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
3293 The Subterraneans Jack Kerouac 1958 American English
3322 Post Office Charles Bukowski 1971 American English
3324 Retreat Without Song Shahan Shahnur 1929 Armenian Armenian
3324 The Return of Philip Latinowicz Miroslav Krleža 1932 Croatian Croatian
3324 The Living and the Dead Patrick White 1941 Australian English
3324 Conversations in Sicily Elio Vittorini 1941 Italian Italian
3324 The Guiltless Hermann Broch 1950 Austrian German
3387 Human Poems César Vallejo 1939 Peruvian Spanish
3409 The deadbeats Ward Ruyslinck 1957 Belgian Dutch
3416 Bécon Les Bruyères Emmanuel Bove 1927 French French
3419 Taipei People Pai Hsien-yung 1971 Chinese Chinese
3431 The Stories of Ray Bradbury Ray Bradbury 1980 American English
3515 Rhinoceros and Other Plays Eugène Ionesco 1959 Romanian French
3638 The Return and Other Stories Andrey Platonov 1946 Russian Russian
3638 White Shroud Antanas Škėma 1958 Lithuanian Lithuanian
3638 Childe Harold Of Dysna Moyshe Kulbak 1939 Belarusian Yiddish
3638 The Temptation To Exist Emil Cioran 1956 Romanian French
3638 The Assistant Robert Walser 1908 Swiss German
3638 The Man Outside Wolfgang Borchert 1947 German German
3829 Bacacay Witold Gombrowicz 1957 Polish Polish
3833 The Obsolescence Of Man Günther Anders 1956 German German
3856 Closer Dennis Cooper 1989 American English
3875 We Need To Talk About Kevin Lionel Shriver 2003 American English
3947 The Arrival Shaun Tan 2006 Australian English
3954 Ελεγεία και Σάτιρες Kostas Karyotakis 1927 Greek Greek
3954 Ο Εξώστης Nikos Kakhtitsis 1963 Greek Greek
3954 The Poems Of Dinos Christianopoulos Dinos Christianopoulos 1958 Greek Greek
3954 For Two Thousand Years Mihail Sebastian 1934 Romanian Romanian
4058 Bad Behavior Mary Gaitskill 1988 American English
4178 Shira S.Y. Agnon 1989 Israeli Hebrew
4282 The Place Of The Star Patrick Modiano 1968 French French
4295 The Castle franz kafka 1926 German German
4310 Three Soldiers John Dos Passos 1921 American English
4416 Diary Witold Gombrowicz 1986 Polish Polish
4437 In Dreams Begin Responsibilities And Other Stories Delmore Schwartz 1938 American English
4437 The Dream Songs John Berryman 1964 American English
4491 Voyage In The Dark Jean Rhys 1934 British English
4535 Annihilation Jeff VanderMeer 2014 American English
4643 Memoirs Of A Midget Walter de la Mare 1921 British English
4646 The Face Of Another Kobo Abé 1964 Japanese Japanese
4662 The Complete Stories Clarice Lispector 2016 Brazilian Portuguese
4763 Vertigo W. G. Sebald 1990 German German
4764 Metropole Ferenc Karinthy 1970 Hungarian Hungarian
4814 Happy Moscow Andrey Platonov 1991 Russian Russian
4941 In the Heart of the Country J. M. Coetzee 1977 South African English
4947 The Breast Philip Roth 1972 American English
5040 Eight Men Richard Wright 1961 American English
5325 If He Hollers Let Him Go Chester Himes 1945 American English
5327 A Storm Of Wings M. John Harrison 1980 British English
5362 Schilten Hermann Burger 1976 Swiss German
5405 Our Sister Killjoy Ama Ata Aidoo 1977 Ghanaian English
5428 Revulsion Laszlo Németh 1937 Hungarian Unknown
5448 The Moscoviad Yuri Andrukhovych 1993 Ukrainian Ukrainian
5448 Vor Den Vätern Sterben Die Söhne Thomas Brasch 1977 German German
5467 In The Solitude Of Cotton Fields Bernard-Marie Koltès 1986 French French
5531 The Essential Kafka Franz Kafka 1913 Czech German
5583 The Young Man Botho Strauß 1984 German German
5682 The Illustrated Man Ray Bradbury 1951 American English
5705 The Complete Works of Nathanael West Nathanael West 1957 American English
