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
4446 Ellen Foster Kaye Gibbons 1987 American English
4467 Covenant With Death John Harris 1961 British English
4475 Al Mawt `Ala Al Asfalt `Abd al-Rahman Abnudi 1960 Egyptian Arabic
4504 Osadeni Dushi Dimitar Dimov 1945 Bulgarian Bulgarian
4502 Parallel Stories Péter Nádas 2005 Hungarian Hungarian
4506 North Woods Daniel Mason 2023 American English
4514 The Rattle Bag Ted Hughes, Seamus Heaney 1982 British English
4518 When The Wind Blows Raymond Briggs 1982 British English
4533 Mend The Living Maylis de Kerangal 2014 French French
4537 Special Topics In Calamity Physics Marisha Pessl 2006 American English
4538 Stiff Mary Roach 2003 American English
4539 Affliction Russell Banks 1989 American English
4541 The Stone Of Laughter Hoda Barakat 1990 Lebanese Arabic
4544 The Collected Poems Of Odysseus Elytis Odysseas Elytis 1971 Greek Greek
4544 Η Σαρκοφαγος Giorgos Ioannou 1971 Greek Greek
4560 The Lady's Not For Burning Christopher Fry 1948 British English
4566 Mortal y rosa Francisco Umbral 1975 Spanish Spanish
4587 The Loser Thomas Bernhard 1983 Austrian German
4593 Ten North Frederick John O'Hara 1955 American English
4594 Last Night James Salter 2005 American English
4597 The Fourth Dimension Yannis Ritsos 1972 Greek Greek
4609 Here Richard McGuire 2014 American English
4613 Cold Heaven Brian Moore 1983 British English
4621 Calligrammes Guillaume Apollinaire 1918 French French
4624 The Abyss Fernando Vallejo 2001 Colombian Spanish
4654 Tomorrow In The Battle Think On Me Javier Marias 1994 Spanish Spanish
4678 Of Love And Other Demons Gabriel García Márquez 1994 Colombian Spanish
4686 The Tiger's Wife Téa Obreht 2011 Serbian English
4711 Pigeon Feathers And Other Stories John Updike 1962 American English
4721 The Bride Price Buchi Emecheta 1976 Nigerian English
4723 Of Time and the River Thomas Wolfe 1935 American English
4768 Dark Carnival Ray Bradbury 1947 American English
4781 Pharsalia Lucan 61 Roman Latin
4805 The Dybbuk S. Ansky 1914 Russian Yiddish
4819 Hotel De Dream Emma Tennant 1976 British English
4824 Vernon Subutex Virginie Despentes 2015 French French
4828 The Largesse of the Sea Maiden Denis Johnson 2018 American English
4829 Blaming Elizabeth Taylor 1976 British English
4878 Heroes And Tombs Ernesto Sábato 1961 Argentinian Spanish
4878 L'instant Fatal Raymond Queneau 1948 French French
4940 Being Dead Jim Crace 1999 British English
4943 Mama Day Gloria Naylor 1988 American English
4953 The Trickster of Seville and His Guest of Stone Tirso de Molina 1630 Spanish Spanish
4955 Unclay T. F. Powys 1931 British English
4981 New Poems Rainer Maria Rilke 1907 German German
4997 A Nest Of Nightmares Lisa Tuttle 1986 American English
4997 The Pet Charles L. Grant 1986 American English
4999 The Bamboo Bed William Eastlake 1969 American English
5016 Broken April Ismail Kadare 1978 Albanian Albanian
5023 Dying As A Country Dimitris Dimitriadis 1978 Greek Greek
5023 Deathfeast Takis Sinopoulos 1978 Greek Greek
5030 Honored Guest Joy Williams 2004 American English
5043 The Death Of Halpin Frayser Ambrose Bierce 1891 American English
5043 The White Old Maid Nathaniel Hawthorne 1837 American English
5043 Selected Poems Of George Sterling George Sterling 1923 American English
5084 Short Friday Isaac Bashevis Singer 1964 Polish Yiddish
5090 Fireflies Shiva Naipaul 1970 Trinidadian English
5094 Sartoris William Faulkner 1929 American English
5100 The Doctor Stories William Carlos Williams 1984 American English
5101 Where Angels Fear to Tread E. M. Forster 1905 British English
