The Greatest Books Since 1900

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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
1502 The Beautyful Ones are Not Yet Born Ayi K. Armah 1968 Ghanaian English
1504 Sometimes a Great Notion Ken Kesey 1964 American English
1503 The Friends Of Eddie Coyle George V. Higgins 1970 American English
1505 The Famished Road Ben Okri 1991 Nigerian English
1506 Selected Stories William Trevor 1992 Irish English
1507 Bless Me, Ultima Rudolfo Anaya 1972 American English
1508 Surrealist Manifesto André Breton 1924 French French
1508 The Tower William Butler Yeats 1928 Irish English
1510 The Duke and I Julia Quinn 2000 American English
1511 The Strange Case of Peter the Lett Georges Simenon 1931 Belgian French
1512 The Beast Must Die Nicholas Blake 1938 British English
1513 The Women of Brewster Place Gloria Naylor 1982 American English
1514 Pelle The Conqueror Martin Andersen Nexø 1906 Danish Danish
1516 The Alberta Trilogy Cora Sandel 1926 Norwegian Norwegian
1516 The Bells of Basel Louis Aragon 1934 French French
1520 The Slaves of Solitude Patrick Hamilton 1947 British English
1522 Cancer Ward Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 1967 Russian Russian
1524 Greenmantle John Buchan 1916 British English
1525 The Late Mattia Pascal Luigi Pirandello 1904 Italian Italian
1526 A History of Western Philosophy Bertrand Russell 1945 British English
1529 Orientalism Edward W. Said 1978 Palestinian English
1530 Myra Breckinridge Gore Vidal 1968 American English
1531 Jurassic Park Michael Crichton 1990 American English
1532 Arturo's Island Elsa Morante 1957 Italian Italian
1533 Dreamtigers Jorge Luis Borges 1960 Argentinian Spanish
1535 The Sound Of His Horn Sarban 1952 British English
1536 Rubyfruit Jungle Rita Mae Brown 1973 American English
1537 The Owl Service Alan Garner 1967 British English
1538 Snow Orhan Pamuk 2002 Turkish Turkish
1540 Decline of the West Oswald Spengler 1918 German German
1541 The Confessions of Nat Turner William Styron 1967 American English
1542 The Devil In The White City Erik Larson 2003 American English
1545 Understanding Media Marshall McLuhan 1964 Canadian English
1548 Tom's Midnight Garden Philippa Pearce 1958 British English
1549 Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont Elizabeth Taylor 1971 British English
1551 Hawksmoor Peter Ackroyd 1985 British English
1552 Waterland Graham Swift 1983 British English
1553 Beauty and Sadness Yasunari Kawabata 1964 Japanese Japanese
1554 The Unconsoled Kazuo Ishiguro 1995 British English
1557 Pilgrim at Tinker Creek Annie Dillard 1974 American English
1559 Character F. Bordewijk 1938 Dutch Dutch
1560 Forest of the Hanged Liviu Rebreanu 1922 Romanian Romanian
1561 Oscar and Lucinda Peter Carey 1988 Australian English
1562 Burnt Offerings Robert Marasco 1973 American English
1563 Runaway Alice Munro 2004 Canadian English
1564 G. John Berger 1972 British English
1565 A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again David Foster Wallace 1997 American English
1566 Love In A Fallen City Eileen Chang 1943 Chinese Chinese
1567 To Build A Fire Jack London 1902 American English
1568 The Beautiful Summer Cesare Pavese 1949 Italian Italian
1569 Empire of the Sun J. G. Ballard 1984 British English
1570 The Young Lions Irwin Shaw 1948 American English
1571 Fifth Business Robertson Davies 1970 Canadian English
1572 Nature and Destiny of Man Reinhold Niebuhr 1941 American English
1573 The Story Of My Experiments With Truth Mahatma Gandhi 1927 Indian Gujarati
1575 Borstal Boy Brendan Behan 1958 Irish English
1576 The Hidden Persuaders Vance Packard 1957 American English
1577 Deep Rivers José María Arguedas 1958 Peruvian Spanish
1578 The Cement Garden Ian McEwan 1978 British English