5714 The Gallery John Horne Burns 1947 American English
5722 Youth J. M. Coetzee 2002 South African English
5819 René François-Auguste-René de Chateaubriand 1802 French French
5860 Wasteland Jo Sinclair 1946 American English
5893 Antic Hay Aldous Huxley 1923 British English
5901 Parables, Fragments, Aphorisms Franz Kafka 1935 Czech German
5918 Hard Labor Cesare Pavese 1938 Italian Italian
5905 Notes From Underground & Other Stories Fyodor Dostoevsky 1864 Russian Russian
5958 House Of Hunger Dambudzo Marechera 1978 Zimbabwean English
5990 The Homecoming Harold Pinter 1965 British English
6005 Collected Stories Franz Kafka 1931 Austrian German
6005 The Lord Chandos Letter And Other Writings Hugo von Hofmannsthal 1902 Austrian German
6005 Waiting For Nothing And Other Writings Tom Kromer 1935 American English
6005 A Certain Plume Henri Michaux 1930 French English
6005 Dire I–Ii Danielle Collobert 1972 French French
6005 Le Bavard Louis-René Des Forêts 1946 French French
6005 My Feminine Brother Marina Tsvetaeva 1923 Russian Russian
6005 Quai Des Grands Augustins Jean Rhys 1930 Unknown French
6005 Septentrion Louis Calaferte 1963 French French
6102 Le Jeune Homme De Sable Williams Sassine 1979 French French
6134 L'hiver De Force Réjean Ducharme 1973 Canadian French
6174 Ludo Conrad Detrez 1974 Belgian French
6190 Guerrillas V. S. Naipaul 1975 Trinidadian English
6219 The Origin Thomas Bernhard 1975 Austrian German
6266 Pan In Oslo Knut Faldbakken 1985 Norwegian German
6312 Dance, Dance, Dance Haruki Murakami 1988 Japanese Japanese
6341 No No Boy John Okada 2024 American English
6427 Le Pays Où Tout Est Permis Sophie Podolski 1979 Unknown French
6439 The Gaudy Image William Talsman 1958 American English
6472 The Sound Of My Voice Ron Butlin 1987 British English
6556 Žmogus, Kuris Miega Georges Perec 1967 French French
6584 Mrs. Caliban Rachel Ingalls 1982 American English
6586 Crystal Boys Pai Hsien-yung 1983 Chinese Chinese
6761 Difficult Loves Italo Calvino 1958 Italian Italian
6821 Let It Come Down Paul Bowles 1952 American English
6872 Eustace Chisholm And The Works James Purdy 1967 American English
6920 The Reluctant Fundamentalist Mohsin Hamid 2007 Pakistani English
6972 The Exquisite Corpse Alfred Chester 1967 American English
7115 Seven Years Peter Stamm 2009 Swiss German
7143 Black Hole Charles Burns 1995 American English
7161 Saved Edward Bond 1965 British English
7216 The Island Within Ludwig Lewisohn 1928 American English
7216 Selected Writings Jules Laforgue 1901 French French
7216 The City Of The Dreadful Night James Thomson 1880 British English
7216 The Blue Octavo Notebook Franz Kafka 1935 Czech German
7216 Perched On Nothing's Branch Attila József 1932 Hungarian Hungarian
7216 Poems Of Moshe Leib Halpern Moshe-Leib Halpern 1919 Yiddish Yiddish
7216 The Spider's House Paul Bowles 1955 American English
7216 Lonely Crusade Chester Himes 1947 American English
7216 The Journal Of Albion Moonlight Kenneth Patchen 1941 American English
7216 A Mind At Peace Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar 1949 Turkish Turkish
7216 Europe After The Rain Alan Burns 1965 British English
7216 Seasons Of Anomy Wole Soyinka 1973 Nigerian English
7722 Pig Tales Marie Darrieussecq 1996 French French
7786 The Wig Charles Wright 1966 American English
7810 Bullet Park John Cheever 1969 American English
7940 The Fourth World Diamela Eltit 1988 Chilean Spanish
8032 An Area Of Darkness V. S. Naipaul 1964 British English
8072 Taipei Tao Lin 2013 American English
8166 Child Of God Cormac McCarthy 1973 American English
8178 Three Novels Samuel Beckett 1955 Irish French