5108 Dancing In Odessa Ilya Kaminsky 2004 Ukrainian English
5116 Swamplandia! Karen Russell 2011 American English
5118 Нощем с белите коне Pavel Vezhinov 1957 Bulgarian Bulgarian
5122 Cold Sassy Tree Olive Ann Burns 1984 American English
5129 The Influence Ramsey Campbell 1988 British English
5158 The Triumph Of Death Gabriele D'Annunzio 1894 Italian Italian
5168 Edith's Diary Patricia Highsmith 1977 American English
5231 Dark Feasts Ramsey Campbell 1987 British English
5233 Mouth Full Of Earth Branimir Scepanovic 1975 Montenegrin Serbo-croatian
5236 Deep River Shūsaku Endō 1993 Japanese Japanese
5261 Death And The Penguin Andrey Kurkov 1996 Ukrainian Russian
5265 Anowa Ama Ata Aidoo 1970 Ghanaian English
5274 Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Tennessee Williams 1955 American English
5280 At Last Edward St Aubyn 2011 British English
5287 Fields Of Glory Jean Rouaud 1990 French French
5290 Revenge Yōko Ogawa 1998 Japanese Japanese
5304 A Fairy Tale Of New York J. P. Donleavy 1973 Irish English
5386 In Memory Of Memory Maria Stepanova 2017 Russian Russian
5391 The Poems of Emily Bronte Emily Brontë 1846 British English
5391 Holy Dying Jeremy Taylor 1651 British English
5391 Personae Ezra Pound 1909 American English
5419 In the Heart of the Heart of the Country William H. Gass 1968 American English
5427 Squire Haggard's Journal Michael Green 1975 British English
5486 Body Rags Galway Kinnell 1968 American English
5509 Now in November Josephine Winslow Johnson 1934 American English
5571 Stranger Things Happen Kelly Link 2001 American English
5594 The Sound Of Things Falling Juan Gabriel Vásquez 2011 Colombian Spanish
5595 The Lazarus Project Aleksandar Hemon 2008 Bosnian English
5599 Doruntine Ismail Kadare 1980 Albanian Albanian
5616 Our Share of Night Mariana Enríquez 2019 Argentinian Spanish
5621 Biography Of X Catherine Lacey 2023 American English
5651 Reasons to Live Amy Hempel 1985 American English
5665 A Wake For The Living Radmila Lazić 1996 Serbian Serbian
5665 Medea And Her Children Lyudmila Ulitskaya 1996 Russian Russian
5665 Moira Julien Green 1950 French French
5665 La Haute Morte Paul Vialar 1947 French French
5690 Period Dennis Cooper 1994 American English
5691 Night Boat To Tangier Kevin Barry 2019 Irish English
5693 A Married Man Piers Paul Read 1979 British English
5706 Διηγήματα Michail Mitsakis 1987 Greek Greek
5706 Ο Λουσίας Nikos Houliaras 1987 Greek Greek
5713 The Twin Gerbrand Bakker 2006 Dutch Dutch
5729 In The Presence Of Absence Mahmoud Darwish 2006 Palestinian Arabic
5733 Vernon God Little DBC Pierre 2003 British English
5735 The Ghost Road Pat Barker 1995 British English
5767 The Businessman Thomas M. Disch 1984 American English
5804 Five Days at Memorial Sheri Fink 2013 American English
5833 Six Tragedies Seneca 54 Roman Latin
5850 Chatterton Alfred de Vigny 1835 French French
5855 The New Life Dante Alighieri 1295 Italian Italian
5860 The Poems Of William Dunbar William Dunbar 1501 Scottish Middle scots
5860 At The Back Of The North Wind George MacDonald 1871 Scottish English
5860 Selected Poetry Rainer Maria Rilke 1902 German German
5893 A Confession Leo Tolstoy 1882 Russian Russian
5894 The Plough And The Stars Sean O'Casey 1926 Irish English
5896 The Ghost Sonata August Strindberg 1907 Swedish Swedish
5900 Poems Of George Darley George Darley 1840 Irish English
5909 Poems Of Fernando Pessoa Fernando Pessoa 1942 Portuguese Portuguese
5906 Thomas The Obscure Maurice Blanchot 1941 French French
5948 Cigarettes Harry Mathews 1987 American English