The Greatest Biography Books Since 1990

Click to learn how this list is calculated.

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.

View: List Grid Table
Filter by: Genres Dates Countries

Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
885 A Tale of Love and Darkness Amos Oz 2002 Israeli Hebrew
903 Wild Swans Jung Chang 1991 Chinese English
909 The Warmth Of Other Suns Isabel Wilkerson 2010 American English
1392 Evicted Matthew Desmond 2016 American English
1542 The Devil In The White City Erik Larson 2003 American English
1627 Dora Bruder Patrick Modiano 1997 French French
1817 The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Rebecca Skloot 2010 American English
1974 The Emperor of All Maladies Siddhartha Mukherjee 2010 American English
2022 The Color of Water James McBride 1995 American English
2339 Master of the Senate Robert Caro 2002 American English
2523 The Passage Of Power Robert Caro 2012 American English
2611 What It Takes Richard Ben Cramer 1992 American English
2899 Moneyball Michael M. Lewis 2003 American English
2992 Frederick Douglass David W. Blight 2018 American English
3075 Patrimony Philip Roth 1991 American English
3171 The Tipping Point Malcolm Gladwell 2000 American English
3235 When Breath Becomes Air Paul Kalanithi 2016 American English
3501 Borges Adolfo Bioy Casares 2006 Argentine Spanish
3604 Limonov Emmanuel Carrère 2011 French French
4066 Lives Other Than My Own Emmanuel Carrère 2009 French French
4075 Seabiscuit Laura Hillenbrand 2001 American English
4157 We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families Philip Gourevitch 1998 American English
4381 How To End A Story Helen Garner 2021 Australian English
4454 Mountains Beyond Mountains Tracy Kidder 2003 American English
4506 Truman David McCullough 1992 American English
4520 Last Train to Memphis Peter Guralnick 1994 American English
4576 No Ordinary Time Doris Kearns Goodwin 1994 American English
4613 Gulag Anne Applebaum 2003 American English
4619 Rising Tide John Barry 1997 American English
4716 A Life of Picasso John Richardson 1991 British English
4930 Running Jean Echenoz 2008 French French
4979 The Hare with Amber Eyes Edmund de Waal 2010 British English
5329 Grant Ron Chernow 2017 American English
5358 Team of Rivals Doris Kearns Goodwin 2005 American English
5381 Longitude Dava Sobel 1995 American English
5492 The Lost Daniel Mendelsohn 2006 American English
5588 Caste Isabel Wilkerson 2020 American English
5595 Poetry And Truth From My Own Life Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 2004 German English
5599 The Lost City of Z David Grann 2009 American English
5642 Enlightenment Now Steven Pinker 2018 American English
5719 Manhood For Amateurs Michael Chabon 2009 American English
5736 Redemption Songs Judith Binney 1995 New Zealand English
5780 Entangled Life Merlin Sheldrake 2020 British English
5808 Prairie Fires Caroline Fraser 2017 American English
5932 King Jonathan Eig 2023 American English
6378 Leonardo Da Vinci Walter Isaacson 2017 American English
6500 The Black Count Tom Reiss 2012 French English
6526 The Private Life of Chairman Mao Li Zhi-Sui 1994 Chinese English
6537 Hunger Roxane Gay 2017 American English
6595 The Rape Of Nanking Iris Chang 1997 American English
6596 The Invention Of Nature Andrea Wulf 2015 German English
6611 The Russian Revolution Richard Pipes 1990 American English
6612 Hidden Valley Road Robert Kolker 2020 American English
6655 Invisible Child Andrea Elliott 2021 American English
6661 Mendeleyev's Dream Paul Strathern 2000 British English
6664 How The Word Is Passed Clint Smith 2021 American English
6737 The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup Susan Orlean 2001 American English
6748 The Silent Steppe Mukhamet Shayakhmetov 2006 Kazakh English
