 The Ravishing of Lol Stein Marguerite Duras 1964 French French
1079 Cathedral Raymond Carver 1983 American English
1115 The Solitudes Luis de Góngora 1613 Spanish Spanish
1139 Greguerias Ramón Gómez de la Serna 1910 Spanish Spanish
1152 Herland Charlotte Perkins Gilman 1915 American English
1157 The 120 Days of Sodom Marquis de Sade 1904 French French
1163 How to be both Ali Smith 2014 British English
1187 The Making of Americans Gertrude Stein 1925 American English
1193 The Poems Of Gerard Manley Hopkins Gerald Manley Hopkins 1918 British English
1197 Speedboat Renata Adler 1976 American English
1206 Our Lady of the Flowers Jean Genet 1943 French French
1209 A Void Georges Perec 1969 French French
1219 Rameau's Nephew Denis Diderot 1761 French French
1246 Franny and Zooey J. D. Salinger 1961 American English
1249 Moravagine Blaise Cendrars 1926 Swiss French
1251 Paroles Jacques Prévert 1946 French French
1268 On Beauty Zadie Smith 2005 British English
1280 Concrete Thomas Bernhard 1982 Austrian German