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
5290 Cutting It Short Bohumil Hrabal 1976 Czech Czech
5291 Revenge Yōko Ogawa 1998 Japanese Japanese
5317 Faithless Joyce Carol Oates 2001 American English
5441 The Pendragon Legend Antal Szerb 1934 Hungarian Hungarian
5448 The Burn Vassily Aksyonov 1975 Russian Russian
5476 Zero Ignácio De Loyola Brandão 1974 Brazilian Portuguese
5478 Larva Julián Ríos 1983 Spanish Spanish
5484 The Painter Of Signs R. K. Narayan 1976 Indian English
5509 Always Come Evening Robert E. Howard 1957 American English
5510 Dreams And Stones Magdalena Tulli 1995 Polish Polish
5531 The Sufferings Of Prince Sternenhoch Ladislav Klíma 1928 Czech Czech
5654 The Parable of the Blind Gert Hofmann 1985 German German
5664 Invisible Green John Sladek 1977 American English
5694 Night Boat To Tangier Kevin Barry 2019 Irish English
5701 Fear And Trembling Amélie Nothomb 1999 Belgian French
5709 Ο Λουσίας Nikos Houliaras 1987 Greek Greek
5770 The Businessman Thomas M. Disch 1984 American English
5783 La Pietra Lunare Tommaso Landolfi 1939 Italian Italian
5901 Parables, Fragments, Aphorisms Franz Kafka 1935 Czech German
5918 The Tale Of The 1002nd Night Joseph Roth 1938 Austrian German
5951 Cigarettes Harry Mathews 1987 American English
5958 House Of Hunger Dambudzo Marechera 1978 Zimbabwean English
6005 Marginalia On Casanova Miklós Szentkuthy 1939 Hungarian Hungarian
6005 Night Edgar Hilsenrath 1964 German German
6134 L'hiver De Force Réjean Ducharme 1973 Canadian French
6171 I Spit On Your Graves Boris Vian 1946 French French
6293 Gaston André Franquin 1957 French French
6302 Rejection Tony Tulathimutte 2024 American English
6303 Lord Of The Barnyard Tristan Egolf 1998 American English
6304 Dreaming Of Babylon Richard Brautigan 1977 American English
6316 Comfort Me With Apples Peter De Vries 1956 American English
6350 A Wild Sheep Chase Haruki Murakami 1982 Japanese Japanese
6434 A Very Normal Man Vincenzo Cerami 1976 Italian Italian
6472 Anthills Of The Savannah Chinua Achebe 1987 Nigerian English
6525 The Mars Room Rachel Kushner 2018 American English
6609 Nos4 A2 Joe Hill 2013 American English
6623 The Life of Insects Victor Pelevin 1993 Russian Russian
6647 The Builders Giorgos Heimonas 1996 Greek Greek
6667 Magorovy Labutí Písně Ivan Martin Jirous 1985 Czech Czech
6698 Landscapes After the Battle Juan Goytisolo 1982 Spanish Spanish
6748 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
7206 Animalinside László Krasznahorkai, Max Neumann 2010 Hungarian Hungarian
7206 The Pharmacist Ingrid Noll 1994 German German
7616 Dirty Havana Trilogy Pedro Juan Gutierrez 1998 Cuban Spanish
7726 Stupidity Rafael Spregelburd 2007 Argentinian Spanish
7728 Cast A Cold Eye Alan Ryan 1984 American English
7853 L'organisation Jean Rolin 1996 French French
7930 Winterwood Patrick McCabe 2006 Irish English
8069 Minor Angels Antoine Volodine 1999 French French
8161 The Choirboys Joseph Wambaugh 1975 American English
8209 Outer Dark Cormac McCarthy 1968 American English
8296 La Guerra De Galio Héctor Aguilar Camín 1991 Mexican Spanish
8336 The Rebellion Of Yale Marrat Robert H. Rimmer 1964 American English
8501 Shadows Osvaldo Soriano 1993 Argentine Unknown
8607 Rationale Of The Dirty Joke G. Legman 1968 American English
