The Greatest Books of All Time on Death & Grief

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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
9 The Sound and the Fury William Faulkner 1929 American English
15 Wuthering Heights Emily Brontë 1847 British English
23 The Stranger Albert Camus 1942 French French
27 To the Lighthouse Virginia Woolf 1927 British English
71 Hamlet William Shakespeare 1600 British English
75 Essays Michel de Montaigne 1580 French French
79 As I Lay Dying William Faulkner 1930 American English
84 Slaughterhouse-Five Kurt Vonnegut 1969 American English
98 The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe 1902 American English
111 The Waste Land T. S. Eliot 1922 British English
122 Decameron Giovanni Boccaccio 1353 Italian Italian
156 Poems of Emily Dickinson Emily Dickinson 1890 American English
174 Rabbit, Run John Updike 1960 American English
254 Gravity's Rainbow Thomas Pynchon 1973 American English
278 A Wizard Of Earthsea Ursula K. Le Guin 1968 American English
287 Jude the Obscure Thomas Hardy 1895 British English
330 Dubliners James Joyce 1914 Irish English
331 Housekeeping Marilynne Robinson 1980 American English
337 Romeo and Juliet William Shakespeare 1597 British English
364 White Noise Don DeLillo 1985 American English
370 The Year of Magical Thinking Joan Didion 2005 American English
387 Our Mutual Friend Charles Dickens 1864 British English
393 The Moonstone Wilkie Collins 1868 British English
413 The Naked and the Dead Norman Mailer 1948 American English
414 The Mill on the Floss George Eliot 1860 British English
436 El Aleph Jorge Luis Borges 1949 Argentinian Spanish
462 The Prophet Kahlil Gibran 1923 Lebanese English
466 A Death in the Family James Agee 1957 American English
591 Stories of Guy de Maupassant Guy de Maupassant 1880 French French
631 The Bridge of San Luis Rey Thornton Wilder 1927 American English
642 Testament Of Youth Vera Brittain 1933 British English
648 The Things They Carried Tim O'Brien 1990 American English
655 Stories of Ernest Hemingway Ernest Hemingway 1987 American English
704 Breakfast at Tiffany's Truman Capote 1958 American English
707 Poems of Alfred Lord Tennyson Alfred Tennyson 1830 British English
738 The Joy Luck Club Amy Tan 1989 American English
741 The Goldfinch Donna Tartt 2013 American English
969 Storm of Steel Ernst Jünger 1920 German German
1022 Lincoln in the Bardo George Saunders 2017 American English
1146 Nicholas Nickleby Charles Dickens 1839 British English
1220 The Return of the Soldier Rebecca West 1918 British English
1230 The Magnificent Ambersons Booth Tarkington 1918 American English
1236 Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories Ryunosuke Akutagawa 1915 Japanese Japanese
1251 The Last Gentleman Walker Percy 1966 American English
1261 The Blind Assassin Margaret Atwood 2000 Canadian English
1273 Robert Browning's Poetry Robert Browning 1833 British English
1313 The Optimist's Daughter Eudora Welty 1972 American English
1368 Salvage the Bones Jesmyn Ward 2011 American English
1369 Veronica Mary Gaitskill 2005 American English
1391 A Separate Peace John Knowles 1959 American English
1544 The Poetic Edda Unknown 1270 Multiple Old norse
1557 Pilgrim at Tinker Creek Annie Dillard 1974 American English
1578 The Cement Garden Ian McEwan 1978 British English
1674 London Fields Martin Amis 1989 British English
1675 The Time Traveler's Wife Audrey Niffenegger 2003 American English
1752 Men We Reaped Jesmyn Ward 2013 American English
1755 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince J. K. Rowling 2005 British English
1757 Books of Blood Clive Barker 1984 British English
1769 Under Milk Wood Dylan Thomas 1954 British English
