The Greatest Books of All Time on Colonialism

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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
8473 The Guyana Quartet Wilson Harris 1960 British English
8473 No Longer At Ease Chinua Achebe 1960 Nigerian English
8586 The Accidental Indies Robert Finley 2000 Canadian English
8633 Red Prophet Orson Scott Card 1988 American English
8647 The Raj Quartet Paul Scott 1976 British English
8733 Butterfly Burning Yvonne Vera 1998 Zimbabwean English
8733 Kiswahili, Past, Present And Future Horizons Rocha Chimera 1998 Kenyan English
8816 Loot Tania James 2023 Unknown English
8817 Shikasta Doris May Lessing 1979 British English
8825 The Sacred Hoop Paula Gunn Allen 1986 American English
8842 Desertion Abdulrazak Gurnah 2005 Tanzanian English
8862 Mexico Enrique Krauze 1997 Mexican Spanish
8869 African Stories Doris May Lessing 1964 British English
8919 Manchuria Under Japanese Dominion Shinichi Yamamuro 2006 Japanese Japanese
8936 The White Girl Tony Birch 2019 Australian English
8966 O Uraguai Basílio Da Gama 1769 Brazilian Portuguese
9003 The Flame Trees Of Thika Elspeth Huxley 1959 British English
9022 Kalimantaan C. S. Godshalk 1998 American English
9032 The Storyteller Mario Vargas Llosa 1987 Peruvian Spanish
9056 The Emperor Of The Amazon Márcio Souza 1976 Brazilian Portuguese
9130 Westward Ho! Charles Kingsley 1855 British English
9136 How To Write About Africa Binyavanga Wainaina 2005 Kenyan English
9159 Decolonising The Mind Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o 1986 Kenyan English
9185 By The Sea Abdulrazak Gurnah 2001 British English
9249 Cities Of Salt Abd al-Rahman Munif 1984 Arabic Arabic
9251 Sor Juana Or, The Traps Of Faith Octavio Paz 1982 Mexican Spanish
9285 1898 Kate Clarke Lemay, Taína Caragol 2017 Unknown English
9315 Exterminate All The Brutes Sven Lindqvist 1992 Swedish Swedish
9324 Terra Nullius Sven Lindqvist 2007 Swedish Swedish
9342 Master Of The Crossroads Madison Smartt Bell 2000 American English
9377 Plain Tales From The Hills Rudyard Kipling 1888 British English
9570 Custer Died For Your Sins Vine DeLoria, Jr. 1969 American English
9603 The Interpreter From Java Alfred Birney 2016 Dutch Dutch
9708 Black Skin, White Masks Frantz Fanon 1952 French French
9757 Fire in the Lake Frances FitzGerald 1972 American English
9769 Un Attieké Pour Elgass Tierno Monenembo 2021 French French
9767 The Reign Of Greed José Rizal 1891 Filipino Spanish
9777 Collected Poems Derek Walcott 1986 Saint Lucian English
9809 America, América Greg Grandin 2009 Unknown English
9821 The Way To Paradise Mario Vargas Llosa 2003 Peruvian Spanish
9833 Sea of Poppies Amitav Ghosh 2008 Indian English
9855 Afterlives Abdulrazak Gurnah 2020 British English
9905 A Memory Called Empire Arkady Martine 2019 American English
9931 Dimensions Of History Jay Wright 1976 American English
9943 Crick Crack, Monkey Merle Hodge 1970 Trinidadian English
10006 Where Tigers Are At Home Jean-Marie Blas de Roblès 2008 French French
10042 The Future In The Present C. L. R. James 1977 Trinidadian English
10098 The Secret History Of Costaguana Juan Gabriel Vásquez 2007 Colombian Spanish
10101 The People In The Trees Hanya Yanagihara 2013 American English
10111 Lose Your Mother Saidiya Hartman 2007 American English
10309 Travels In The Congo André Gide 1927 French French
10309 The Broken Spears Miguel Leon-Portilla 1959 Mexican Spanish
10377 Green City In The Sun Barbara Wood 1988 American English
10454 The World Is What It Is Patrick French 2008 Trinidadian English
10454 A Peace To End All Peace David Fromkin 1989 American English
10489 Farthest Field Raghu Karnad 2015 Indian English
10496 The House Of Doors Tan Twang Eng 2023 Malaysian English
10516 Postcolonial Love Poem Natalie Diaz 2020 American English
