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
1 Ulysses James Joyce 1922 Irish English
3 In Search of Lost Time Marcel Proust 1913 French French
11 Lolita Vladimir Nabokov 1955 American English
27 The Master and Margarita Mikhail Bulgakov 1967 Russian Russian
30 Catch-22 Joseph Heller 1961 American English
37 Midnight's Children Salman Rushdie 1981 Indian English
43 The Unbearable Lightness of Being Milan Kundera 1984 Czech Czech
48 Fictions Jorge Luis Borges 1944 Argentinian Spanish
53 The Name of the Rose Umberto Eco 1980 Italian Italian
58 The Golden Notebook Doris May Lessing 1962 British English
60 Under the Volcano Malcolm Lowry 1947 British English
63 Slaughterhouse-Five Kurt Vonnegut 1969 American 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
83 The Tin Drum Günter Grass 1959 German German
85 The Metamorphosis Franz Kafka 1915 Czech German
87 Austerlitz W. G. Sebald 2001 German German
88 The Castle Franz Kafka 1926 Czech German
96 As I Lay Dying William Faulkner 1930 American English
103 The Man Without Qualities Robert Musil 1930 Austrian German
104 Waiting for Godot Samuel Beckett 1953 Irish French
118 The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Junot Diaz 2007 Dominican English
119 Orlando Virginia Woolf 1928 British English
123 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Douglas Adams 1979 British English
125 A Visit From The Goon Squad Jennifer Egan 2010 American English
132 The Book of Disquiet Fernando Pessoa 1982 Portuguese Portuguese
134 A Clockwork Orange Anthony Burgess 1962 British English
137 A Confederacy of Dunces John Kennedy Toole 1980 American English
153 The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay Michael Chabon 2000 American English
158 The Savage Detectives Roberto Bolaño 1998 Chilean Spanish
172 Gargantua and Pantagruel Francois Rabelais 1532 French French
183 Confessions of Zeno Italo Svevo 1923 Italian Italian
184 The Human Stain Philip Roth 2000 American English
189 Molloy Samuel Beckett 1951 Irish French
196 Cloud Atlas David Mitchell 2004 British English
199 The Moviegoer Walker Percy 1961 American English
203 Steppenwolf Hermann Hesse 1927 German German
204 Infinite Jest David Foster Wallace 1996 American English
207 Underworld Don DeLillo 1997 American English
214 Invisible Cities Italo Calvino 1972 Italian Italian
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
238 White Noise Don DeLillo 1985 American English
251 The Counterfeiters André Gide 1925 French French
252 The Alexandria Quartet Lawrence Durrell 1957 British English
260 If on a Winter's Night a Traveller Italo Calvino 1979 Italian Italian
266 Thus Spake Zarathustra Friedrich Nietzsche 1883 German German
275 Naked Lunch William S. Burroughs 1959 American English
278 The Sympathizer Viet Thanh Nguyen 2015 American English
285 A Heart So White Javier Marias 1992 Spanish Spanish
289 The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle Haruki Murakami 1994 Japanese Japanese
292 Tropic of Cancer Henry Miller 1934 American English
299 Herzog Saul Bellow 1964 American English
300 Satanic Verses Salman Rushdie 1988 British English
305 Finnegans Wake James Joyce 1939 Irish English
317 The Elementary Particles Michel Houellebecq 1998 French French
320 Lincoln in the Bardo George Saunders 2017 American English
327 House of Leaves Mark Z. Danielewski 2000 American English
335 Labyrinths Jorge Luis Borges 1962 Argentinian Spanish
339 Malone Dies Samuel Beckett 1951 Irish French
348 Stranger in a Strange Land Robert A. Heinlein 1961 American English
363 Possession A. S. Byatt 1990 British English
365 Solaris Stanislaw Lem 1961 Polish Polish
373 Ada or Ardor Vladimir Nabokov 1969 American English
380 American Psycho Bret Easton Ellis 1991 American English
408 The Unnamable Samuel Beckett 1953 Irish French
409 A Dance to the Music of Time Anthony Powell 1951 British 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
442 The Crying of Lot 49 Thomas Pynchon 1966 American English
449 The Magus John Fowles 1965 British English
453 The Discovery of Heaven Harry Mulisch 1992 Dutch Dutch
458 Ragtime E. L. Doctorow 1975 American English
461 Ferdydurke Witold Gombrowicz 1937 Polish Polish
465 Humboldt's Gift Saul Bellow 1975 American English
474 At Swim Two-Birds Flann O'Brien 1939 Irish English
477 Money Martin Amis 1984 British English
479 Nadja André Breton 1928 French French
480 V Thomas Pynchon 1963 American English
487 The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie Agota Kristof 1986 Hungarian French
491 Nights At The Circus Angela Carter 1984 British English
497 The Third Policeman Flann O'Brien 1967 Irish English
499 Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Robert M. Pirsig 1974 American English
504 Neuromancer William Gibson 1984 American, Canadian English
507 Collected Poems Wallace Stevens 1954 American English
509 Play It As It Lays Joan Didion 1970 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
525 W, or the Memory of Childhood Georges Perec 1975 French French
536 I'm Not Stiller Max Frisch 1954 Swiss German
539 The French Lieutenant's Woman John Fowles 1969 British English
541 The Last Samurai Helen DeWitt 2000 American English
558 Les Enfants Terribles Jean Cocteau 1929 French French
573 The Songs of Maldoror Comte de Lautréamont 1868 French French
593 The Blind Assassin Margaret Atwood 2000 Canadian English
598 Jakob Von Gunten Robert Walser 1909 Swiss German
606 Zazie in the Metro Raymond Queneau 1959 French French
611 Bouvard et Pécuchet Gustave Flaubert 1881 French French
613 Flights Olga Tokarczuk 2007 Polish Polish
618 The Wasp Factory Iain Banks 1984 British English
621 The New York Trilogy Paul Auster 1985 American English
628 Flaubert's Parrot Julian Barnes 1984 British English
635 Jealousy Alain Robbe-Grillet 1957 French French
636 Jesus' Son Denis Johnson 1992 American English
645 1Q84 Haruki Murakami 2009 Japanese Japanese
649 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Hunter S. Thompson 1971 American English
656 Soldiers of Salamis Javier Cercas 2001 Spanish Spanish
660 Celestial Harmonies Peter Esterhazy 2000 Hungarian Hungarian
683 Foucault's Pendulum Umberto Eco 1988 Italian Italian
688 The Passion Jeanette Winterson 1987 British English
696 The Sleepwalkers Hermann Broch 1932 Austrian German
699 The Unconsoled Kazuo Ishiguro 1995 British English
700 Collected Poems of T.S. Eliot T. S. Eliot 1963 British English
703 Hawksmoor Peter Ackroyd 1985 British English
706 Three Trapped Tigers Guillermo Cabrera Infante 1965 Cuban Spanish