6763 Citizen And Subject Mahmood Mamdani 1996 Ugandan English
6788 The Splendid And The Vile Erik Larson 2020 American English
6881 Tinísima Elena Poniatowska 1992 Mexican Spanish
6882 Lincoln at Gettysburg Garry Wills 1992 American English
6886 Dr. Johnson & Mr. Savage Richard Holmes 1993 British English
6974 Origins Reconsidered Roger Lewin, Richard Leakey 1992 Multiple English
7020 Albert Murray Albert Murray 2016 American Unknown
7104 Māori Michael King 2003 New Zealand English
7212 Question 7 Richard Flanagan 2023 Unknown English
7569 Mortality Christopher Hitchens 2012 British English
7572 The House of Morgan Ron Chernow 1990 American English
7574 I Have Lived a Thousand Years Livia Bitton-Jackson 1997 Hungarian English
7595 Wealth And Power Orville Schell, John Delury 2013 Chinese English
7666 The Age Of Wonder Richard Holmes 2008 British English
7679 Master Slave Husband Wife Ilyon Woo 2023 Unknown English
7682 Sophie Calle Sophie Calle 1994 French French
7737 Becoming Madame Mao Anchee Min 2000 American English
7885 Wifedom Anna Funder 2023 Unknown English
7975 Kayang And Me Kim Scott 2005 Australian English
7980 The Man Who Loved Only Numbers Paul Hoffman 1998 American English
8003 Play Their Hearts Out George Dohrmann 2010 American English
8005 On The Move Oliver Sacks 2015 British English
8050 Rita Angus Jill Trevelyan 2008 New Zealand English
8062 The Future Is History Masha Gessen 2017 Russian English
8067 All That She Carried Tiya Miles 2021 American English
8096 The Invisible Woman Claire Tomalin 1990 British English
8100 The Gates Of Europe Serhii Plokhy 2015 Ukrainian English
8173 Life Keith Richards 2010 British English
8225 The Best Minds Jonathan Rosen 2023 Unknown English
8245 The Man Awakened From Dreams Henrietta Harrison 2005 Unknown English
8284 The Other Side Of Desire Daniel Bergner 2009 American English
8292 The Author Of Himself Marcel Reich-Ranicki 1999 German German
8298 Empire Of Pain Patrick Radden Keefe 2021 American English
8307 A Life In The Twentieth Century Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr 2000 American English
8311 A Marriage At Sea Sophie Elmhirst 2024 British English
8375 The Seed Is Mine Charles Van Onselen 1996 South African English
8392 de Kooning Mark Stevens, Annalyn Swan 2004 American English
8401 Genie Russ Rymer 1993 American English
8419 Mao’s Last Revolution Roderick MacFarquhar, Michael Schoenhals 2007 Unknown English
8421 The Man Who Loved China Simon Winchester 2008 British English
8423 Coming Apart Charles Murray 2012 American English
8426 Sad Tiger Neige Sinno 2023 Unknown French
8457 March John Lewis 2013 American English
8518 Into The Woods Anna Krien 2010 Australian English
8536 Prisoner Of The State Zhao Ziyang 2009 Chinese Chinese
8558 A Thread Of Violence Mark O'Connell 2023 Unknown English
8625 Things In Nature Merely Grow Yiyun Li 2025 Unknown English
8649 Raising Hare Chloe Dalton 2025 Unknown English
8651 Jane Maggie Nelson 2005 American English
8651 Pedigree Patrick Modiano 2005 French French
8703 W.E.B. Du Bois David Levering Lewis 2000 American English
8734 Tangata Whenua Atholl Anderson, Judith Binney, Aroha Harris 2014 New Zealand English
8757 Disney War James B. Stewart 2005 American English
8759 Mrs. Humphry Ward John Sutherland 1990 British English
8782 Mother Mary Comes To Me Arundhati Roy 2025 Unknown English
8848 Tragedy At Pike River Mine Rebecca Macfie 2013 New Zealand English
8861 A Commotion in the Blood Stephen S. Hall 1997 American English
8871 Becoming Mrs. Lewis Patti Callahan Henry 2018 American English
8876 How To Survive A Plague David France 2016 American English
8891 Chronicles Bob Dylan 2004 American English
8891 Midnight In Chernobyl Adam Higginbotham 2024 British English
8888 The Beautiful Fall Alicia Drake 2006 British English