The Greatest Dark 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
5288 Cutting It Short Bohumil Hrabal 1976 Czech Czech
5289 Revenge Yōko Ogawa 1998 Japanese Japanese
5315 Faithless Joyce Carol Oates 2001 American English
5438 The Pendragon Legend Antal Szerb 1934 Hungarian Hungarian
5445 The Burn Vassily Aksyonov 1975 Russian Russian
5473 Zero Ignácio De Loyola Brandão 1974 Brazilian Portuguese
5475 Larva Julián Ríos 1983 Spanish Spanish
5481 The Painter Of Signs R. K. Narayan 1976 Indian English
5506 Always Come Evening Robert E. Howard 1957 American English
5507 Dreams And Stones Magdalena Tulli 1995 Polish Polish
5529 The Sufferings Of Prince Sternenhoch Ladislav Klíma 1928 Czech Czech
5651 The Parable of the Blind Gert Hofmann 1985 German German
5661 Invisible Green John Sladek 1977 American English
5691 Night Boat To Tangier Kevin Barry 2019 Irish English
5698 Fear And Trembling Amélie Nothomb 1999 Belgian French
5706 Ο Λουσίας Nikos Houliaras 1987 Greek Greek
5767 The Businessman Thomas M. Disch 1984 American English
5780 La Pietra Lunare Tommaso Landolfi 1939 Italian Italian
5898 Parables, Fragments, Aphorisms Franz Kafka 1935 Czech German
5915 The Tale Of The 1002nd Night Joseph Roth 1938 Austrian German
5947 Cigarettes Harry Mathews 1987 American English
5954 House Of Hunger Dambudzo Marechera 1978 Zimbabwean English
6002 Marginalia On Casanova Miklós Szentkuthy 1939 Hungarian Hungarian
6002 Night Edgar Hilsenrath 1964 German German
6131 L'hiver De Force Réjean Ducharme 1973 Canadian French
6168 I Spit On Your Graves Boris Vian 1946 French French
6290 Gaston André Franquin 1957 French French
6299 Rejection Tony Tulathimutte 2024 American English
6300 Lord Of The Barnyard Tristan Egolf 1998 American English
6301 Dreaming Of Babylon Richard Brautigan 1977 American English
6313 Comfort Me With Apples Peter De Vries 1956 American English
6347 A Wild Sheep Chase Haruki Murakami 1982 Japanese Japanese
6431 A Very Normal Man Vincenzo Cerami 1976 Italian Italian
6470 Anthills Of The Savannah Chinua Achebe 1987 Nigerian English
6523 The Mars Room Rachel Kushner 2018 American English
6607 Nos4 A2 Joe Hill 2013 American English
6621 The Life of Insects Victor Pelevin 1993 Russian Russian
6645 The Builders Giorgos Heimonas 1996 Greek Greek
6665 Magorovy Labutí Písně Ivan Martin Jirous 1985 Czech Czech
6697 Landscapes After the Battle Juan Goytisolo 1982 Spanish Spanish
6747 Infanta Bodo Kirchhoff 1990 German German
6821 Tracy's Tiger William Saroyan 1951 American English
6821 The Swimmer John Cheever 1964 American English
6915 Other Fires Maxim Gorky 1900 Russian Unknown
6951 Bones Chenjerai Hove 1988 Zimbabwean English
7043 The Cosmic Connection Carl Sagan 1973 American English
7086 There Once Lived A Woman Who Tried To Kill Her Neighbour’s Baby Ludmila Petrushevskaya 2009 Russian Russian
7096 Try Dennis Cooper 1994 American English
7096 Guide Dennis Cooper 1994 American English
7108 The Children Of The Dead Elfriede Jelinek 2024 Austrian German
7134 Slow Man J. M. Coetzee 2005 South African English
7205 Animalinside László Krasznahorkai, Max Neumann 2010 Hungarian Hungarian
7205 The Pharmacist Ingrid Noll 1994 German German
7615 Dirty Havana Trilogy Pedro Juan Gutierrez 1998 Cuban Spanish
7724 Stupidity Rafael Spregelburd 2007 Argentinian Spanish
7726 Cast A Cold Eye Alan Ryan 1984 American English
7852 L'organisation Jean Rolin 1996 French French
7929 Winterwood Patrick McCabe 2006 Irish English
8068 Minor Angels Antoine Volodine 1999 French French
8159 The Choirboys Joseph Wambaugh 1975 American English
