The Greatest Books of All Time on Death

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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
1100 Collected Poems Of Edward Thomas Edward Thomas 1920 British English
1126 Women of Trachis Sophocles -450 Greek Ancient greek
1136 The Black Prince Iris Murdoch 1973 British English
1139 The Unquiet Grave Cyril Connolly 1944 British English
1155 Three Lives Gertrude Stein 1909 American English
1160 Norwegian Wood Haruki Murakami 1987 Japanese Japanese
1171 Residence on Earth Pablo Neruda 1933 Chilean Spanish
1182 Poems of Federico García Lorca Federico García Lorca 1921 Spanish Spanish
1210 The Wasp Factory Iain Banks 1984 British English
1213 The Floating Opera John Barth 1956 American English
1218 The Egyptian Mika Waltari 1945 Finnish Finnish
1222 Studs Lonigan James T. Farrell 1932 American English
1242 The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis José Saramago 1984 Portuguese Portuguese
1254 Death and the Dervish Meša Selimović 1966 Bosnian Serbo-croatian
1258 The General of the Dead Army Ismail Kadare 1963 Albanian Albanian
1261 The Blind Assassin Margaret Atwood 2000 Canadian English
1271 Extinction Thomas Bernhard 1986 Austrian German
1273 Selected Poems of Lord Byron Lord Byron 1800 British English
1280 The Death of Artemio Cruz Carlos Fuentes 1962 Mexican Spanish
1290 Lilith George MacDonald 1895 Scottish English
1293 Salem's Lot Stephen King 1975 American English
1302 Poems Paul Celan 1952 German German
1304 Collected Poems Stéphane Mallarmé 1887 French French
1313 The Optimist's Daughter Eudora Welty 1972 American English
1319 The Story Of An African Farm Olive Schreiner 1883 South African English
1337 A Legacy Sybille Bedford 1956 German English
1347 Story of the Eye Georges Bataille 1928 French French
1350 Seven Against Thebes Aeschylus -467 Greek Ancient greek
1354 Olive Kitteridge Elizabeth Strout 2008 American English
1355 Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas Dylan Thomas 1952 British English
1361 The King In Yellow Robert W. Chambers 1895 American English
1365 Nectar in a Sieve Kamala Markandaya 1954 Indian English
1369 Veronica Mary Gaitskill 2005 American English
1372 The Horror Horn And Other Stories E. F. Benson 1931 British English
1375 The Sea of Fertility Yukio Mishima 1965 Japanese Japanese
1393 The Business of Living Cesare Pavese 1952 Italian Italian
1404 The Last Bouquet Marjorie Bowen 1933 British English
1406 The Life of Charlotte Brontë Elizabeth Gaskell 1857 British English
1407 The Golovlyov Family Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin 1880 Russian Russian
1420 The October Country Ray Bradbury 1955 American English
1425 And The Darkness Falls Boris Karloff 1943 British English
1426 Mars Fritz Zorn 1977 Swiss German
1432 A Woman's Life Guy de Maupassant 1883 French French
1435 Life After Life Kate Atkinson 2013 British English
1455 Antigone Jean Anouilh 1944 French French
1475 Lettres de madame de Sévigné Marie de Rabutin-Chantal marquise de Sévigné 1671 French French
1482 Eline Vere Louis Couperus 1889 Dutch Dutch
1486 Locus Solus Raymond Roussel 1914 French French
1487 Kokoro Natsume Sōseki 1914 Japanese Japanese
1490 The Garden Party And Other Stories Katherine Mansfield 1922 New Zealand English
1492 The Real Life of Sebastian Knight Vladimir Nabokov 1941 Russian English
1496 The Sleeping And The Dead August Derleth 1947 American English
1499 Three Comrades Erich Maria Remarque 1936 German German
1507 Bless Me, Ultima Rudolfo Anaya 1972 American English
1508 The Tower William Butler Yeats 1928 Irish English
1549 Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont Elizabeth Taylor 1971 British English
1550 Njal's Saga Iceland 1280 Icelandic Old norse
1552 Waterland Graham Swift 1983 British English
