The Greatest Contemporary Books of All Time

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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
10732 Dirt Poor Islanders Winnie Dunn 2022 Unknown English
10732 Black Butterflies Priscilla Morris 2022 Unknown English
10752 A Perfect Peace Amos Oz 1982 Israeli Hebrew
10778 Reservation Blues Sherman Alexie 1995 American English
10786 Grown Ups Marian Keyes 2020 Irish English
10795 Jane Sexes It Up Merri Lisa Johnson 2002 Unknown English
10812 Laurinda Alice Pung 2014 Australian English
10822 An Untamed State Roxane Gay 2014 American English
10857 Modern Baptists James Wilcox 1983 American English
10857 American Appetites Joyce Carol Oates 1989 American English
10888 A Man In Full (A Novel) Tom Wolfe 1998 American English
10890 My Friends Fredrik Backman 2025 Unknown English
10889 Things We Never Got Over Lucy Score 2022 American English
10894 Brand New Ancients Kae Tempest 2013 British English
10896 The Odd Woman And The City Vivian Gornick 2015 American English
10897 Roman Stories Jhumpa Lahiri 2023 Unknown English
10897 Lola In The Mirror Trent Dalton 2023 Australian English
10908 The Drone Eats With Me Atef Abu Saif 2015 Palestinian English
10913 Grief Andrew Holleran 2022 American English
10913 Samedi The Deafness Jesse Ball 2007 American English
10937 Bodies Of Light Jennifer Down 2021 Australian English
10944 We Are Okay Nina LaCour 2017 American English
10980 They Know Not What They Do Jussi Valtonen 2014 Finnish Finnish
10994 Happenstance Carol Shields 1980 Canadian English
11022 Gifted & Talented Olivie Blake 2025 American English
11043 First Time Caller B.K. Borison 2025 Unknown English
11045 Les Turbines Du Titanic Robert Perišić 2015 Unknown French
11053 The Lone Pilgrim Laurie Colwin 1981 American English
11051 Black Swan Green David Mitchell 2006 British English
11062 Look Solmaz Sharif 2016 American English
11076 Your Steps On The Stairs Antonio Muñoz Molina, Curtis Bauer 2019 Spanish English
11082 Heaven Mieko Kawakami 2023 Japanese Japanese
11083 Theory & Practice Michelle de Kretser 2024 Unknown English
11085 Praying for Sheetrock Melissa Fay Greene 1991 American English
11086 The Refugees Viet Thanh Nguyen 2017 American English
11086 When I Grow Up I Want To Be A List Of Further Possibilities Chen Chen 2017 American English
11134 Imaginary Homelands Salman Rushdie 1991 British English
11166 The Destroyers Christopher Bollen 2017 American English
11168 Foe J. M. Coetzee 1986 South African English
11168 Ordinary People Diana Evans 2018 British English
11202 Woodworking Emily St. James 2025 Unknown English
11209 The Tokyo Suite Bruna Dantas Lobato, Giovana Madalosso 2020 Brazilian English
11219 Memorial Bryan Washington 2020 American English
11241 Vera, Or Faith Gary Shteyngart 2025 American English
11297 Such A Fun Age Kiley Reid 2019 American English
11306 Run For The Hills Kevin Wilson 2025 Unknown English
11314 Atavists Lydia Millet 2025 American English
11316 Homeseeking Karissa Chen 2025 Unknown English
11317 Bad Art Mother Edwina Preston 2022 Unknown English
11354 The Interestings Meg Wolitzer 2013 American English
11358 Walking On The Ceiling Ayşegül Savaş 2019 Turkish English
11358 The House Of Youssef Yumna Kassab 2019 Australian English
11364 Une Façon D'aimer Dominique Barbéris 2019 French French
11393 The Immortal Bartfuss Aharon Appelfeld 1988 Israeli Hebrew
11393 Poor Caleb Femi 2020 British English
11425 A Naked Singularity Sergio De La Pava 2008 American English
11432 Girls Out Late Jacqueline Wilson 1999 British English
11455 Elbow Room James Alan McPherson 1977 American English
11478 Someone To Watch Over You Kumi Kimura 2021 Unknown English
11482 Overstaying Ariane Koch 2021 Unknown English