1783 A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius Dave Eggers 2000 American English
1830 Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant Anne Tyler 1982 American English
1986 The Sound of the Mountain Yasunari Kawabata 1954 Japanese Japanese
2046 The Brothers Lionheart Astrid Lindgren 1973 Swedish Swedish
2107 Demon Copperhead Barbara Kingsolver 2022 American English
2124 True Grit Charles Portis 1968 American English
2232 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows J. K. Rowling 2007 British English
2273 The Accidental Tourist Anne Tyler 1985 American English
2308 The Dead Father Donald Barthelme 1975 American English
2491 A Lesson Before Dying Ernest J. Gaines 1993 American English
2518 The American Way of Death Jessica Mitford 1963 American English
2533 A Man Called Ove Fredrik Backman 2012 Swedish Swedish
2791 Dog Years Günter Grass 1963 German German
2855 A Mercy Toni Morrison 2008 American English
2902 What I Loved Siri Hustvedt 2003 American English
2965 The Sea John Banville 2005 Irish English
2972 Tuesdays With Morrie Mitch Albom 1997 American English
3090 On Death and Dying Elisabeth Kübler-Ross 1969 Swiss English
3321 Where Are The Children? Mary Higgins Clark 1975 American English
3486 The Fault in Our Stars John Green 2012 American English
3527 All My Puny Sorrows Miriam Toews 2014 Canadian English
3563 Charming Billy Alice McDermott 1998 American English
3586 A Single Man Christopher Isherwood 1964 British English
3622 A Small, Good Thing Raymond Carver 1981 American English
3915 Sudden Death Alvaro Enrigue 2013 Mexican Spanish
4067 Lives Other Than My Own Emmanuel Carrère 2009 French French
4150 The Devotion Of Suspect X Keigo Higashino 2005 Japanese Japanese
4284 A Rose for Emily William Faulkner 1930 American English
4306 Where the Red Fern Grows Wilson Rawls 1961 American English
4436 The Dream Songs John Berryman 1964 American English
4459 The Graveyard Book Neil Gaiman 2008 British English
4469 The History of Love Nicole Krauss 2005 American English
4482 The Duchess Of Malfi John Webster 1623 British English
4493 The Little Match Girl Unknown 1845 Unknown Danish
4529 Tangi Witi Ihimaera 1973 New Zealand English
4892 The Short Stories Of Anton Chekhov Anton Chekhov 1886 Russian Russian
4938 Stone Yard Devotional Charlotte Wood 2023 Australian English
5116 Swamplandia! Karen Russell 2011 American English
5280 At Last Edward St Aubyn 2011 British English
5361 On Suicide Jean Améry 1976 Unknown German
5361 Schilten Hermann Burger 1976 Swiss German
5567 Everything I Never Told You Celeste Ng 2014 American English
5529 Kohout Plaší Smrt František Halas 1930 Czech Czech
5619 The Thing About December Donal Ryan 2013 Irish English
5622 Wave Sonali Deraniyagala 2013 Sri Lankan English
5895 Caught Henry Green 1943 British English
5904 Death In The Afternoon Ernest Hemingway 1932 American English
5953 Collected Stories Gabriel García Márquez 1996 Colombian Spanish
6000 Kate Vaiden Reynolds Price 1986 American English
6002 Chekhov's Selected Stories Anton Chekhov 1903 Russian Russian
6002 Pylon William Faulkner 1935 American English
6002 Seven Gothic Tales Karen Blixen 1934 Danish Danish
6308 Burial Rites Hannah Kent 2013 Australian English
6340 Reise Durch Die Nacht Friederike Mayröcker 1986 Austrian German
6431 A Very Normal Man Vincenzo Cerami 1976 Italian Italian
6469 The Day Of Judgment Salvatore Satta 1977 Italian Italian
6475 Case Histories Kate Atkinson 2004 British English
6480 Year Of Wonders Geraldine Brooks 2001 Australian English
6546 Heldenplatz Thomas Bernhard 1988 Austrian German
6579 So The Wind Won't Blow It All Away Richard Brautigan 1982 American English
6635 Savannah Bay Marguerite Duras 1983 French French