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
3 Ulysses James Joyce 1922 Irish English
4 In Search of Lost Time Marcel Proust 1913 French French
7 Lolita Vladimir Nabokov 1955 American English
19 Catch-22 Joseph Heller 1961 American English
35 Midnight's Children Salman Rushdie 1981 Indian English
42 The Master and Margarita Mikhail Bulgakov 1967 Russian Russian
53 Slaughterhouse-Five Kurt Vonnegut 1969 American English
56 The Life And Opinions Of Tristram Shandy Laurence Sterne 1759 British English
63 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Douglas Adams 1979 British English
64 As I Lay Dying William Faulkner 1930 American English
73 Fictions Jorge Luis Borges 1944 Argentinian Spanish
76 Pale Fire Vladimir Nabokov 1962 American English
81 The Tin Drum Günter Grass 1959 German German
89 A Clockwork Orange Anthony Burgess 1962 British English
90 The Unbearable Lightness of Being Milan Kundera 1984 Czech Czech
91 Waiting for Godot Samuel Beckett 1953 Irish French
98 Under the Volcano Malcolm Lowry 1947 British English
108 The Metamorphosis Franz Kafka 1915 Czech German
116 The Name of the Rose Umberto Eco 1980 Italian Italian
117 The Castle Franz Kafka 1926 Czech German
121 The Golden Notebook Doris May Lessing 1962 British English
126 The Man Without Qualities Robert Musil 1930 Austrian German
145 The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay Michael Chabon 2000 American English
147 Orlando Virginia Woolf 1928 British English
148 Steppenwolf Hermann Hesse 1927 German German
149 The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Junot Diaz 2007 Dominican English
159 A Confederacy of Dunces John Kennedy Toole 1980 American English
165 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Hunter S. Thompson 1971 American English
166 Infinite Jest David Foster Wallace 1996 American English
174 Gravity's Rainbow Thomas Pynchon 1973 American English
177 The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle Haruki Murakami 1994 Japanese Japanese
182 A Visit From The Goon Squad Jennifer Egan 2010 American English
184 U.S.A. Trilogy John Dos Passos 1930 American English
193 The Moviegoer Walker Percy 1961 American English
202 Herzog Saul Bellow 1964 American English
208 If on a Winter's Night a Traveller Italo Calvino 1979 Italian Italian
216 2666 Roberto Bolaño 2004 Chilean Spanish
227 Austerlitz W. G. Sebald 2001 German German
240 Molloy Samuel Beckett 1951 Irish French
241 Gargantua and Pantagruel Francois Rabelais 1532 French French
248 The Savage Detectives Roberto Bolaño 1998 Chilean Spanish
262 The Counterfeiters André Gide 1925 French French
264 Money Martin Amis 1984 British English
265 Tropic of Cancer Henry Miller 1934 American English
270 Confessions of Zeno Italo Svevo 1923 Italian Italian
271 Possession A. S. Byatt 1990 British English
276 Cloud Atlas David Mitchell 2004 British English
292 Underworld Don DeLillo 1997 American English
301 Neuromancer William Gibson 1984 American, Canadian English
303 White Noise Don DeLillo 1985 American English
305 Thus Spake Zarathustra Friedrich Nietzsche 1883 German German
309 Labyrinths Jorge Luis Borges 1962 Argentinian Spanish
331 Ragtime E. L. Doctorow 1975 American English
332 Naked Lunch William S. Burroughs 1959 American English
333 Finnegans Wake James Joyce 1939 Irish English
338 American Psycho Bret Easton Ellis 1991 American English
346 Watchmen Alan Moore 1986 American, British English
355 Invisible Cities Italo Calvino 1972 Italian Italian
356 At Swim Two-Birds Flann O'Brien 1939 Irish English
358 Ferdydurke Witold Gombrowicz 1937 Polish Polish
