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
6 In Search of Lost Time Marcel Proust 1913 French French
7 Lolita Vladimir Nabokov 1955 American English
18 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
50 Slaughterhouse-Five Kurt Vonnegut 1969 American English
57 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Douglas Adams 1979 British English
62 The Life And Opinions Of Tristram Shandy Laurence Sterne 1759 British English
66 As I Lay Dying William Faulkner 1930 American English
78 A Clockwork Orange Anthony Burgess 1962 British English
81 Fictions Jorge Luis Borges 1944 Argentinian Spanish
82 Pale Fire Vladimir Nabokov 1962 American English
84 The Tin Drum Günter Grass 1959 German German
88 Waiting for Godot Samuel Beckett 1953 Irish French
91 The Unbearable Lightness of Being Milan Kundera 1984 Czech Czech
103 Under the Volcano Malcolm Lowry 1947 British English
110 The Metamorphosis Franz Kafka 1915 Czech German
116 The Golden Notebook Doris May Lessing 1962 British English
124 The Name of the Rose Umberto Eco 1980 Italian Italian
130 The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay Michael Chabon 2000 American English
136 The Castle Franz Kafka 1926 Czech German
137 The Man Without Qualities Robert Musil 1930 Austrian German
138 The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Junot Diaz 2007 Dominican English
150 Steppenwolf Hermann Hesse 1927 German German
151 A Confederacy of Dunces John Kennedy Toole 1980 American English
165 Orlando Virginia Woolf 1928 British English
166 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Hunter S. Thompson 1971 American English
167 Gravity's Rainbow Thomas Pynchon 1973 American English
168 A Visit From The Goon Squad Jennifer Egan 2010 American English
172 Infinite Jest David Foster Wallace 1996 American English
174 The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle Haruki Murakami 1994 Japanese Japanese
189 U.S.A. Trilogy John Dos Passos 1930 American English
195 The Moviegoer Walker Percy 1961 American English
206 Herzog Saul Bellow 1964 American English
208 If on a Winter's Night a Traveller Italo Calvino 1979 Italian Italian
210 Austerlitz W. G. Sebald 2001 German German
219 2666 Roberto Bolaño 2004 Chilean Spanish
225 Neuromancer William Gibson 1984 American, Canadian English
243 Money Martin Amis 1984 British English
252 Possession A. S. Byatt 1990 British English
253 Tropic of Cancer Henry Miller 1934 American English
256 Molloy Samuel Beckett 1951 Irish French
260 Gargantua and Pantagruel Francois Rabelais 1532 French French
261 The Savage Detectives Roberto Bolaño 1998 Chilean Spanish
262 Cloud Atlas David Mitchell 2004 British English
272 Underworld Don DeLillo 1997 American English
277 The Counterfeiters André Gide 1925 French French
295 White Noise Don DeLillo 1985 American English
298 Confessions of Zeno Italo Svevo 1923 Italian Italian
308 Thus Spake Zarathustra Friedrich Nietzsche 1883 German German
313 Ragtime E. L. Doctorow 1975 American English
314 Labyrinths Jorge Luis Borges 1962 Argentinian Spanish
319 American Psycho Bret Easton Ellis 1991 American English
323 Watchmen Alan Moore 1986 American, British English
329 Naked Lunch William S. Burroughs 1959 American English
341 At Swim Two-Birds Flann O'Brien 1939 Irish English
346 Finnegans Wake James Joyce 1939 Irish English
351 Stranger in a Strange Land Robert A. Heinlein 1961 American English
360 Invisible Cities Italo Calvino 1972 Italian Italian
375 The Crying of Lot 49 Thomas Pynchon 1966 American English
386 A Dance to the Music of Time Anthony Powell 1951 British English
387 Ferdydurke Witold Gombrowicz 1937 Polish Polish
403 Malone Dies Samuel Beckett 1951 Irish French
413 The Alexandria Quartet Lawrence Durrell 1957 British English
431 Crash J. G. Ballard 1973 British English
434 The Unnamable Samuel Beckett 1953 Irish French
435 Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Robert M. Pirsig 1974 American English
437 The Sympathizer Viet Thanh Nguyen 2015 American English
452 Hopscotch Julio Cortazar 1963 Argentinian Spanish
464 Collected Poems Wallace Stevens 1954 American English
469 The Third Policeman Flann O'Brien 1967 Irish English
471 Life, a User's Manual Georges Perec 1978 French French
473 Cat's Cradle Kurt Vonnegut 1963 American English
474 The Magus John Fowles 1965 British English
480 A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius Dave Eggers 2000 American English
482 The Human Stain Philip Roth 2000 American English
485 Nights At The Circus Angela Carter 1984 British English
487 The Book of Disquiet Fernando Pessoa 1982 Portuguese Portuguese
488 The Glass Bead Game Hermann Hesse 1943 German German
492 Philosophical Investigations Ludwig Wittgenstein 1953 Austrian German
495 Satanic Verses Salman Rushdie 1988 British English
511 The Man in the High Castle Philip K. Dick 1962 American English
528 Ada or Ardor Vladimir Nabokov 1969 American English
530 The French Lieutenant's Woman John Fowles 1969 British English
534 The Hour of the Star Clarice Lispector 1977 Brazilian Portuguese
540 Play It As It Lays Joan Didion 1970 American English
541 Snow Crash Neal Stephenson 1992 American English
544 Solaris Stanislaw Lem 1961 Polish Polish
549 Three Men in a Boat Jerome K. Jerome 1889 British English
554 Breakfast of Champions Kurt Vonnegut 1973 American English
563 The Wasp Factory Iain Banks 1984 British English
573 I'm Not Stiller Max Frisch 1954 Swiss German
585 Humboldt's Gift Saul Bellow 1975 American English
586 Titus Groan Mervyn Peake 1946 British English
593 American Gods Neil Gaiman 2001 British English
597 The Blind Assassin Margaret Atwood 2000 Canadian English
600 House of Leaves Mark Z. Danielewski 2000 American English
602 Murphy Samuel Beckett 1938 Irish English
607 Sophie's World Jostein Gaarder 1991 Norwegian Norwegian
611 Jesus' Son Denis Johnson 1992 American English
615 The Sense of an Ending Julian Barnes 2011 British English
622 Anniversaries Uwe Johnson 1970 German German
655 Against Nature J. K. Huysmans 1884 French French
666 Ubik Philip K. Dick 1969 American English
667 Poems of W. H. Auden W. H. Auden 1930 British English
683 Nadja André Breton 1928 French French
693 Foucault's Pendulum Umberto Eco 1988 Italian Italian
700 The Death of Artemio Cruz Carlos Fuentes 1962 Mexican Spanish
710 Being and Nothingness Jean Paul Sartre 1943 French French
718 True History of the Kelly Gang Peter Carey 2000 Australian English
721 The Sirens of Titan Kurt Vonnegut 1959 American English
724 Lanark Alasdair Gray 1981 Scottish English
725 V Thomas Pynchon 1963 American English
731 Jacques the Fatalist and His Master Denis Diderot 1796 French French
732 The Passion Jeanette Winterson 1987 British English
733 Slouching Towards Bethlehem Joan Didion 1968 American English
739 Tenth of December George Saunders 2013 American English
740 Sandman Neil Gaiman 1989 British English
746 Bouvard et Pécuchet Gustave Flaubert 1881 French French