11494 Red at the Bone Jacqueline Woodson 2019 American English
11499 Hunter Shuang Xuetao 2019 Chinese Chinese
11500 The Thirty Names Of Night Zeyn Joukhadar 2020 Unknown English
11503 State Of Wonder Ann Patchett 2011 American English
11508 The Coming Bad Days Sarah Bernstein 2021 Canadian English
11524 Dial A For Aunties Jesse Q. Sutanto 2021 Indonesian English
11566 Trick Mirror Jia Tolentino 2019 American English
11570 Ghostwritten David Mitchell 1999 British English
11642 The Colony Annika Norlin, Alice E. Olsson 2023 Swedish English
11644 Paradise Estate Max Easton 2021 Unknown English
11644 Silence Is A Sense Layla AlAmmar 2021 Unknown English
11651 Money To Burn Asta Olivia Nordenhof 2020 Danish Danish
11653 Mammoth Eva Baltasar 2022 Catalan Catalan
11663 The Lay Of The Land Richard Ford 2006 American English
11663 The Female Persuasion Meg Wolitzer 2018 American English
11663 The House Of Broken Angels Luis Alberto Urrea 2018 American English
11663 Lake Success Gary Shteyngart 2018 American English
11663 The Parking Lot Attendant Nafkote Tamirat 2018 American English
11663 Property Lionel Shriver 2018 American English
11663 Pure Hollywood Christine Schutt 2018 American English
11663 A State Of Freedom Neel Mukherjee 2018 British English
11807 The Meursault Investigation Kamel Daoud 2013 Algerian French
11812 Yinka, Where Is Your Huzband? Elizabeth Blackburn 2022 Unknown English
11826 The Wax Child Olga Ravn, Martin Aitken 2023 Danish English
11837 I Gave You Eyes And You Looked Toward Darkness Irene Solà 2023 Unknown Catalan
11857 Mahmoud Ou La Montée Des Eaux Antoine Wauters 2021 Belgian French
11861 Highwire Moon Susan Straight 2001 American English
11880 Sololand Hassan Blasim 2021 Iraqi Arabic
11884 Honor Thrity Umrigar 2022 American English
11884 Losing Face George Haddad 2022 Unknown English
11890 The Mac Gregor Brides Nora Roberts 1997 American English
11896 Kinder Than Solitude Yiyun Li 2014 American English
11927 Nineteen Minutes Jodi Picoult 2007 American English
11933 The Land In Winter Andrew Miller 2024 British English
11937 Wolf Bells Leni Zumas 2024 American English
12030 The Heather Blazing Colm Toibin 1992 Irish English
12032 American Wife Curtis Sittenfeld 2008 American English
12050 Windows On The World Frédéric Beigbeder 2003 French French
12067 Discontent Beatriz Serrano, Mara Faye Lethem 2023 Unknown English
12070 Mr. Ibrahim And The Flowers Of The Koran Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt 2001 French French
12072 When You Listen To This Song Lola Lafon 2022 French French
12076 Great Big Beautiful Life Emily Henry 2025 American English
12081 The Ten Year Affair Erin Somers 2025 Unknown English
12084 Disappearing Acts Terry McMillan 1989 American English
12103 Vantage Point Sara Sligar 2025 Unknown English
12105 Promise Me Sunshine Cara Bastone 2025 Unknown English
12108 Good And Evil And Other Stories Samanta Schweblin 2025 Argentine Spanish
12107 The Ferryman And His Wife Frode Grytten, Alison McCullough 2023 Norwegian English
12106 Dwelling Emily Hunt Kivel 2025 Unknown English
12115 Great Black Hope Rob Franklin 2025 Unknown English
12111 North Sun Ethan Rutherford 2025 Unknown English
12120 Culpability Bruce Holsinger 2025 Unknown English
12123 Songs For The Dead And The Living Sara M. Saleh 2023 Unknown English
12140 August Lane Regina Black 2025 Unknown English
12149 What Girls Learn Karin Cook 1997 American English
12170 Trip Amie Barrodale 2025 American English
12171 Tom's Crossing Mark Z. Danielewski 2025 American English
12174 The Catch Yrsa Daley-Ward 2025 British English
12179 The Centaur John Updike 1963 American English
12182 Pick A Color Souvankham Thammavongsa 2025 Canadian English