The Greatest Books of All Time on Death

Click to learn how this list is calculated.

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.

View: List Grid Table
Filter by: Genres Dates Countries

Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
11441 Awaiting Trespass Linda Ty-Casper 1985 Philippine English
11441 Later The Same Day Grace Paley 1985 American English
11441 The Magnificent Spinster May Sarton 1985 American English
11441 Various Miracles Carol Shields 1985 Canadian English
11476 Vicky Angel Jacqueline Wilson 2000 British English
11478 Victory Over Japan Ellen Gilchrist 1984 American English
11500 State Of Wonder Ann Patchett 2011 American English
11509 Bowlaway Elizabeth McCracken 2019 American English
11505 Collected Poems John Berryman 1989 American English
11522 206 Bones Kathy Reichs 2009 American English
11525 Orpheus and Eurydice Unknown -28 Unknown Ancient greek
11544 Selected Poems of Gabriela Mistral Gabriela Mistral 1922 Chilean Spanish
11544 Old St Paul's William Harrison Ainsworth 1841 British English
11563 Nox Anne Carson 2010 Canadian English
11571 Men Without Women Ernest Hemingway 1927 American English
11575 The Last Days of Hitler Hugh Trevor-Roper 1947 British English
11627 Everyman Philip Roth 2006 American English
11650 Above The River James Wright 1990 American English
11650 The Continuous Life Mark Strand 1990 American English
11650 All Of Us Raymond Carver 1996 American English
11660 The Furrows Namwali Serpell 2022 Unknown English
11660 The New Yorker Stories Ann Beattie 2010 American English
11660 The Lay Of The Land Richard Ford 2006 American English
11660 During The Reign Of The Queen Of Persia Joan Chase 1983 American English
11660 Lives Of The Poets E. L. Doctorow 2001 American English
11660 Staring At The Sun Julian Barnes 1986 British English
11660 The Magic Lantern Ingmar Bergman 1987 Swedish Swedish
11660 Federico Garcia Lorca Ian Gibson 1989 Spanish English
11811 Memory Board Jane Rule 1987 Canadian English
11881 The Barracks John McGahern 1963 Irish English
11888 The Rabbiter's Bounty Les A. Murray 1991 Australian English
11894 Kinder Than Solitude Yiyun Li 2014 American English
11899 Loving And Giving Molly Keane 1988 Irish English
11919 Lake Of Urine Guillermo Stitch 2020 British English
12014 Hygiene And The Assassin Amélie Nothomb 1992 Belgian French
12028 The Heather Blazing Colm Toibin 1992 Irish English
12027 Night Train To Lisbon Pascal Mercier 2004 Swiss German
12047 Landing Light Don Paterson 2003 British English
12065 Les Thanatonautes Bernard Werber 1994 French French
12070 Night Shift Stephen King 1978 American English
12083 Jasmine Bharati Mukherjee 1989 American English
12172 The Electric Michelangelo Sarah Hall 2004 British English
12174 Tibetan Book Of The Dead Robert Thurman 1994 Tibetan English
12200 Memorial Ferdinando Camon 1983 Italian Italian
12258 Floating In My Mother's Palm Ursula Hegi 1990 German English
12324 Biting At The Grave Padraig O'Malley 1990 British English
12324 Mazurka For Two Dead Men Camilo José Cela 1983 Spanish Spanish
12324 After Rain William Trevor 1996 Irish English
12324 Toward The End Of Time John Updike 1997 American English
12383 Time Remaining James McCourt 1993 American English
12448 In The Beginning Was The Sea Tomás González 1983 Colombian Spanish
12513 The Gates Of Ivory Margaret Drabble 1991 British English
12574 The Diaries Alma Mahler 1997 Austrian German
12655 Poems Of John Hollander John Hollander 2013 American English
12819 Rage Steve Gerlach 2006 Australian English
12832 Mrs. Vargas And The Dead Naturalist Kathleen Alcalá 1992 American English
12832 Talking To The Dead Sylvia Watanabe 1992 American English
13064 Bridge to Terabithia Katherine Paterson 1977 American English
13089 The Wood Wife Terri Windling 1996 American English
13254 公墓 Mu Shiying 1933 Chinese Chinese
13276 Even The Dogs Jon McGregor 2010 British English
