The Greatest Absurdist 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
14 Lolita Vladimir Nabokov 1955 American English
21 The Trial Franz Kafka 1925 Czech German
23 The Stranger Albert Camus 1942 French French
33 Catch-22 Joseph Heller 1961 American English
35 Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Lewis Carroll 1865 British English
101 Waiting for Godot Samuel Beckett 1953 Irish French
159 The Good Soldier Švejk Jaroslav Hašek 1921 Czech Czech
190 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Douglas Adams 1979 British English
203 A Confederacy of Dunces John Kennedy Toole 1980 American English
259 Naked Lunch William S. Burroughs 1959 American English
295 Franz Kafka Franz Kafka 1971 Czech Unknown
326 The Unnamable Samuel Beckett 1953 Irish French
362 Wise Blood Flannery O'Connor 1952 American English
384 Ferdydurke Witold Gombrowicz 1937 Polish Polish
432 Lost Illusions Honoré de Balzac 1837 French French
441 The Crying of Lot 49 Thomas Pynchon 1966 American English
444 The Man Who Was Thursday G. K. Chesterton 1908 British English
467 A Handful of Dust Evelyn Waugh 1934 British English
482 Jakob Von Gunten Robert Walser 1909 Swiss German
484 Dream of the Red Chamber Cao Xueqin 1754 Chinese Chinese
491 Bouvard et Pécuchet Gustave Flaubert 1881 French French
493 Auto Da Fé Elias Canetti 1935 Bulgarian German
494 The Third Policeman Flann O'Brien 1967 Irish English
496 Froth on the daydream Boris Vian 1947 French French
509 Sanctuary William Faulkner 1931 American English
513 Kindred Octavia E. Butler 1979 American English
526 Gormenghast Mervyn Peake 1950 British English
547 Through the Looking Glass Lewis Carroll 1871 British English
565 Amerika Franz Kafka 1927 Czech German
566 I Served The King Of England Bohumil Hrabal 1983 Czech Czech
577 Anniversaries Uwe Johnson 1970 German German
623 Lonesome Dove Larry McMurtry 1985 American English
668 Rabbit Redux John Updike 1971 American English
672 Three Trapped Tigers Guillermo Cabrera Infante 1965 Cuban Spanish
681 Cat's Cradle Kurt Vonnegut 1963 American English
683 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Hunter S. Thompson 1971 American English
687 The Time of the Hero Mario Vargas Llosa 1963 Peruvian Spanish
695 Boys Alive Pier Paolo Pasolini 1955 Italian Italian
704 Breakfast at Tiffany's Truman Capote 1958 American English
727 The Street of Crocodiles Bruno Schulz 1934 Polish Polish
734 Loving Henry Green 1945 British English
741 The Goldfinch Donna Tartt 2013 American English
744 Moscow to the End of the Line Venedikt Yerofeev 1970 Russian Russian
748 Howl and Other Poems Allen Ginsberg 1956 American English
750 Money Martin Amis 1984 British English
770 The Underground Railroad Colson Whitehead 2016 American English
775 Cheese Willem Elsschot 1933 Belgian Dutch
776 War with the Newts Karel Čapek 1936 Czech Czech
813 Cranford Elizabeth Gaskell 1851 British English
837 The Sellout Paul Beatty 2015 American English
875 Greguerias Ramón Gómez de la Serna 1910 Spanish Spanish
876 Lysistrata Aristophanes -411 Greek Ancient greek
890 High Fidelity Nick Hornby 1995 British English
902 Under the Net Iris Murdoch 1954 British English
904 Breakfast of Champions Kurt Vonnegut 1973 American English
924 Where I'm Calling From Raymond Carver 1988 American English
930 The Seven Madmen Roberto Arlt 1929 Argentinian Spanish
932 The Clouds Aristophanes -423 Greek Ancient greek
933 Lives of Girls and Women Alice Munro 1971 Canadian English
936 A Void Georges Perec 1969 French French
960 The Gift Vladimir Nabokov 1938 Russian Russian
