The Greatest Books Since 1927

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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
1237 Jacob the Liar Jurek Becker 1969 German German
1238 The Age of Anxiety W. H. Auden 1947 British English
1239 The Complete Poetry and Selected Prose of John Donne John Donne 1952 British English
1240 Strangers On A Train Patricia Highsmith 1950 American English
1241 The Life Before Us Romain Gary 1975 French French
1242 The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis José Saramago 1984 Portuguese Portuguese
1245 Down and Out in Paris and London George Orwell 1933 British English
1246 Danube Claudio Magris 1986 Italian Italian
1248 The Conservative Mind Russell Kirk 1953 American English
1251 The Last Gentleman Walker Percy 1966 American English
1252 Sapiens Yuval Noah Harari 2011 Israeli Hebrew
1253 Absolute Beginners Colin MacInnes 1959 British English
1254 Death and the Dervish Meša Selimović 1966 Bosnian Serbo-croatian
1255 Jonathan Livingston Seagull Richard Bach 1970 American English
1258 The General of the Dead Army Ismail Kadare 1963 Albanian Albanian
1259 The Female Eunuch Germaine Greer 1970 Australian English
1260 The President Miguel Angel Asturias 1946 Guatemalan Spanish
1261 The Blind Assassin Margaret Atwood 2000 Canadian English
1262 Maud Martha Gwendolyn Brooks 1953 American English
1263 The Summer Book Tove Jansson 1972 Finnish Swedish
1264 The Franchise Affair Josephine Tey 1948 British English
1265 On Writing Stephen King 2000 American English
1268 A Kiss Before Dying Ira Levin 1953 American English
1269 The Unknown Soldier Väinö Linna 1954 Finnish Finnish
1270 Omeros Derek Walcott 1990 Saint Lucian English
1271 Extinction Thomas Bernhard 1986 Austrian German
1272 Erasure Percival Everett 2001 American English
1275 The Laughing Policeman Maj Sjöwall, Per Wahlöö 1968 Swedish Swedish
1276 The Feynman Lectures on Physics Richard P. Feynman 1963 American English
1277 A High Wind in Jamaica Richard Hughes 1929 British English
1278 So Long a Letter Mariama Bâ 1980 Senegalese French
1279 Psycho Robert Bloch 1959 American English
1280 The Death of Artemio Cruz Carlos Fuentes 1962 Mexican Spanish
1281 Mumbo Jumbo Ishmael Reed 1972 American English
1283 Cybernetics Norbert Wiener 1948 American English
1285 Selected Stories of Alice Munro Alice Munro 1996 Canadian English
1286 The Invention Of Morel Adolfo Bioy Casares 1940 Argentinian Spanish
1288 The 13 Clocks James Thurber 1950 American English
1289 A Game of Thrones George R. R. Martin 1996 American English
1292 Two Serious Ladies Jane Bowles 1943 American English
1293 Salem's Lot Stephen King 1975 American English
1294 Peyton Place Grace Metalious 1956 American English
1298 The Days of His Grace Eyvind Johnson 1960 Swedish Swedish
1299 My Name is Red Orhan Pamuk 1998 Turkish Turkish
1300 The Guide R. K. Narayan 1958 Indian English
1301 The Road Less Traveled M. Scott Peck 1978 American English
1302 Poems Paul Celan 1952 German German
1303 The Seventh Cross Anna Seghers 1942 German German
1305 Long Day's Journey Into Night Eugene O'Neill 1956 American English
1307 Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry Mildred D. Taylor 1976 American English
1308 The Member Of The Wedding Carson McCullers 1946 American English
1310 Our Man In Havana Graham Greene 1958 British English
1312 The Stories of Raymond Carver Raymond Carver 1981 American English
1311 Boredom Alberto Moravia 1960 Italian Italian
1313 The Optimist's Daughter Eudora Welty 1972 American English
1315 Voices from Chernobyl Svetlana Alexievich 1997 Belarusian Russian
1316 The Fountain Overflows Rebecca West 1956 British English
1317 To Each His Own Leonardo Sciascia 1966 Italian Italian