1553 Beauty and Sadness Yasunari Kawabata 1964 Japanese Japanese
1556 The Poems of Francois Villon François Villon 1489 French Middle french
1558 Marius the Epicurean Walter Pater 1885 British English
1560 Forest of the Hanged Liviu Rebreanu 1922 Romanian Romanian
1562 Burnt Offerings Robert Marasco 1973 American English
1587 Past Continuous Yaakov Shabtai 1977 Israeli Hebrew
1591 Wry-Blue Loves Tristan Corbière 1873 French French
1592 Niels Lyhne Jens Peter Jacobson 1880 Danish Danish
1595 The Garden Where the Brass Band Played Simon Vestdijk 1950 Dutch Dutch
1599 The Unfortunate Traveller Thomas Nashe 1594 British English
1610 The Hours Michael Cunningham 1998 American English
1626 The Colour of Magic Terry Pratchett 1983 British English
1633 In Watermelon Sugar Richard Brautigan 1968 American English
1643 Angela's Ashes Frank McCourt 1996 American English
1647 Phaedo Plato -379 Greek Ancient greek
1650 Sing, Unburied, Sing Jesmyn Ward 2017 American English
1652 The Rime of the Ancient Mariner Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1798 British English
1654 O Pioneers! Willa Cather 1913 American English
1667 The Poetry of Alexander Pushkin Alexander Pushkin 1836 Russian Russian
1697 The Stone Diaries Carol Shields 1993 Canadian English
1712 The Great God Pan Arthur Machen 1894 British English
1733 My Childhood Maxim Gorky 1913 Russian Russian
1758 Sabbath's Theater Philip Roth 1995 American English
1768 Carmilla Sheridan Le Fanu 1872 Irish English
1773 Doctor Glas Hjalmar Soderberg 1905 Swedish Swedish
1780 Poems of Pablo Neruda Pablo Neruda 1970 Chilean Spanish
1781 Juno And The Paycock Sean O'Casey 1924 Irish English
1804 Cartucho And My Mother's Hands Nellie Campobello 1931 Mexican Spanish
1809 The Shadow of the Wind Carlos Ruiz Zafon 2001 Spanish Spanish
1822 Small Lives Pierre Michon 1984 French French
1827 Experience Martin Amis 2000 British English
1829 To The Friend Who Did Not Save My Life Hervé Guibert 1990 French French
1830 Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant Anne Tyler 1982 American English
1832 Paradiso José Lezama Lima 1966 Cuban Spanish
1858 Terug naar Oegstgeest Jan Wolkers 1965 Dutch Dutch
1863 Katherine Anya Seton 1954 American English
1882 Pereira Maintains Antonio Tabucchi 1994 Italian Italian
1885 Little Disturbances Grace Paley 1959 American English
1889 Annie John Jamaica Kincaid 1985 Antiguan English
1898 Tenth of December George Saunders 2013 American English
1902 The Physician Noah Gordon 1986 American English
1904 The Diviners Margaret Laurence 1974 Canadian English
1916 Group Portrait with Lady Heinrich Böll 1971 German German
1918 The Lady Of The Camellias Alexandre Dumas 1848 French French
1942 The Land At The End Of The World António Lobo Antunes 1979 Portuguese Portuguese
1946 A Burnt Child Stig Dagerman 1948 Swedish Swedish
1948 The Jewel Of Seven Stars Bram Stoker 1903 British English
1948 The Second Century Of Creepy Stories Hugh Walpole 1937 British English
1958 Let the Great World Spin Colum McCann 2009 Irish English
1964 The Löwensköld Ring Selma Lagerlöf 1925 Swedish Swedish
1975 Peace Gene Wolfe 1975 American English
1986 The Sound of the Mountain Yasunari Kawabata 1954 Japanese Japanese
1994 Fancies And Goodnights John Collier 1951 British English
1999 The Poetry of Luis Cernuda Luis Cernuda 1901 Spanish Spanish
2011 Pincher Martin William Golding 1956 British English
2026 Stanzas about the Death of his Father Jorge Manrique 1476 Spanish Spanish
2027 Quartet in Autumn Barbara Pym 1977 British English
2028 The Land Of Laughs Jonathan Carroll 1980 American English
2031 In Parenthesis David Jones 1937 British English
2046 The Brothers Lionheart Astrid Lindgren 1973 Swedish Swedish
2060 Ghost Story Peter Straub 1979 American English
2072 Night Has A Thousand Eyes George Hopley 1945 American English