13304 The Death Of Yuli Xu Zhenya 1912 Chinese Chinese
13318 Redshirts John Scalzi 2012 American English
13335 Last Orders Graham Swift 1996 British English
13359 The Works of Walter Savage Landor Walter Savage Landor 1846 British English
13359 An Iceland Fisherman Pierre Loti 1886 French French
13528 Sugar Street Naguib Mahfouz 1957 Egyptian Arabic
13532 The Height Of The Scream Ramsey Campbell 1976 British English
13542 Mr. Sammler's Planet Saul Bellow 1970 American English
13542 Three Junes Julia Glass 2002 American English
13557 The Black Swan Thomas Mann 1953 German German
13728 Oscar And The Lady In Pink Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt 2002 French French
13752 The Poetical Works Of Johnson, Parnell, Gray And Smollett George Gilfillan 1855 Scottish English
13771 Every Heart A Doorway Seanan McGuire 2016 American English
13788 Ocean Sea Alessandro Baricco 1993 Italian Italian
13817 A Spiral Of Mist Michele Prisco 1966 Italian Italian
13817 Solitudes Goffredo Parise 1984 Italian Italian
13817 Night's Lies Gesualdo Bufalino 1988 Italian Italian
13817 La Casa Del Padre Giorgio Montefoschi 1994 Italian Italian
13817 Passaggio In Ombra Mariateresa Di Lascia 1995 Italian Italian
13817 Il Dolore Perfetto Ugo Riccarelli 2004 Italian Italian
13817 Ferocity Nicola Lagioia 2014 Italian Italian
13878 Edwin Mullhouse Steven Millhauser 1972 American English
13918 Life Against Death Norman O. Brown 1959 American English
13941 The Story Of My Teeth Valeria Luiselli 2015 Mexican Spanish
13991 Eureka Street Robert McLiam Wilson 1996 Irish English
13971 Beneath The Sugar Sky Seanan McGuire 2018 American English
13971 Hotel World Ali Smith 2001 British English
13993 The Year's Best Horror Stories: Viii Karl Edward Wagner 1980 American English
14172 The Human Comedy William Saroyan 1943 American English
14176 Black Tickets Jayne Anne Phillips 1979 American English
14212 Thank You and Other Poems Kenneth Koch 1962 American English
14212 The Fox In The Attic Richard Hughes 1961 British English
14232 Women in Their Beds Gina Berriault 1996 American English
14232 View With A Grain Of Sand Wislawa Szymborska 1995 Polish Polish
14347 The Waters of Kronos Conrad Richter 1960 American English
14347 Plains Song Wright Morris 1980 American English
14450 A Spool Of Blue Thread Anne Tyler 2015 American English
14457 Collected Stories of Peter Taylor Peter Taylor 1969 American English
14480 The Banyan Tree Christopher Nolan 1999 Irish English
14492 The Early Stories John Updike 2003 American English
14498 The Short Stories Of Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy 1988 British English
14519 Collected Poems of Frank O'Hara Frank O'Hara 1971 American English
14623 The Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse Vicente Blasco Ibáñez 1916 Spanish Spanish
14627 Collected Poems By Alfred Noyes Alfred Noyes 1913 British English
14641 Somos Luces Abismales Carolina Sanin 2018 Colombian Spanish
14649 The Green Knight Iris Murdoch 1993 British English
14649 I Would Have Saved Them If I Could Leonard Michaels 1975 American English
14649 Final Exit Derek Humphry 1991 British English
14780 The Peony Pavilion Tang Xianzu 1598 Chinese Chinese
14781 Poems, Essays And Letters Of Joyce Kilmer Joyce Kilmer, Robert Cortes Holliday 1918 American English
14783 The Collected Poems Of Rupert Brooke Rupert Brooke 1918 British English
14818 Dona Flor And Her Two Husbands Jorge Amado, Harriet de Onís 1966 Brazilian Portuguese
14868 Palm Of The Hand Stories Yasunari Kawabata 1949 Japanese Japanese
14897 The Harp In The South Ruth Park 1948 Australian English
14937 The Red Pony John Steinbeck 1933 American English
14951 Crimes Of The Heart Beth Henley 1978 American English
14950 Blood Wedding Federico García Lorca 1933 Spanish Spanish
14984 Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned Wells Tower 2009 American English
14984 Naked David Sedaris 1997 American English