1318 Love Medicine Louise Erdrich 1984 American English
1320 God and Man at Yale William F. Buckley, Jr 1951 American English
1321 A Question of Power Bessie Head 1973 Botswanan English
1322 Devil in a Blue Dress Walter Mosley 1990 American English
1323 A Canticle for Leibowitz Walter M. Miller 1960 American English
1324 A Judgement In Stone Ruth Rendell 1977 British English
1325 A Far Cry From Kensington Muriel Spark 1988 British English
1328 Parable Of The Sower Octavia E. Butler 1993 American English
1329 Exodus Leon Uris 1958 American English
1330 The Song of Achilles Madeline Miller 2011 American English
1331 Cathedral Raymond Carver 1983 American English
1333 Barefoot Zaharia Stancu 1948 Romanian Romanian
1334 Hangover Square Patrick Hamilton 1941 British English
1335 Kiss of the Spider Woman Manuel Puig 1976 Argentinian Spanish
1337 A Legacy Sybille Bedford 1956 German English
1338 Something Wicked This Way Comes Ray Bradbury 1962 American English
1339 The Artificial Silk Girl Irmgard Keun 1932 German German
1341 The Graduate Charles Webb 1963 American English
1343 The Hamlet William Faulkner 1940 American English
1344 The Emigrants W. G. Sebald 1992 German German
1345 The Naked Ape Desmond Morris 1967 British English
1346 Matilda Roald Dahl 1988 British English
1347 Story of the Eye Georges Bataille 1928 French French
1348 Sandman Neil Gaiman 1989 British English
1352 The Andromeda Strain Michael Crichton 1969 American English
1354 Olive Kitteridge Elizabeth Strout 2008 American English
1355 Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas Dylan Thomas 1952 British English
1356 Towards The End Of The Morning Michael Frayn 1967 British English
1358 The Principle Of Hope Ernst Bloch 1954 German German
1360 The Makioka Sisters Junichiro Tanizaki 1948 Japanese Japanese
1363 The Liberal Imagination Lionel Trilling 1950 American English
1365 Nectar in a Sieve Kamala Markandaya 1954 Indian English
1366 The Adversary Emmanuel Carrère 2000 French French
1367 Like Water For Chocolate Laura Esquivel 1989 Mexican Spanish
1368 Salvage the Bones Jesmyn Ward 2011 American English
1369 Veronica Mary Gaitskill 2005 American English
1372 The Horror Horn And Other Stories E. F. Benson 1931 British English
1373 Winter's Tale Mark Helprin 1983 American English
1374 Earthly Powers Anthony Burgess 1980 British English
1375 The Sea of Fertility Yukio Mishima 1965 Japanese Japanese
1376 Tales of the South Pacific James A. Michener 1947 American English
1377 Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl 1964 British English
1378 The Towers Of Trebizond Rose Macauley 1956 British English
1379 The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty Eudora Welty 1980 American English
1380 The Sword in the Stone T. H. White 1938 British English
1381 Station Eleven Emily St John Mandel 2014 Canadian English
1384 Guns, Germs, and Steel Jared Diamond 1997 American English
1385 The Bell Iris Murdoch 1958 British English
1387 Gödel, Escher, Bach Douglas Hofstadter 1979 American English
1388 The Hunger Games Suzanne Collins 2008 American English
1390 A Brief History of Seven Killings Marlon James 2014 Jamaican English
1391 A Separate Peace John Knowles 1959 American English
1392 Evicted Matthew Desmond 2016 American English
1393 The Business of Living Cesare Pavese 1952 Italian Italian
1394 Soldiers of Salamis Javier Cercas 2001 Spanish Spanish
1395 The Mists of Avalon Marion Zimmer Bradley 1983 American English
1397 The BFG Roald Dahl 1982 British English
1398 The Exorcist William Peter Blatty 1971 American English
1399 Star Maker Olaf Stapledon 1937 British English
1400 The Great Railway Bazaar Paul Theroux 1975 American English
1401 Silence of the Sea Vercors 1942 French French
1403 The Outsider Colin Wilson 1956 British English