The Greatest Books Since 1952

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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
409 My Brilliant Friend Elena Ferrante 2012 American Italian
411 Underworld Don DeLillo 1997 American English
415 The Day of the Jackal Frederick Forsyth 1971 British English
417 The Structure of Scientific Revolutions Thomas Kuhn 1962 American English
418 Middlesex Jeffrey Eugenides 2002 American English
420 The Human Stain Philip Roth 2000 American English
421 A Visit From The Goon Squad Jennifer Egan 2010 American English
427 Cloud Atlas David Mitchell 2004 British English
429 The Baron in the Trees Italo Calvino 1957 Italian Italian
433 Play It As It Lays Joan Didion 1970 American English
438 Philosophical Investigations Ludwig Wittgenstein 1953 Austrian German
441 The Crying of Lot 49 Thomas Pynchon 1966 American English
442 The Magus John Fowles 1965 British English
443 Americanah Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 2013 Nigerian English
445 I'm Not Stiller Max Frisch 1954 Swiss German
452 A Heart So White Javier Marias 1992 Spanish Spanish
454 The Sea, The Sea Iris Murdoch 1978 British English
455 V Thomas Pynchon 1963 American English
461 Atlas Shrugged Ayn Rand 1957 American English
465 Collected Poems Wallace Stevens 1954 American English
466 A Death in the Family James Agee 1957 American English
471 Waiting for the Barbarians J. M. Coetzee 1980 South African English
473 The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle Haruki Murakami 1994 Japanese Japanese
475 Gilead Marilynne Robinson 2004 American English
477 Fateless or Fatelessness Imre Kertész 1975 Hungarian Hungarian
483 The Civil War Shelby Foote 1958 American English
485 Tristes Tropiques Claude Lévi-Strauss 1955 French French
488 The Shipping News Annie Proulx 1993 Canadian English
494 The Third Policeman Flann O'Brien 1967 Irish English
495 Casino Royale Ian Fleming 1953 British English
500 Everything That Rises Must Converge Flannery O'Connor 1965 American English
501 W, or the Memory of Childhood Georges Perec 1975 French French
502 Another Country James Baldwin 1962 American English
504 Her Lover Albert Cohen 1968 Swiss French
506 The Affluent Society John Kenneth Galbraith 1958 American English
511 Perfume Patrick Suskind 1985 German German
513 Kindred Octavia E. Butler 1979 American English
516 Season of Migration to the North Al-Tayyib Salih 1966 Sudanese Arabic
521 I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Maya Angelou 1969 American English
522 The Phantom Tollbooth Norton Juster 1961 American English
524 A Prayer for Owen Meany John Irving 1989 American English
526 Family Sayings Natalia Ginzburg 1963 Italian Italian
528 Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Philip K. Dick 1968 American English
532 The Passion According to G.H. Clarice Lispector 1964 Brazilian Portuguese
534 Satanic Verses Salman Rushdie 1988 British English
538 Zazie in the Metro Raymond Queneau 1959 French French
539 So Long, See You Tomorrow William Maxwell 1980 American English
540 The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test Tom Wolfe 1968 American English
545 The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie Agota Kristof 1986 Hungarian French
546 Jealousy Alain Robbe-Grillet 1957 French French
549 A Fine Balance Rohinton Mistry 1995 Indian English
553 The Dispossessed Ursula K. Le Guin 1974 American English
558 Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee Dee Alexander Brown 1970 American English
560 Sula Toni Morrison 1973 American English
561 The Recognitions William Gaddis 1955 American English
566 I Served The King Of England Bohumil Hrabal 1983 Czech Czech
567 The French Lieutenant's Woman John Fowles 1969 British English
568 The Mandarins Simone de Beauvoir 1954 French French
570 American Psycho Bret Easton Ellis 1991 American English
573 Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret Judy Blume 1970 American English
574 The Known World Edward P. Jones 2003 American English
576 Complete Poems Elizabeth Bishop 1969 American English
577 Anniversaries Uwe Johnson 1970 German German
578 The Silence of the Lambs Thomas Harris 1988 American English
588 The Pillars Of The Earth Ken Follett 1989 British English
597 The Years Annie Ernaux 2008 French French
598 Night Elie Wiesel 1958 French French
600 Nine Stories J. D. Salinger 1953 American English
602 The Go-Between L. P. Hartley 1953 British English
607 House of Leaves Mark Z. Danielewski 2000 American English
610 Requiem Anna Akhmatova 1963 Russian Russian
611 Revolutionary Road Richard Yates 1961 American English
617 Pnin Vladimir Nabokov 1957 Russian English
623 Lonesome Dove Larry McMurtry 1985 American English
626 Promise at Dawn Romain Gary 1960 French French
628 Nights At The Circus Angela Carter 1984 British English
633 Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy John le Carré 1974 British English
634 Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Robert M. Pirsig 1974 American English
637 The Quiet American Graham Greene 1955 British English
641 Bridget Jones's Diary Helen Fielding 1996 British English
644 The English Patient Michael Ondaatje 1992 Canadian English
648 The Things They Carried Tim O'Brien 1990 American English
650 The Flanders Road Claude Simon 1960 French French
652 Dispatches Michael Herr 1977 American English
655 Stories of Ernest Hemingway Ernest Hemingway 1987 American English
656 The Time Of The Doves Merce Rodoreda 1962 Spanish Catalan
657 The Elementary Particles Michel Houellebecq 1998 French French
658 Angle of Repose Wallace Stegner 1971 American English
659 Mythologies Roland Barthes 1957 French French
661 Interview with the Vampire Anne Rice 1976 American English
663 The Siege of Krishnapur J. G. Farrell 1973 British English
666 Humboldt's Gift Saul Bellow 1975 American English
668 Rabbit Redux John Updike 1971 American English
670 Persepolis Marjane Satrapi 2000 French French
672 Three Trapped Tigers Guillermo Cabrera Infante 1965 Cuban Spanish
676 The Princess Bride William Goldman 1973 American English
680 The Stories of John Cheever John Cheever 1978 American English
681 Cat's Cradle Kurt Vonnegut 1963 American English
683 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Hunter S. Thompson 1971 American English
685 Them Joyce Carol Oates 1969 American English
686 Rabbit Is Rich John Updike 1981 American English
687 The Time of the Hero Mario Vargas Llosa 1963 Peruvian Spanish
691 Excellent Women Barbara Pym 1952 British English
695 Boys Alive Pier Paolo Pasolini 1955 Italian Italian
697 The Rings of Saturn W. G. Sebald 1995 German German
700 Tales of the City Armistead Maupin 1978 American English
701 The Feast of the Goat Mario Vargas Llosa 2000 Peruvian Spanish
704 Breakfast at Tiffany's Truman Capote 1958 American English
709 The Feminine Mystique Betty Friedan 1963 American English
711 Flowers for Algernon Daniel Keyes 1959 American English
713 The Killer Angels Michael Shaara 1974 American English
717 A Sport and a Pastime James Salter 1967 American English
718 Possession A. S. Byatt 1990 British English
719 Thousand Cranes Yasunari Kawabata 1952 Japanese Japanese
722 Bastard Out of Carolina Dorothy Allison 1992 American English
723 The Line of Beauty Alan Hollinghurst 2004 British English
732 A Bend in the River V. S. Naipaul 1979 Trinidadian English
733 Arrow of God Chinua Achebe 1964 Nigerian English
735 A Suitable Boy Vikram Seth 1993 Indian English
738 The Joy Luck Club Amy Tan 1989 American English