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
11445 Awaiting Trespass Linda Ty-Casper 1985 Philippine English
11445 Later The Same Day Grace Paley 1985 American English
11445 The Magnificent Spinster May Sarton 1985 American English
11445 Various Miracles Carol Shields 1985 Canadian English
11479 Vicky Angel Jacqueline Wilson 2000 British English
11481 Victory Over Japan Ellen Gilchrist 1984 American English
11503 State Of Wonder Ann Patchett 2011 American English
11512 Bowlaway Elizabeth McCracken 2019 American English
11508 Collected Poems John Berryman 1989 American English
11528 Orpheus and Eurydice Unknown -28 Unknown Ancient greek
11525 206 Bones Kathy Reichs 2009 American English
11547 Selected Poems of Gabriela Mistral Gabriela Mistral 1922 Chilean Spanish
11547 Old St Paul's William Harrison Ainsworth 1841 British English
11565 Nox Anne Carson 2010 Canadian English
11573 Men Without Women Ernest Hemingway 1927 American English
11577 The Last Days of Hitler Hugh Trevor-Roper 1947 British English
11630 Everyman Philip Roth 2006 American English
11653 Above The River James Wright 1990 American English
11653 The Continuous Life Mark Strand 1990 American English
11653 All Of Us Raymond Carver 1996 American English
11663 The Furrows Namwali Serpell 2022 Unknown English
11663 The New Yorker Stories Ann Beattie 2010 American English
11663 The Lay Of The Land Richard Ford 2006 American English
11663 During The Reign Of The Queen Of Persia Joan Chase 1983 American English
11663 Lives Of The Poets E. L. Doctorow 2001 American English
11663 Staring At The Sun Julian Barnes 1986 British English
11663 The Magic Lantern Ingmar Bergman 1987 Swedish Swedish
11663 Federico Garcia Lorca Ian Gibson 1989 Spanish English
11813 Memory Board Jane Rule 1987 Canadian English
11883 The Barracks John McGahern 1963 Irish English
11890 The Rabbiter's Bounty Les A. Murray 1991 Australian English
11896 Kinder Than Solitude Yiyun Li 2014 American English
11901 Loving And Giving Molly Keane 1988 Irish English
11921 Lake Of Urine Guillermo Stitch 2020 British English
12016 Hygiene And The Assassin Amélie Nothomb 1992 Belgian French
12030 The Heather Blazing Colm Toibin 1992 Irish English
12029 Night Train To Lisbon Pascal Mercier 2004 Swiss German
12049 Landing Light Don Paterson 2003 British English
12066 Les Thanatonautes Bernard Werber 1994 French French
12071 Night Shift Stephen King 1978 American English
12084 Jasmine Bharati Mukherjee 1989 American English
12173 The Electric Michelangelo Sarah Hall 2004 British English
12175 Tibetan Book Of The Dead Robert Thurman 1994 Tibetan English
12201 Memorial Ferdinando Camon 1983 Italian Italian
12259 Floating In My Mother's Palm Ursula Hegi 1990 German English
12326 Biting At The Grave Padraig O'Malley 1990 British English
12326 Mazurka For Two Dead Men Camilo José Cela 1983 Spanish Spanish
12326 After Rain William Trevor 1996 Irish English
12326 Toward The End Of Time John Updike 1997 American English
12385 Time Remaining James McCourt 1993 American English
12450 In The Beginning Was The Sea Tomás González 1983 Colombian Spanish
12515 The Gates Of Ivory Margaret Drabble 1991 British English
12576 The Diaries Alma Mahler 1997 Austrian German
12657 Poems Of John Hollander John Hollander 2013 American English
12821 Rage Steve Gerlach 2006 Australian English
12834 Mrs. Vargas And The Dead Naturalist Kathleen Alcalá 1992 American English
12834 Talking To The Dead Sylvia Watanabe 1992 American English
13067 Bridge to Terabithia Katherine Paterson 1977 American English
13092 The Wood Wife Terri Windling 1996 American English
13257 公墓 Mu Shiying 1933 Chinese Chinese
13279 Even The Dogs Jon McGregor 2010 British English
13307 The Death Of Yuli Xu Zhenya 1912 Chinese Chinese
13321 Redshirts John Scalzi 2012 American English
13338 Last Orders Graham Swift 1996 British English
13362 The Works of Walter Savage Landor Walter Savage Landor 1846 British English
13362 An Iceland Fisherman Pierre Loti 1886 French French
13529 Sugar Street Naguib Mahfouz 1957 Egyptian Arabic
13533 The Height Of The Scream Ramsey Campbell 1976 British English
13543 Mr. Sammler's Planet Saul Bellow 1970 American English
13543 Three Junes Julia Glass 2002 American English
13558 The Black Swan Thomas Mann 1953 German German
13729 Oscar And The Lady In Pink Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt 2002 French French
13753 The Poetical Works Of Johnson, Parnell, Gray And Smollett George Gilfillan 1855 Scottish English
13772 Every Heart A Doorway Seanan McGuire 2016 American English
13789 Ocean Sea Alessandro Baricco 1993 Italian Italian
13818 A Spiral Of Mist Michele Prisco 1966 Italian Italian
13818 Solitudes Goffredo Parise 1984 Italian Italian
13818 Night's Lies Gesualdo Bufalino 1988 Italian Italian
13818 La Casa Del Padre Giorgio Montefoschi 1994 Italian Italian
13818 Passaggio In Ombra Mariateresa Di Lascia 1995 Italian Italian
13818 Il Dolore Perfetto Ugo Riccarelli 2004 Italian Italian
13818 Ferocity Nicola Lagioia 2014 Italian Italian
13879 Edwin Mullhouse Steven Millhauser 1972 American English
13919 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
14348 The Waters of Kronos Conrad Richter 1960 American English
14348 Plains Song Wright Morris 1980 American English
14451 A Spool Of Blue Thread Anne Tyler 2015 American English
14458 Collected Stories of Peter Taylor Peter Taylor 1969 American English
14481 The Banyan Tree Christopher Nolan 1999 Irish English
14493 The Early Stories John Updike 2003 American English
14499 The Short Stories Of Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy 1988 British English
14520 Collected Poems of Frank O'Hara Frank O'Hara 1971 American English
14624 The Four Horsemen Of The Apocalypse Vicente Blasco Ibáñez 1916 Spanish Spanish
14628 Collected Poems By Alfred Noyes Alfred Noyes 1913 British English
14642 Somos Luces Abismales Carolina Sanin 2018 Colombian Spanish
14650 The Green Knight Iris Murdoch 1993 British English
14650 I Would Have Saved Them If I Could Leonard Michaels 1975 American English
14650 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
14869 Palm Of The Hand Stories Yasunari Kawabata 1949 Japanese Japanese
14899 The Harp In The South Ruth Park 1948 Australian English
14940 The Red Pony John Steinbeck 1933 American English
14953 Crimes Of The Heart Beth Henley 1978 American English
14951 Blood Wedding Federico García Lorca 1933 Spanish Spanish
14985 Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned Wells Tower 2009 American English
14985 Naked David Sedaris 1997 American English