The Greatest Books of All Time on Alienation

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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
1 Ulysses James Joyce 1922 Irish English
4 The Catcher in the Rye J. D. Salinger 1951 American English
11 Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoevsky 1866 Russian Russian
21 The Trial Franz Kafka 1925 Czech German
23 The Stranger Albert Camus 1942 French French
36 Invisible Man Ralph Ellison 1952 American English
66 The Metamorphosis Franz Kafka 1915 Czech German
81 The Castle Franz Kafka 1926 Czech German
107 Native Son Richard Wright 1940 American English
118 The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter Carson McCullers 1940 American English
150 Fahrenheit 451 Ray Bradbury 1953 American English
151 Molloy Samuel Beckett 1951 Irish French
171 Steppenwolf Hermann Hesse 1927 German German
181 Light in August William Faulkner 1932 American English
182 The Moviegoer Walker Percy 1961 American English
200 The Book of Disquiet Fernando Pessoa 1982 Portuguese Portuguese
239 Tropic of Cancer Henry Miller 1934 American English
245 Nausea Jean Paul Sartre 1938 French French
259 Naked Lunch William S. Burroughs 1959 American English
269 Nightwood Djuna Barnes 1936 American English
295 Franz Kafka Franz Kafka 1971 Czech Unknown
305 The Confusions of Young Törless Robert Musil 1906 Austrian German
311 Winesburg, Ohio Sherwood Anderson 1919 American English
328 Das Kapital Karl Marx 1867 German German
347 The Day of the Locust Nathanael West 1939 American English
349 The Death of Ivan Ilyich Leo Tolstoy 1886 Russian Russian
354 Hopscotch Julio Cortazar 1963 Argentinian Spanish
433 Play It As It Lays Joan Didion 1970 American English
445 I'm Not Stiller Max Frisch 1954 Swiss German
460 Bartleby the Scrivener Herman Melville 1853 American English
463 The Songs of Maldoror Comte de Lautréamont 1868 French French
502 Another Country James Baldwin 1962 American English
516 Season of Migration to the North Al-Tayyib Salih 1966 Sudanese Arabic
565 Amerika Franz Kafka 1927 Czech German
584 Poet in New York Federico García Lorca 1940 Spanish Spanish
617 Pnin Vladimir Nabokov 1957 Russian English
619 The Sheltering Sky Paul Bowles 1949 American English
657 The Elementary Particles Michel Houellebecq 1998 French French
668 Rabbit Redux John Updike 1971 American English
680 The Stories of John Cheever John Cheever 1978 American English
685 Them Joyce Carol Oates 1969 American English
796 The Fall Albert Camus 1956 French French
812 Collected Poems of T.S. Eliot T. S. Eliot 1963 British English
825 In Our Time Ernest Hemingway 1925 American English
847 Only Yesterday Shmuel Yosef Agnon 1945 Israeli Hebrew
854 Cane Jean Toomer 1923 American English
858 The Woman in the Dunes Kobo Abé 1962 Japanese Japanese
861 We Have Always Lived in the Castle Shirley Jackson 1962 American English
873 Call to Arms Lu Xun 1922 Chinese Chinese
882 The Hour of the Star Clarice Lispector 1977 Brazilian Portuguese
884 Homo Faber Max Frisch 1957 Swiss German
901 Last Exit to Brooklyn Hubert Selby 1964 American English
904 Breakfast of Champions Kurt Vonnegut 1973 American English
930 The Seven Madmen Roberto Arlt 1929 Argentinian Spanish
935 Martin Eden Jack London 1909 American English
1012 Invitation To A Beheading Vladimir Nabokov 1935 American Russian
1044 A Ghost at Noon Alberto Moravia 1954 Italian Italian
1071 The Midwich Cuckoos John Wyndham 1957 British English
1166 Lanark Alasdair Gray 1981 Scottish English
