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
4447 Ellen Foster Kaye Gibbons 1987 American English
4468 Covenant With Death John Harris 1961 British English
4476 Al Mawt `Ala Al Asfalt `Abd al-Rahman Abnudi 1960 Egyptian Arabic
4505 Osadeni Dushi Dimitar Dimov 1945 Bulgarian Bulgarian
4503 Parallel Stories Péter Nádas 2005 Hungarian Hungarian
4507 North Woods Daniel Mason 2023 American English
4515 The Rattle Bag Ted Hughes, Seamus Heaney 1982 British English
4519 When The Wind Blows Raymond Briggs 1982 British English
4534 Mend The Living Maylis de Kerangal 2014 French French
4538 Special Topics In Calamity Physics Marisha Pessl 2006 American English
4539 Stiff Mary Roach 2003 American English
4540 Affliction Russell Banks 1989 American English
4542 The Stone Of Laughter Hoda Barakat 1990 Lebanese Arabic
4545 The Collected Poems Of Odysseus Elytis Odysseas Elytis 1971 Greek Greek
4545 Η Σαρκοφαγος Giorgos Ioannou 1971 Greek Greek
4561 The Lady's Not For Burning Christopher Fry 1948 British English
4567 Mortal y rosa Francisco Umbral 1975 Spanish Spanish
4588 The Loser Thomas Bernhard 1983 Austrian German
4594 Ten North Frederick John O'Hara 1955 American English
4595 Last Night James Salter 2005 American English
4598 The Fourth Dimension Yannis Ritsos 1972 Greek Greek
4610 Here Richard McGuire 2014 American English
4614 Cold Heaven Brian Moore 1983 British English
4622 Calligrammes Guillaume Apollinaire 1918 French French
4625 The Abyss Fernando Vallejo 2001 Colombian Spanish
4655 Tomorrow In The Battle Think On Me Javier Marias 1994 Spanish Spanish
4679 Of Love And Other Demons Gabriel García Márquez 1994 Colombian Spanish
4687 The Tiger's Wife Téa Obreht 2011 Serbian English
4712 Pigeon Feathers And Other Stories John Updike 1962 American English
4722 The Bride Price Buchi Emecheta 1976 Nigerian English
4724 Of Time and the River Thomas Wolfe 1935 American English
4769 Dark Carnival Ray Bradbury 1947 American English
4782 Pharsalia Lucan 61 Roman Latin
4806 The Dybbuk S. Ansky 1914 Russian Yiddish
4820 Hotel De Dream Emma Tennant 1976 British English
4825 Vernon Subutex Virginie Despentes 2015 French French
4829 The Largesse of the Sea Maiden Denis Johnson 2018 American English
4830 Blaming Elizabeth Taylor 1976 British English
4879 Heroes And Tombs Ernesto Sábato 1961 Argentinian Spanish
4879 L'instant Fatal Raymond Queneau 1948 French French
4942 Being Dead Jim Crace 1999 British English
4945 Mama Day Gloria Naylor 1988 American English
4955 The Trickster of Seville and His Guest of Stone Tirso de Molina 1630 Spanish Spanish
4957 Unclay T. F. Powys 1931 British English
4984 New Poems Rainer Maria Rilke 1907 German German
5000 A Nest Of Nightmares Lisa Tuttle 1986 American English
5000 The Pet Charles L. Grant 1986 American English
5002 The Bamboo Bed William Eastlake 1969 American English
5019 Broken April Ismail Kadare 1978 Albanian Albanian
5026 Dying As A Country Dimitris Dimitriadis 1978 Greek Greek
5026 Deathfeast Takis Sinopoulos 1978 Greek Greek
5033 Honored Guest Joy Williams 2004 American English
5046 The Death Of Halpin Frayser Ambrose Bierce 1891 American English
5046 The White Old Maid Nathaniel Hawthorne 1837 American English
5046 Selected Poems Of George Sterling George Sterling 1923 American English
5086 Short Friday Isaac Bashevis Singer 1964 Polish Yiddish
5092 Fireflies Shiva Naipaul 1970 Trinidadian English
5096 Sartoris William Faulkner 1929 American English
5103 Where Angels Fear to Tread E. M. Forster 1905 British English
5102 The Doctor Stories William Carlos Williams 1984 American English