359 A Dance to the Music of Time Anthony Powell 1951 British English
371 The Crying of Lot 49 Thomas Pynchon 1966 American English
381 Malone Dies Samuel Beckett 1951 Irish French
401 Stranger in a Strange Land Robert A. Heinlein 1961 American English
414 The Alexandria Quartet Lawrence Durrell 1957 British English
418 Crash J. G. Ballard 1973 British English
425 The Unnamable Samuel Beckett 1953 Irish French
429 The Book of Disquiet Fernando Pessoa 1982 Portuguese Portuguese
442 The Third Policeman Flann O'Brien 1967 Irish English
443 Collected Poems Wallace Stevens 1954 American English
447 Life, a User's Manual Georges Perec 1978 French French
453 Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Robert M. Pirsig 1974 American English
458 The Glass Bead Game Hermann Hesse 1943 German German
461 Hopscotch Julio Cortazar 1963 Argentinian Spanish
466 Ada or Ardor Vladimir Nabokov 1969 American English
467 The Human Stain Philip Roth 2000 American English
474 Satanic Verses Salman Rushdie 1988 British English
476 The Magus John Fowles 1965 British English
488 Nights At The Circus Angela Carter 1984 British English
489 The Hour of the Star Clarice Lispector 1977 Brazilian Portuguese
501 Philosophical Investigations Ludwig Wittgenstein 1953 Austrian German
508 Cat's Cradle Kurt Vonnegut 1963 American English
511 The French Lieutenant's Woman John Fowles 1969 British English
515 The Sympathizer Viet Thanh Nguyen 2015 American English
520 A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius Dave Eggers 2000 American English
528 Breakfast of Champions Kurt Vonnegut 1973 American English
532 The Wasp Factory Iain Banks 1984 British English
535 Humboldt's Gift Saul Bellow 1975 American English
541 I'm Not Stiller Max Frisch 1954 Swiss German
542 Play It As It Lays Joan Didion 1970 American English
552 Anniversaries Uwe Johnson 1970 German German
553 Three Men in a Boat Jerome K. Jerome 1889 British English
564 The Sense of an Ending Julian Barnes 2011 British English
573 Murphy Samuel Beckett 1938 Irish English
586 The Blind Assassin Margaret Atwood 2000 Canadian English
592 Poems of W. H. Auden W. H. Auden 1930 British English
619 House of Leaves Mark Z. Danielewski 2000 American English
631 Sophie's World Jostein Gaarder 1991 Norwegian Norwegian
635 Against Nature J. K. Huysmans 1884 French French
637 Nadja André Breton 1928 French French
638 Titus Groan Mervyn Peake 1946 British English
644 Jacques the Fatalist and His Master Denis Diderot 1796 French French
646 Jesus' Son Denis Johnson 1992 American English
650 Foucault's Pendulum Umberto Eco 1988 Italian Italian
657 Solaris Stanislaw Lem 1961 Polish Polish
658 Snow Crash Neal Stephenson 1992 American English
660 The Man in the High Castle Philip K. Dick 1962 American English
667 Bouvard et Pécuchet Gustave Flaubert 1881 French French
668 The Death of Artemio Cruz Carlos Fuentes 1962 Mexican Spanish
687 Being and Nothingness Jean Paul Sartre 1943 French French
694 Collected Poems of T.S. Eliot T. S. Eliot 1963 British English
701 Lanark Alasdair Gray 1981 Scottish English
702 V Thomas Pynchon 1963 American English
708 The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis José Saramago 1984 Portuguese Portuguese
710 The Passion Jeanette Winterson 1987 British English
713 Three Trapped Tigers Guillermo Cabrera Infante 1965 Cuban Spanish
719 Slouching Towards Bethlehem Joan Didion 1968 American English
724 The Songs of Maldoror Comte de Lautréamont 1868 French French
730 Jealousy Alain Robbe-Grillet 1957 French French
733 Hadrian the Seventh Frederick Rolfe 1904 British English