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
8256 Strangers In Their Own Land Arlie Russell Hochschild 2016 American English
8262 Rosie Carpe & Hilda Marie NDiaye 2001 French French
8283 Nowhere Man Aleksandar Hemon 2002 Bosnian English
8441 Diaries 1959 1971 Alejandra Pizarnik 2003 Argentinian Spanish
8443 The Interim Wolfgang Hilbig 2000 German German
8471 Three Novels Witold Gombrowicz 1960 Polish Polish
8471 Collected Poems Weldon Kees 1960 American English
8699 Millennium People J. G. Ballard 2003 British English
8814 Shikasta Doris May Lessing 1979 British English
8970 The Society Of The Spectacle Guy Debord 1967 French French
9255 Portrait Of A Man Unknown Nathalie Sarraute 1948 French French
9292 Project For A Revolution In New York Alain Robbe-Grillet 1970 French French
9321 The Beautiful Room Is Empty Edmund White 1988 American English
9327 René’S Flesh Virgilio Piñera 1988 Cuban Spanish
9350 That Smell Sonallah Ibrahim 1966 Egyptian Arabic
9510 Drinking Coffee Elsewhere ZZ Packer 2003 American English
9548 Selected Poems Jacob Glatstein 1972 Polish Yiddish
9572 Pigeons On The Grass Wolfgang Koeppen 1951 German German
9705 Black Skin, White Masks Frantz Fanon 1952 French French
9752 Darkness Spoken Ingeborg Bachmann 2006 Austrian German
9793 Crossings Chuang Hua 1968 American English
9833 Poems Of Pier Paolo Pasolini Pier Paolo Pasolini 1975 Italian Italian
9857 The Delicate Prey Paul Bowles 1950 American English
9886 Novel With Cocaine M. Ageyev 1934 Russian Russian
9961 Varieties Of Exile Mavis Gallant 2003 Canadian English
10072 Prufrock and Other Observations T. S. Eliot 1917 British English
10170 The Collected Stories of Jean Stafford Jean Stafford 1969 American English
10216 V. Tony Harrison 1985 British English
10305 Critique Of Everyday Life Henri Lefebvre 1947 French French
10305 The Need For Roots Simone Weil 1949 French French
10631 The New Me Halle Butler 2019 American English
10737 The Fifth Child Doris May Lessing 1988 British English
10851 The Stories Bernard Malamud 1983 American English
10872 Lost In Translation Eva Hoffman 1989 Canadian English
10992 Portable Curiosities Julie Koh 2016 Australian English
11047 The Complete Plays of T. S. Eliot T. S. Eliot 1969 British English
11157 Lie Down In Darkness William Styron 1951 American English
11176 The Abandoned Baobab Ken Bugul 1982 Senegalese French
11176 Juletane Myriam Warner-Vieyra 1982 Senegalese French
11273 Space In Motion Juan Goytisolo 1987 Spanish Unknown
11362 La Patrie Empaillée Jacques Izoard Belgian French
11362 Le Monde Tel Qu'il Est Salvat Etchart French Unknown
11511 On The Line Joseph Ponthus 2019 French French
11515 The Intellectuals And The Masses John Carey 1992 British English
11567 The Swallower Swallowed Réjean Ducharme 1966 Canadian French
11612 Homesick for Another World Ottessa Moshfegh 2017 American English
11648 Money To Burn Asta Olivia Nordenhof 2020 Danish Danish
11660 Conrad In The Nineteenth Century Ian Watt 1979 British English
11660 The Burning House Ann Beattie 1982 American English
11857 I Is Another Arthur Rimbaud French French
11878 Sololand Hassan Blasim 2021 Iraqi Arabic
11899 A War Of Eyes And Other Stories Wanda Coleman 1988 American English
11932 This Young Monster Charlie Fox 2017 British English
12024 Biotope Orly Castel-Bloom 2022 Israeli Hebrew
12034 We Are The Ants Shaun David Hutchinson 2016 American English
12198 I Racconti Alberto Moravia 1952 Italian Italian
12219 The Victim Saul Bellow 1947 American English
12324 Preston Falls David Gates 1998 American English
12628 Wandering Lu Xun 1926 Chinese Chinese
12716 Drowning Yu Dafu 1921 Chinese Chinese
12894 Orphan Of Asia Zhuoliu Wu 1945 Taiwanese Chinese
