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
2082 Στροφή George Seferis 1931 Greek Greek
2083 Santa Evita Tomás Eloy Martínez 1995 Argentinian Spanish
2093 Mourning Becomes Electra Eugene O'Neill 1931 American English
2102 Tree of Smoke Denis Johnson 2007 American English
2103 Collected Short Stories of Saki Saki 1930 British English
2114 The Luminous Novel Mario Levrero 2005 Uruguayan Spanish
2117 Siebenkäs Jean Paul 1796 German German
2117 Querelle of Brest Jean Genet 1947 French French
2126 Tell Me a Riddle Tillie Olsen 1961 American English
2154 The Track Of The Cat Walter Van Tilburg Clark 1949 American English
2157 The Green Man Kingsley Amis 1969 British English
2168 Morvern Callar Alan Warner 1995 Scottish English
2171 My Cousin Rachel Daphne du Maurier 1951 British English
2178 Old People And The Things That Pass Louis Couperus 1906 Dutch Dutch
2179 The Love Of The Last Tycoon F. Scott Fitzgerald 1941 American English
2181 Blue of Noon Georges Bataille 1957 French French
2188 No One Writes to the Colonel Gabriel García Márquez 1961 Colombian Spanish
2192 The Witches Of Eastwick John Updike 1984 American English
2201 Death Of A Hero Richard Aldington 1929 British English
2205 The Quest for Christa T. Christa Wolf 1968 German German
2210 Sub Rosa Robert Aickman 1968 British English
2245 The Gathering Anne Enright 2007 Irish English
2246 Poems Of Gottfried Benn Gottfried Benn 1948 German German
2258 A History Of The World In 10 1/2 Chapters Julian Barnes 1989 British English
2261 Appointment in Samarra John O'Hara 1934 American English
2262 The Iceman Cometh Eugene O'Neill 1946 American English
2267 Pricksongs and Descants Robert Coover 1969 American English
2266 The Murderess Alexandros Papadiamantis 1903 Greek Greek
2271 In a Glass Darkly Sheridan Le Fanu 1872 Irish English
2278 The Twelve Alexander Blok 1918 Russian Russian
2280 Poems of Eugenio Montale Eugenio Montale 1925 Italian Italian
2281 The Corner That Held Them Sylvia Townsend Warner 1948 British English
2286 The Crossing Cormac McCarthy 1994 American English
2291 Arcadia Tom Stoppard 1993 British English
2299 Poems Of George Seferis George Seferis 1931 Greek Greek
2303 Ironweed William Kennedy 1983 American English
2304 Machine Dreams Jayne Anne Phillips 1984 American English
2309 The Dead Father Donald Barthelme 1975 American English
2322 Rituals Cees Nooteboom 1980 Dutch Dutch
2325 The Sixty Five Years Of Washington Juan José Saer 1983 Argentine Spanish
2332 Sunset Song Lewis Grassic Gibbon 1932 Scottish English
2335 Moderato Cantabile Marguerite Duras 1958 French French
2343 Mastro Don Gesualdo Giovanni Verga 1889 Italian Italian
2358 The Butcher Boy Patrick McCabe 1992 Irish English
2365 The Sorrow Of War Bao Ninh 1990 Vietnamese Vietnamese
2372 Happiness, as Such Natalia Ginzburg 1973 Italian Italian
2374 The Tales Of Hoffmann E. T. A. Hoffmann 1814 German German
2387 Viper’s Tangle François Mauriac 1932 French French
2410 That They May Face the Rising Sun John McGahern 2002 Irish English
2426 Platform Michel Houellebecq 2001 French French
2433 The Einstein Intersection Samuel R. Delany 1967 American English
2437 Nine Horrors And A Dream Joseph Payne Brennan 1958 American English
2439 The Crow Road Iain Banks 1992 British English
2441 Poems Of Anna Akhmatova Anna Akhmatova 1912 Russian Russian
2447 The Map And The Territory Michel Houellebecq 2010 French French
2452 Worse Things Waiting Manly Wade Wellman 1973 American English
2464 Poems Of William Cullen Bryant William Cullen Bryant 1821 American English
2468 Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage Alice Munro 2001 Canadian English