8207 Outer Dark Cormac McCarthy 1968 American English
8294 La Guerra De Galio Héctor Aguilar Camín 1991 Mexican Spanish
8334 The Rebellion Of Yale Marrat Robert H. Rimmer 1964 American English
8496 Shadows Osvaldo Soriano 1993 Argentine Unknown
8603 Rationale Of The Dirty Joke G. Legman 1968 American English
8791 Here Are The Young Men Rob Doyle 2014 Irish English
8796 World Light Halldor Laxness 1937 Icelandic Icelandic
8855 The Navigator Of New York Wayne Johnston 2002 Canadian English
9061 A Million Windows Gerald Murnane 2014 Australian English
9083 City Of Kings Rosario Castellanos 1960 Mexican Unknown
9090 Prizzi's Honor Richard Condon 1982 American English
9105 The Collected Short Stories Of Roald Dahl Roald Dahl 1991 British English
9241 The Red Tree Caitlín R. Kiernan 2009 American English
9284 Brutal Prince Sophie Lark 2020 Unknown English
9302 Ploaia De Trei Sute De Zile Gabriel Chifu 2017 Romanian Romanian
9343 Demons And Shadows Robert Westall 1993 British English
9362 Rosario Tijeras Jorge Franco 1999 Colombian Spanish
9557 Continuous Tony Harrison 1981 British English
9607 A Forest For Calum Frank MacDonald 2005 Canadian English
9716 Inside Kenneth J. Harvey 2006 Canadian English
9780 Dead Collections Isaac Fellman 2022 Unknown English
9788 The Friends Of Meager Fortune David Adams Richards 2006 Canadian English
9808 The Custodian Of Paradise Wayne Johnston 2006 Canadian English
9812 The Well Jack Cady 1995 American English
9856 The Delicate Prey Paul Bowles 1950 American English
10014 The Architects Are Here Michael Winter 2007 Canadian English
10021 Ragged Islands Don Hannah 2007 Canadian English
10054 Stars And Bars William Boyd 1984 British English
10303 Curious Naturalists Niko Tinbergen 1958 British English
10654 An Accidental Man Iris Murdoch 1971 British English
10738 Why Is There Salt In The Sea? Brigitte Schwaiger 1977 Austrian German
10863 Mr. Splitfoot Samantha Hunt 2016 American English
10909 Роман Vladimir Sorokin 1998 Russian Russian
10957 Gideon The Ninth Tamsyn Muir 2019 New Zealand English
11086 Yellow Street Veza Canetti 1934 Unknown German
11212 Memorial Bryan Washington 2020 American English
11271 Shella Andrew Vachss 1993 American English
11271 Gospel Wilton Barnhardt 1993 American English
11360 Complete Works Jorge Luis Borges Argentinian Spanish
11434 Field Notes From A Catastrophe Elizabeth Kolbert 2006 American English
11505 The Roaring Girl Greg Hollingshead 1995 Canadian English
11641 Paradise Estate Max Easton 2021 Unknown English
11660 The Furrows Namwali Serpell 2022 Unknown English
11660 The Parking Lot Attendant Nafkote Tamirat 2018 American English
11660 Property Lionel Shriver 2018 American English
11660 A State Of Freedom Neel Mukherjee 2018 British English
11660 A View Of The Empire At Sunset Caryl Phillips 2018 British English
11854 You Left On A May Day Yannis Ritsos Greek Greek
11857 I Is Another Arthur Rimbaud French French
11869 Throat Sprockets Tim Lucas 1994 American English
12140 Yellow Blue Tibia Adam Roberts 2009 British English
12324 Preston Falls David Gates 1998 American English
12586 The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears Dinaw Mengestu 2007 American English
12805 Ich Bin In Der Anstalt Friederike Mayröcker 2000 Austrian German
13222 My Stupid Dog John Fante 1986 American English
13254 公墓 Mu Shiying 1933 Chinese Chinese
13315 Records Of Orchard City Shi Tuo 1946 Chinese Chinese
13337 Project X Jim Shepard 2004 American English
13599 The Margin André Pieyre de Mandiargues 1967 French French
13599 Un Grand Pas Vers Le Bon Dieu Jean Vautrin 1989 French French