5110 Dancing In Odessa Ilya Kaminsky 2004 Ukrainian English
5118 Swamplandia! Karen Russell 2011 American English
5120 Нощем с белите коне Pavel Vezhinov 1957 Bulgarian Bulgarian
5124 Cold Sassy Tree Olive Ann Burns 1984 American English
5131 The Influence Ramsey Campbell 1988 British English
5160 The Triumph Of Death Gabriele D'Annunzio 1894 Italian Italian
5170 Edith's Diary Patricia Highsmith 1977 American English
5233 Dark Feasts Ramsey Campbell 1987 British English
5234 Mouth Full Of Earth Branimir Scepanovic 1975 Montenegrin Serbo-croatian
5237 Deep River Shūsaku Endō 1993 Japanese Japanese
5262 Death And The Penguin Andrey Kurkov 1996 Ukrainian Russian
5266 Anowa Ama Ata Aidoo 1970 Ghanaian English
5275 Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Tennessee Williams 1955 American English
5281 At Last Edward St Aubyn 2011 British English
5288 Fields Of Glory Jean Rouaud 1990 French French
5291 Revenge Yōko Ogawa 1998 Japanese Japanese
5305 A Fairy Tale Of New York J. P. Donleavy 1973 Irish English
5388 In Memory Of Memory Maria Stepanova 2017 Russian Russian
5393 The Poems of Emily Bronte Emily Brontë 1846 British English
5393 Holy Dying Jeremy Taylor 1651 British English
5393 Personae Ezra Pound 1909 American English
5421 In the Heart of the Heart of the Country William H. Gass 1968 American English
5429 Squire Haggard's Journal Michael Green 1975 British English
5488 Body Rags Galway Kinnell 1968 American English
5511 Now in November Josephine Winslow Johnson 1934 American English
5573 Stranger Things Happen Kelly Link 2001 American English
5597 The Sound Of Things Falling Juan Gabriel Vásquez 2011 Colombian Spanish
5598 The Lazarus Project Aleksandar Hemon 2008 Bosnian English
5602 Doruntine Ismail Kadare 1980 Albanian Albanian
5619 Our Share of Night Mariana Enríquez 2019 Argentinian Spanish
5624 Biography Of X Catherine Lacey 2023 American English
5654 Reasons to Live Amy Hempel 1985 American English
5668 A Wake For The Living Radmila Lazić 1996 Serbian Serbian
5668 Medea And Her Children Lyudmila Ulitskaya 1996 Russian Russian
5668 Moira Julien Green 1950 French French
5668 La Haute Morte Paul Vialar 1947 French French
5693 Period Dennis Cooper 1994 American English
5694 Night Boat To Tangier Kevin Barry 2019 Irish English
5696 A Married Man Piers Paul Read 1979 British English
5709 Διηγήματα Michail Mitsakis 1987 Greek Greek
5709 Ο Λουσίας Nikos Houliaras 1987 Greek Greek
5716 The Twin Gerbrand Bakker 2006 Dutch Dutch
5732 In The Presence Of Absence Mahmoud Darwish 2006 Palestinian Arabic
5736 Vernon God Little DBC Pierre 2003 British English
5738 The Ghost Road Pat Barker 1995 British English
5770 The Businessman Thomas M. Disch 1984 American English
5807 Five Days at Memorial Sheri Fink 2013 American English
5837 Six Tragedies Seneca 54 Roman Latin
5853 Chatterton Alfred de Vigny 1835 French French
5858 The New Life Dante Alighieri 1295 Italian Italian
5863 The Poems Of William Dunbar William Dunbar 1501 Scottish Middle scots
5863 At The Back Of The North Wind George MacDonald 1871 Scottish English
5863 Selected Poetry Rainer Maria Rilke 1902 German German
5896 A Confession Leo Tolstoy 1882 Russian Russian
5897 The Plough And The Stars Sean O'Casey 1926 Irish English
5899 The Ghost Sonata August Strindberg 1907 Swedish Swedish
5903 Poems Of George Darley George Darley 1840 Irish English
5912 Poems Of Fernando Pessoa Fernando Pessoa 1942 Portuguese Portuguese
5910 Thomas The Obscure Maurice Blanchot 1941 French French
5951 Cigarettes Harry Mathews 1987 American English