10531 Lumumba Speaks Patrice Lumumba 1967 Congolese French
10701 The Great Reclamation Rachel Heng 2023 Unknown English
10742 Tracks Louise Erdrich 1988 American English
10752 The Moor's Account Laila Lalami 2014 American English
10817 ‘Gapô Lualhati Bautista 1988 Filipino Filipino
10868 Ancillary Sword Ann Leckie 2014 American English
10868 City Of Stairs Robert Jackson Bennett 2014 American English
10949 Golden Hill Francis Spufford 2016 British English
11029 Four Novels Marguerite Duras 1985 French French
11046 The Shadow King Maaza Mengiste 2019 American English
11077 Smoke And Ashes Abir Mukherjee 2018 British English
11141 O Strange New World Howard Mumford Jones 1964 American English
11141 Imperial Reckoning Caroline Elkins 2005 British English
11168 Foe J. M. Coetzee 1986 South African English
11181 The Abandoned Baobab Ken Bugul 1982 Senegalese French
11181 Juletane Myriam Warner-Vieyra 1982 Senegalese French
11199 Stranglehold On Africa René Dumont 1980 French French
11255 Éthiopiques Léopold Sédar Senghor 1956 Senegalese French
11278 The Playmaker Thomas Keneally 1987 Australian English
11302 The Adventures Of China Iron Gabriela Cabezón Cámara 2017 Argentinian Spanish
11335 The French Art Of War Alexis Jenni 2011 French French
11410 The Island Robert Merle 1962 French French
11412 The Egyptian, Syrian, And Iraqi Revolutions Hanna Batatu 1984 American Unknown
11445 Awaiting Trespass Linda Ty-Casper 1985 Philippine English
11445 The Land Of Look Behind Michelle Cliff 1985 American English
11471 Batouala René Maran 1921 French French
11500 Azadi Arundhati Roy 2020 Indian English
11500 What The Colonists Never Knew Dennis Foley, Peter Read 2020 Unknown English
11531 Journals (Cook) James Cook 1768 British English
11533 Travels in the Interior Districts of Africa Mungo Park 1799 British English
11634 Catalina Elisa Mujica 1952 Colombian Spanish
11663 The Ordeal Of Elizabeth Marsh Linda Colley 2007 British English
11663 Mayflower Nathaniel Philbrick 2006 American English
11663 Conrad In The Nineteenth Century Ian Watt 1979 British English
11663 Isak Dinesen Judith Thurman 1982 American English
11663 Out Of India Ruth Prawer Jhabvala 1995 Indian English
11663 Whites Norman Rush 1986 American English
11807 The Meursault Investigation Kamel Daoud 2013 Algerian French
11870 Century Of Locusts Malika Mokedden 1999 Algerian French
11901 A Small Place Jamaica Kincaid 1988 Antiguan English
12063 O Tamanho Do Mundo António Lobo Antunes 2022 Portuguese Portuguese
12130 The Sparrow Mary Doria Russell 1996 American English
12131 The Glass Palace Amitav Ghosh 2000 Indian English
12135 Buru Quartet Pramoedya Ananta Toer 1980 Indonesian Indonesian
12326 Conquest Of Mexico Hugh Thomas 1993 British English
12326 A Way In The World V. S. Naipaul 1994 American English
12419 Desert J. M. G. Le Clezio 1980 French French
12450 Changó, The Biggest Badass Manuel Zapata Olivella 1983 Colombian Spanish
12515 Yoruba Girl Dancing Simi Bedford 1991 British English
12622 The Missionary Movement In Christian History Andrew Walls 1996 Scottish English
12896 Orphan Of Asia Zhuoliu Wu 1945 Taiwanese Chinese
13077 The Isle In The Silver Sea Tasha Suri 2025 British English
13153 The New Carthaginians Nick Makoha 2025 Ugandan English
13237 Making Trouble Loa Ho 1930 Chinese Chinese
13316 Who Will Remember The People... Jean Raspail 1986 French French
13340 Caleb's Crossing Geraldine Brooks 2011 Australian English
13340 River Of Smoke Amitav Ghosh 2011 Indian English
13351 The Shadow Of The Sun Ryszard Kapuscinski 1998 Polish Polish
13362 A Grave For A Dolphin Alberto Denti di Pirajno 1956 Italian Italian
13362 Rain And Other South Sea Stories W. Somerset Maugham 1921 British English
13523 Island Aldous Huxley 1962 British English
13555 Almayer's Folly Joseph Conrad 1895 British English