8796 Here Are The Young Men Rob Doyle 2014 Irish English
8801 World Light Halldor Laxness 1937 Icelandic Icelandic
8859 The Navigator Of New York Wayne Johnston 2002 Canadian English
9066 A Million Windows Gerald Murnane 2014 Australian English
9088 City Of Kings Rosario Castellanos 1960 Mexican Unknown
9095 Prizzi's Honor Richard Condon 1982 American English
9110 The Collected Short Stories Of Roald Dahl Roald Dahl 1991 British English
9245 The Red Tree Caitlín R. Kiernan 2009 American English
9289 Brutal Prince Sophie Lark 2020 Unknown English
9307 Ploaia De Trei Sute De Zile Gabriel Chifu 2017 Romanian Romanian
9348 Demons And Shadows Robert Westall 1993 British English
9367 Rosario Tijeras Jorge Franco 1999 Colombian Spanish
9562 Continuous Tony Harrison 1981 British English
9611 A Forest For Calum Frank MacDonald 2005 Canadian English
9719 Inside Kenneth J. Harvey 2006 Canadian English
9783 Dead Collections Isaac Fellman 2022 Unknown English
9791 The Friends Of Meager Fortune David Adams Richards 2006 Canadian English
9811 The Custodian Of Paradise Wayne Johnston 2006 Canadian English
9815 The Well Jack Cady 1995 American English
9859 The Delicate Prey Paul Bowles 1950 American English
10018 The Architects Are Here Michael Winter 2007 Canadian English
10025 Ragged Islands Don Hannah 2007 Canadian English
10059 Stars And Bars William Boyd 1984 British English
10308 Curious Naturalists Niko Tinbergen 1958 British English
10660 An Accidental Man Iris Murdoch 1971 British English
10744 Why Is There Salt In The Sea? Brigitte Schwaiger 1977 Austrian German
10870 Mr. Splitfoot Samantha Hunt 2016 American English
10916 Роман Vladimir Sorokin 1998 Russian Russian
10964 Gideon The Ninth Tamsyn Muir 2019 New Zealand English
11093 Yellow Street Veza Canetti 1934 Unknown German
11219 Memorial Bryan Washington 2020 American English
11278 Shella Andrew Vachss 1993 American English
11278 Gospel Wilton Barnhardt 1993 American English
11366 Complete Works Jorge Luis Borges Argentinian Spanish
11440 Field Notes From A Catastrophe Elizabeth Kolbert 2006 American English
11508 The Roaring Girl Greg Hollingshead 1995 Canadian English
11644 Paradise Estate Max Easton 2021 Unknown English
11663 The Furrows Namwali Serpell 2022 Unknown English
11663 The Parking Lot Attendant Nafkote Tamirat 2018 American English
11663 Property Lionel Shriver 2018 American English
11663 A State Of Freedom Neel Mukherjee 2018 British English
11663 A View Of The Empire At Sunset Caryl Phillips 2018 British English
11856 You Left On A May Day Yannis Ritsos Greek Greek
11859 I Is Another Arthur Rimbaud French French
11871 Throat Sprockets Tim Lucas 1994 American English
12141 Yellow Blue Tibia Adam Roberts 2009 British English
12326 Preston Falls David Gates 1998 American English
12588 The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears Dinaw Mengestu 2007 American English
12807 Ich Bin In Der Anstalt Friederike Mayröcker 2000 Austrian German
13225 My Stupid Dog John Fante 1986 American English
13257 公墓 Mu Shiying 1933 Chinese Chinese
13318 Records Of Orchard City Shi Tuo 1946 Chinese Chinese
13340 Project X Jim Shepard 2004 American English
13600 The Margin André Pieyre de Mandiargues 1967 French French
13600 Un Grand Pas Vers Le Bon Dieu Jean Vautrin 1989 French French