The Greatest Biography Books Since 2000

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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
885 A Tale of Love and Darkness Amos Oz 2002 Israeli Hebrew
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
1817 The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Rebecca Skloot 2010 American English
1974 The Emperor of All Maladies Siddhartha Mukherjee 2010 American English
2338 Master of the Senate Robert Caro 2002 American English
2522 The Passage Of Power Robert Caro 2012 American English
2898 Moneyball Michael M. Lewis 2003 American English
2991 Frederick Douglass David W. Blight 2018 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
4381 How To End A Story Helen Garner 2021 Australian English
4454 Mountains Beyond Mountains Tracy Kidder 2003 American English
4613 Gulag Anne Applebaum 2003 American 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
5492 The Lost Daniel Mendelsohn 2006 American English
5588 Caste Isabel Wilkerson 2020 American English
5594 Poetry And Truth From My Own Life Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 2004 German English
5598 The Lost City of Z David Grann 2009 American English
5641 Enlightenment Now Steven Pinker 2018 American English
5718 Manhood For Amateurs Michael Chabon 2009 American English
5779 Entangled Life Merlin Sheldrake 2020 British English
5807 Prairie Fires Caroline Fraser 2017 American English
5931 King Jonathan Eig 2023 American English
6377 Leonardo Da Vinci Walter Isaacson 2017 American English
6499 The Black Count Tom Reiss 2012 French English
6536 Hunger Roxane Gay 2017 American English
6595 The Invention Of Nature Andrea Wulf 2015 German English
6611 Hidden Valley Road Robert Kolker 2020 American English
6654 Invisible Child Andrea Elliott 2021 American English
6660 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
6788 The Splendid And The Vile Erik Larson 2020 American 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
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
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
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
8099 The Gates Of Europe Serhii Plokhy 2015 Ukrainian English
8172 Life Keith Richards 2010 British English
8224 The Best Minds Jonathan Rosen 2023 Unknown English
8244 The Man Awakened From Dreams Henrietta Harrison 2005 Unknown English
8283 The Other Side Of Desire Daniel Bergner 2009 American English
8297 Empire Of Pain Patrick Radden Keefe 2021 American English
8306 A Life In The Twentieth Century Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr 2000 American English
8310 A Marriage At Sea Sophie Elmhirst 2024 British English
8391 de Kooning Mark Stevens, Annalyn Swan 2004 American English
8418 Mao’s Last Revolution Roderick MacFarquhar, Michael Schoenhals 2007 Unknown English
8420 The Man Who Loved China Simon Winchester 2008 British English
8422 Coming Apart Charles Murray 2012 American English
8425 Sad Tiger Neige Sinno 2023 Unknown French
8456 March John Lewis 2013 American English
8517 Into The Woods Anna Krien 2010 Australian English
8535 Prisoner Of The State Zhao Ziyang 2009 Chinese Chinese
8557 A Thread Of Violence Mark O'Connell 2023 Unknown English
8624 Things In Nature Merely Grow Yiyun Li 2025 Unknown English
8648 Raising Hare Chloe Dalton 2025 Unknown English
8650 Jane Maggie Nelson 2005 American English
8650 Pedigree Patrick Modiano 2005 French French
8702 W.E.B. Du Bois David Levering Lewis 2000 American English
8733 Tangata Whenua Atholl Anderson, Judith Binney, Aroha Harris 2014 New Zealand English
8756 Disney War James B. Stewart 2005 American English
8781 Mother Mary Comes To Me Arundhati Roy 2025 Unknown English
8847 Tragedy At Pike River Mine Rebecca Macfie 2013 New Zealand English
8870 Becoming Mrs. Lewis Patti Callahan Henry 2018 American English
8875 How To Survive A Plague David France 2016 American English
8890 Chronicles Bob Dylan 2004 American English
8890 Midnight In Chernobyl Adam Higginbotham 2024 British English
8887 The Beautiful Fall Alicia Drake 2006 British English
8894 Are You My Mother? A Comic Drama Alison Bechdel 2012 American English
8925 Hidden America Jeanne Marie Laskas 2012 American English
8936 Seibutsu To Museibutsu No Aida Shinichi Fukuoka 2007 Japanese Japanese
9038 Anansi’s Gold Yepoka Yeebo 2023 Unknown English
9056 In The Darkroom Susan Faludi 2016 American English
9067 Son Memorias Tulio Halperin Donghi 2008 Argentinian Spanish
9072 Cleopatra Stacy Schiff 2010 Egyptian English
9072 Alexander Hamilton Ron Chernow 2004 American English
9191 Love And Ruin Evan Ratliff, Susan Orlean 2016 Unknown English
9191 A Sliver Of Light Shane Bauer, Joshua Fattal, Sarah Shourd 2014 American English
9191 Irritable Hearts Mac McClelland 2015 Unknown English
9191 The Death Class Erika Hayasaki 2014 American English
9191 The Saboteur Paul Kix 2017 Unknown English
9238 Ella Baker And The Black Freedom Movement Barbara Ransby 2003 American English
9261 Malcolm X Manning Marable 2011 American English
9531 Marie Antoinette Antonia Fraser 2001 British English
9567 Les Naufragés Patrick Declerck 2001 French French
9620 Curse Of The Narrows Laura Mac Donald 2005 Canadian English
9696 The Beautiful Country And The Middle Kingdom John Pomfret 2016 American English
9709 Katherine Of Aragon Alison Weir 2016 British English
9754 The Years of Extermination Saul Friedlander 2007 Israeli English
9818 The Way To Paradise Mario Vargas Llosa 2003 Peruvian Spanish
9890 Bhimayana Srividya Natarajan, S. Anand 2011 Indian English
9977 The Most Wanted Man In China Fang Lizhi 2016 Unknown English
9983 Pictures At A Revolution Mark Harris 2008 American English
9997 Baldwin Nicholas Boggs 2025 Unknown English
10018 Nine Continents Xiaolu Guo 2017 Chinese English
10021 The Nine Lives Of Charlotte Taylor Sally Armstrong 2007 Canadian English
10054 A Truce That Is Not Peace Miriam Toews 2025 Canadian English
10057 In the Heart of the Sea Nathaniel Philbrick 2000 American English
10066 The Silences Of Hammerstein Hans Magnus Enzensberger 2008 German German