13149 The Book Of Jonah Luke Kennard 2025 British English
13316 Brief Interviews With Hideous Men David Foster Wallace 1999 American English
13498 The Ship Of Fools Cristina Peri Rossi 2021 Uruguayan Spanish
13359 A Perfect Day For Bananafish J. D. Salinger 1948 American English
13359 The Nowhere City Alison Lurie 1965 American English
13359 Night Shift Maritta Wolff 1942 American English
13527 More Than Human Theodore Sturgeon 1953 American English
13542 Steps Jerzy Kosinski 1968 Polish English
13542 Mr. Sammler's Planet Saul Bellow 1970 American English
13599 Enemy Force John Antoine Nau 1903 French French
13599 Le Vitriol De La Lune And Le Martyre De L'obèse Henri Béraud French French
13599 Jerome Maurice Bedel French French
13599 God Was Born In Exile Vintilă Horia 1960 Unknown Spanish
13599 To Forget Palermo Edmonde Charles-Roux 1966 French French
13599 The Margin André Pieyre de Mandiargues 1967 French French
13599 The Lost Ones Frédérick Tristan 1983 French French
13599 And Their Children After Them Nicolas Mathieu 2018 French French
13758 The Art Of Loving Erich Fromm 1956 Unknown German
13803 The Drunkard Liu Yichang 1963 Chinese Chinese
13817 The Worldwide Machine Paolo Volponi 1965 Italian Unknown
13922 Dangerous Visions Harlan Ellison 1967 American English
13986 I'm Dying Laughing Christina Stead 1986 Australian English
14011 The Houseguest Thomas Berger 1988 American English
14232 The Middleman and Other Stories Bharati Mukherjee 1988 Indian English
14232 Hunger of Memory Richard Rodriguez 1982 American English
14331 Changing Planes Ursula K. Le Guin 2003 American English
14410 Kaspar and Other Plays Peter Handke 1967 Austrian German
14584 Lai Suo Huang Fan 1987 Chinese Chinese
14553 Love And Death In The American Novel Leslie Fiedler 1960 American English
14645 Fin De Siècle Splendor Chu Tʽien-wen 1990 Chinese Chinese
14730 I, etcetera Susan Sontag 1978 American English
14886 Black Spring Henry Miller 1936 American English
14949 The Dutchman Amiri Baraka 1964 American English
14962 Dying Inside Robert Silverberg 1972 American English
14984 Going Native Stephen Wright 1994 American English
14984 Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned Wells Tower 2009 American English
14977 The Soft Machine William S. Burroughs 1961 American English
14984 Nova Express William S. Burroughs 1964 American English
14975 The Complete Poetry of César Vallejo César Vallejo 1968 Peruvian Spanish
14984 A Disaffection James Kelman 1989 Scottish English
14984 From The Fifteenth District Mavis Gallant 1979 Canadian English
14984 The Rediscovery Of Man Cordwainer Smith 1975 American English
14984 English, August Upamanyu Chatterjee 1988 Indian English
15588 The Making Of A Counter Culture Theodore Roszak 1969 American English
15643 Up Stream Ludwig Lewisohn 1922 American English
15673 Children Of Loneliness Anzia Yezierska 1923 American English
15680 The Days Run Away Like Wild Horses Over The Hills Charles Bukowski American English
15725 Passionate Journey Frans Masereel 1919 Belgian German
15767 Crime And Punishment Dostoyevsky 1866 Russian Russian
15792 Collected Poems Of T. S. Eliot 1909 1935 T. S. Eliot 1936 American English
15819 A World I Never Made James T. Farrell 1936 American English
15898 Grundrisse Karl Marx 1857 German German
15898 Funnyhouse Of A Negro Adrienne Kennedy 1964 American English
15898 The Flagellants Carlene Hatcher Polite 1966 American English
16498 The Zoo Story Edward Albee 1958 American English
15898 The Air Conditioned Nightmare Henry Miller 1945 American English
15898 De Perfil José Agustín 1966 Mexican Spanish
16695 Selected Writings Karl Marx 1973 German German
16688 The Colour Out Of Space H. P. Lovecraft 1927 American English