963 Zuleika Dobson Max Beerbohm 1911 British English
973 The Burning Plain and Other Stories Juan Rulfo 1953 Mexican Spanish
1026 Murphy Samuel Beckett 1938 Irish English
1085 The Book Thief Markus Zusak 2005 Australian English
1103 The Tenant of Wildfell Hall Anne Brontë 1848 British English
1118 Germany, a Winter Tale Heinrich Heine 1844 German German
1137 Miss Lonelyhearts Nathanael West 1933 American English
1164 The Nose Nikolai Gogol 1836 Russian Russian
1183 Mr Norris Changes Trains Christopher Isherwood 1935 British English
1216 Billy Liar Keith Waterhouse 1959 British English
1288 The 13 Clocks James Thurber 1950 American English
1292 Two Serious Ladies Jane Bowles 1943 American English
1308 Cyrano de Bergerac Edmond Rostand 1897 French French
1318 Love Medicine Louise Erdrich 1984 American English
1332 One, No One and One Hundred Thousand Luigi Pirandello 1926 Italian Italian
1382 The Importance of Being Earnest Oscar Wilde 1895 Irish English
1383 The Birds Aristophanes -414 Greek Ancient greek
1386 Six Characters in Search of an Author Luigi Pirandello 1921 Italian Italian
1405 The Twits Roald Dahl 1980 British English
1407 The Golovlyov Family Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin 1880 Russian Russian
1409 No Exit Jean Paul Sartre 1944 French French
1411 Concrete Thomas Bernhard 1982 Austrian German
1478 The Shipyard Juan Carlos Onetti 1961 Uruguayan Spanish
1497 How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents Julia Alvarez 1991 Dominican English
1527 The Confidence Man Herman Melville 1857 American English
1559 Character F. Bordewijk 1938 Dutch Dutch
1605 The Foundation Pit Andrey Platonov 1930 Russian Russian
1621 Good-Bye to All That Robert Graves 1929 British English
1633 In Watermelon Sugar Richard Brautigan 1968 American English
1635 The Autumn of the Patriarch Gabriel García Márquez 1975 Colombian Spanish
1737 Exercises in Style Raymond Queneau 1947 French French
1898 Tenth of December George Saunders 2013 American English
1926 Stories of Nikolai Gogol Nikolai Gogol 1831 Russian Russian
1937 Geek Love Katherine Dunn 1989 American English
1948 Topper Takes A Trip Thorne Smith 1932 American English
1970 The Freeloader Nescio 1916 Dutch Dutch
1980 Chapel Road Louis-Paul Boon 1953 Belgian Dutch
1984 Little Titans Nescio 1918 Dutch Dutch
1991 All about H. Hatterr G. V. Desani 1948 Indian English
1994 Fancies And Goodnights John Collier 1951 British English
2004 A School For Fools Sasha Sokolov 1976 Russian Russian
2007 King Ubu Alfred Jarry 1896 French French
2063 Watt Samuel Beckett 1953 Irish English
2064 The Egghead Republic Arno Schmidt 1957 German German
2067 How Late It Was, How Late James Kelman 1994 Scottish English
2125 Tell Me a Riddle Tillie Olsen 1961 American English
2126 Life In The Folds Henri Michaux 1949 French French
2180 Blue of Noon Georges Bataille 1957 French French
2193 Envy Yury Olesha 1927 Russian Russian
2213 Closely Watched Trains Bohumil Hrabal 1965 Czech Czech
2224 My Year of Rest and Relaxation Ottessa Moshfegh 2018 American English
2235 The Futurological Congress Stanislaw Lem 1971 Polish Polish
2242 Milkman Anna Burns 2018 Irish English
2246 The Bald Soprano Eugène Ionesco 1950 French French
2308 The Dead Father Donald Barthelme 1975 American English
2311 Solenoid Mircea Cărtărescu 2015 Romanian Romanian
2351 The Box Man Kobo Abé 1973 Japanese Japanese
2394 The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love Oscar Hijuelos 1989 American English
2419 The Melancholy of Resistance László Krasznahorkai 1989 Hungarian Hungarian