2471 Hyperion Dan Simmons 1989 American English
2474 Fall On Your Knees Ann-Marie MacDonald 1996 Canadian English
2479 L'acacia Claude Simon 1989 French French
2496 Rogue Moon Algis Budrys 1960 American English
2516 The New Sorrows of Young W. Ulrich Plenzdorf 1972 German German
2523 The Happy Prince And Other Tales Oscar Wilde 1888 British English
2539 Clear Light of Day Anita Desai 1980 Indian English
2546 The Pit and the Pendulum Edgar Allan Poe 1842 American English
2547 Amok Stefan Zweig 1922 Austrian German
2550 Her Privates We Frederic Manning 1929 Australian English
2560 Death Sentence Maurice Blanchot 1948 French French
2565 The Family Of Pascual Duarte Camilo José Cela 1942 Spanish Spanish
2573 A Longing For The Light Vicente Aleixandre 1979 Spanish Spanish
2579 Les Contemplations Victor Hugo 1856 French French
2587 Empire Falls Richard Russo 2001 American English
2589 Hamnet Maggie O'Farrell 2020 Irish English
2593 The Gods Of Pegana Lord Dunsany 1905 Irish English
2605 The Conservationist Nadine Gordimer 1974 South African English
2612 The Winter's Tale William Shakespeare 1623 British English
2620 To Live Yu Hua 1993 Chinese Chinese
2624 Collected Writings Ambrose Bierce 1909 American English
2641 The Palm At The End Of The Mind Wallace Stevens 1971 American English
2647 Hurricane Season Fernanda Melchor 2017 Mexican Spanish
2653 Sleepless Nights Elizabeth Hardwick 1979 American English
2657 Ariel Sylvia Plath 1965 American English
2662 Daughters of Fire Gerard de Nerval 1854 French French
2675 The Mountain Lion Jean Stafford 1947 American English
2693 Near To The Wild Heart Clarice Lispector 1943 Brazilian Portuguese
2695 Pet Sematary Stephen King 1983 American English
2702 Close Range Annie Proulx 1999 American English
2707 The Works Of Thomas Lovell Beddoes Thomas Lovell Beddoes 1851 British English
2727 Last Poems A. E. Housman 1922 British English
2734 A Violent Life Pier Paolo Pasolini 1959 Italian Italian
2784 North Of Boston Robert Frost 1914 American English
2803 The Old Devils Kingsley Amis 1986 British English
2809 Summertime J. M. Coetzee 2009 South African English
2816 The Golden Apples Eudora Welty 1949 American English
2817 The Belkin Tales Alexander Pushkin 1831 Russian Russian
2823 The Damnation Game Clive Barker 1985 British English
2828 A Manual For Cleaning Women Lucia Berlin 2015 American English
2831 A Contract With God Will Eisner 1978 American English
2839 The Bottle Factory Outing Beryl Bainbridge 1974 British English
2841 The Stone Angel Margaret Laurence 1964 Canadian English
2852 Bad News Edward St Aubyn 1992 British English
2878 Palace of the Peacock Wilson Harris 1960 Guyanese English
2889 Hadji Murat Leo Tolstoy 1912 Russian Russian
2902 Cremation Rafael Chirbes 2007 Spanish Spanish
2909 A Taste For Death P. D. James 1986 British English
2913 A Simple Soul Gustave Flaubert 1877 French French
2917 The Woman In Black Susan Hill 1983 British English
2923 The Progress of Love Alice Munro 1986 Canadian English
2956 Sanatorium Under The Sign Of The Hourglass Bruno Schulz 1937 Polish Polish
2960 A Poem Without A Hero Anna Akhmatova 1960 Russian Russian
2967 The Sea John Banville 2005 Irish English
2979 The Demon Mikhail Lermontov 1829 Russian Russian
2993 A Book Of Memories Péter Nádas 1986 Hungarian Hungarian
3008 Camera Lucida Roland Barthes 1980 French French
3009 Labyrinths Christopher Okigbo 1971 Nigerian English
3035 Novel on Yellow Paper Stevie Smith 1936 British English
3050 A World for Julius Alfredo Bryce Echenique 1970 Peruvian Spanish
3052 Our Town Thornton Wilder 1938 American English
3056 The Invention of Solitude Paul Auster 1982 American English