1188 The Quest for Community Robert Nisbet 1953 American English
1195 Song Of Lawino Okot P'Bitek 1966 Ugandan Acholi
1251 The Last Gentleman Walker Percy 1966 American English
1295 Phenomenology of Mind G. W. F. Hegel 1807 German German
1359 Illuminations Arthur Rimbaud 1886 French French
1403 The Outsider Colin Wilson 1956 British English
1447 Minima Moralia Theodor Adorno 1951 German German
1452 History And Class Consciousness Georg Lukacs 1923 German German
1458 The Ballad of the Sad Cafe Carson McCullers 1951 American English
1554 The Unconsoled Kazuo Ishiguro 1995 British English
1587 Past Continuous Yaakov Shabtai 1977 Israeli Hebrew
1605 The Foundation Pit Andrey Platonov 1930 Russian Russian
1691 Cat Country Lao She 1932 Chinese Chinese
1745 Couples, Passersby Botho Strauß 1981 German German
1760 Desperate Characters Paula Fox 1970 American English
1784 Marks of Identity Juan Goytisolo 1966 Spanish Spanish
1836 Grendel John Gardner 1971 American English
1860 Notebook Of A Return To The Native Land Aimé Césaire 1939 French French
1868 Junky William S. Burroughs 1953 American English
1894 Winter In The Blood James Welch 1974 American English
1937 Ask The Dust John Fante 1939 American English
1953 Titus Alone Mervyn Peake 1959 British English
1986 The Sound of the Mountain Yasunari Kawabata 1954 Japanese Japanese
2004 A School For Fools Sasha Sokolov 1976 Russian Russian
2014 Poems Of César Vallejo César Vallejo 1922 Peruvian Spanish
2019 The Death Ship B. Traven 1926 German German
2058 Sixty Stories Donald Barthelme 1981 American English
2064 Watt Samuel Beckett 1953 Irish English
2167 The Buddha in the Attic Julie Otsuka 2011 American English
2176 Paris Spleen Charles Baudelaire 1869 French French
2185 In a Free State V. S. Naipaul 1971 Trinidadian English
2205 The Quest for Christa T. Christa Wolf 1968 German German
2242 Collected Poems Arthur Rimbaud 1898 French French
2246 Poems Of Gottfried Benn Gottfried Benn 1948 German German
2294 The Divided Self R. D. Laing 1960 British English
2353 The Box Man Kobo Abé 1973 Japanese Japanese
2386 Less Than Zero Bret Easton Ellis 1985 American English
2408 Lust Elfriede Jelinek 1989 Austrian German
2412 The Fear Of Freedom Erich Fromm 1941 German English
2426 Platform Michel Houellebecq 2001 French French
2433 The Einstein Intersection Samuel R. Delany 1967 American English
2483 Blood and Guts in High School Kathy Acker 1978 American English
2515 Deathbird Stories Harlan Ellison 1975 American English
2516 The New Sorrows of Young W. Ulrich Plenzdorf 1972 German German
2556 Dangling Man Saul Bellow 1944 American English
2555 Disobedience Alberto Moravia 1948 Italian Italian
2600 Almost Transparent Blue Ryū Murakami 1976 Japanese Japanese
2610 Whatever Michel Houellebecq 1994 French French
2644 The Complete Poems And Plays T. S. Eliot 1952 British English
2680 Generation X Douglas Coupland 1991 Canadian English
2716 Something Happened Joseph Heller 1974 American English
2733 Seize The Day Saul Bellow 1956 American English
2738 Look Back In Anger John Osborne 1956 British English
2869 House Made of Dawn N. Scott Momaday 1968 American English
2886 The Busconductor Hines James Kelman 1984 British English
3064 Home Land Sam Lipsyte 2004 American English
3081 Los lanzallamas Roberto Arlt 1931 Argentinian Spanish
3120 Sessanta Racconti Dino Buzzati 1958 Italian Italian
3146 Dhalgren Samuel R. Delany 1975 American English
3231 Growing Up Absurd Paul Goodman 1960 American English
3264 The Selected Works of Cesare Pavese Cesare Pavese 1968 Italian Italian