1579 The Collected Stories of Isaac Babel Isaac Babel 1934 Russian Russian
1580 The Struggle for Europe Chester Wilmot 1952 British English
1581 The Civilizing Process Norbert Elias 1939 German German
1582 Quicksand Nella Larsen 1928 American English
1584 A Severed Head Iris Murdoch 1961 British English
1585 Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell Susanna Clarke 2004 British English
1587 Past Continuous Yaakov Shabtai 1977 Israeli Hebrew
1588 The Guns of August Barbara Wertheim Tuchman 1962 American English
1589 Tarka the Otter Henry Williamson 1927 British English
1593 Good Morning, Midnight Jean Rhys 1939 British English
1595 The Forbidden Kingdom Jan Jacob Slauerhoff 1932 Dutch Dutch
1595 The Garden Where the Brass Band Played Simon Vestdijk 1950 Dutch Dutch
1597 Snow Crash Neal Stephenson 1992 American English
1598 Ronia, The Robber's Daughter Astrid Lindgren 1981 Swedish Swedish
1599 On the Edge of Reason Miroslav Krleža 1938 Croatian Croatian
1601 The Ego and the Id Sigmund Freud 1923 Austrian German
1605 The Foundation Pit Andrey Platonov 1930 Russian Russian
1606 White Fang Jack London 1906 American English
1608 The Loneliness of the Long-distance Runner Alan Sillitoe 1959 British English
1609 The Drowned World J. G. Ballard 1962 British English
1610 The Hours Michael Cunningham 1998 American English
1611 Crome Yellow Aldous Huxley 1921 British English
1615 Giants in the Earth Ole Edvart Rolvaag 1927 Norwegian Norwegian
1617 Ways Of Seeing John Berger 1972 British English
1618 The Pursuit Of Love Nancy Mitford 1945 British English
1619 Nostalgia Mircea Cărtărescu 1989 Romanian Romanian
1620 Sister Outsider Audre Lorde 1984 American English
1621 Good-Bye to All That Robert Graves 1929 British English
1622 Fortress Besieged Qian Zhongshu 1947 Chinese Chinese
1623 Corregidora Gayl Jones 1975 American English
1624 The Mediterranean And The Mediterranean World In The Age Of Philip Ii Fernand Braudel 1949 French French
1625 The Three Stigmata Of Palmer Eldritch Philip K. Dick 1965 American English
1626 The Colour of Magic Terry Pratchett 1983 British English
1627 Dora Bruder Patrick Modiano 1997 French French
1629 Point Counter Point Aldous Huxley 1928 British English
1630 Halbzeit Martin Walser 1960 German German
1631 Acquainted With Grief Carlo Emilio Gadda 1963 Italian Italian
1632 The Roots of Heaven Romain Gary 1956 French French
1633 In Watermelon Sugar Richard Brautigan 1968 American English
1634 The House on Mango Street Sandra Cisneros 1984 American English
1635 The Autumn of the Patriarch Gabriel García Márquez 1975 Colombian Spanish
1636 The Collector John Fowles 1963 British English
1637 The Sportswriter Richard Ford 1986 American English
1638 Postwar Tony Judt 2005 British English
1639 No Orchids for Miss Blandish James Hadley Chase 1939 British English
1640 The Asphalt Jungle W. R. Burnett 1949 American English
1641 Disraeli Robert Blake 1966 British English
1643 Angela's Ashes Frank McCourt 1996 American English
1644 The Nature of Things Francis Ponge 1942 French French
1645 Shogun James Clavell 1975 British English
1646 The Pledge Friedrich Dürrenmatt 1958 Swiss German
1648 Wizard of the Crow Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o 2006 Kenyan English
1649 Cat's Eye Margaret Atwood 1988 Canadian English
1650 Sing, Unburied, Sing Jesmyn Ward 2017 American English
1653 The Loyal Subject Heinrich Mann 1918 German German
1654 O Pioneers! Willa Cather 1913 American English
1656 Arrowsmith Sinclair Lewis 1925 American English
1655 The Beauty Myth Naomi Wolf 1990 American English
1659 The Americans Robert Frank 1959 American English
1662 Down Second Avenue Es'kia Mphahlele 1959 South African English
1663 The Making of the English Working Class E. P. Thompson 1963 British English