The Greatest Experimental Books of All Time

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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
11932 This Young Monster Charlie Fox 2017 British English
12021 The Off Season Jack Cady 1995 American English
12046 Species Of Spaces And Other Pieces Georges Perec 1974 French French
12060 Cannonball Joseph McElroy 2013 American English
12083 Aids And Its Metaphors Susan Sontag 1989 American English
12083 Dancing At The Edge Of The World Ursula K. Le Guin 1989 American English
12083 The Day I Began My Studies In Philosophy Margareta Ekström 1989 Swedish Unknown
12112 Hotel Lautréamont John Ashbery 1992 American English
12111 Every Riven Thing Christian Wiman 2010 American English
12158 My Work Olga Ravn 2023 Danish Danish
12231 The Karnau Tapes Marcel Beyer 1995 German German
12241 Brother Brontë Fernando A. Flores 2023 Unknown English
12249 The Golden Gate Vikram Seth 1986 Indian English
12258 Through The Arc Of The Rain Forest Karen Tei Yamashita 1990 American English
12481 EEG Daša Drndić 2016 Croatian Croatian
12494 The Mind's I Douglas Hofstadter, Daniel Dennett 1981 American English
12655 And The Stars Were Shining John Ashbery 1994 American English
12751 Border Districts Gerald Murnane 2017 Australian English
12754 Maidenhair Mikhail Shishkin 2005 Russian Russian
12763 Father's On The Phone With The Flies Herta Müller 2012 German German
12792 Echine Philippe Djian 1982 French French
12805 Ich Bin In Der Anstalt Friederike Mayröcker 2000 Austrian German
12832 The Straight Mind Monique Wittig 1992 French French
12864 The Extreme Self Douglas Coupland, Shumon Basar, Hans Ulrich Obrist 2021 Multiple English
13028 Tomatoes + Why Doesn't The Far Left Read Literature? Nathalie Quintane French French
13158 Lode Gillian Allnutt 2025 English English
13255 You Shall Know Our Velocity Dave Eggers 2002 American English
13283 How To Live Safely In A Science Fictional Universe Charles Yu 2010 American English
13285 Nocilla Dream Agustín Fernández Mallo 2006 Spanish Spanish
13316 Brief Interviews With Hideous Men David Foster Wallace 1999 American English
13328 Wir Schlafen Nicht Kathrin Röggla 2004 Austrian German
13327 Olio Tyehimba Jess 2016 American English
13331 Bizarre Happenings Eyewitnessed Over Two Decades Jianren Wu 1908 Chinese Chinese
13359 Harmonium Wallace Stevens 1923 American English
13359 Sonnets To Orpheus Rainer Maria Rilke 1923 German German
13359 On Having No Head Douglas Harding 1961 British English
13359 Blast I Wyndham Lewis 1914 British English
13359 Silence John Cage 1961 American English
13359 I Am A Cat Natsume Sōseki 1905 Japanese Japanese
13552 Tell The Machine Goodnight Katie Williams 2018 American English
13566 J Pod Douglas Coupland 2006 Canadian English
13582 Heartland Wilson Harris 1964 Guyanese English
13599 The Roving Shadows Pascal Quignard 2002 French English
13693 First World Fantasy Awards Gahan Wilson 1977 American English
13710 The Fruit Thief Peter Handke 2017 Austrian German
13764 Anathem Neal Stephenson 2008 American English
13817 A Caso Tommaso Landolfi 1975 Italian Italian
13817 Nottetempo, Casa Per Casa Vincenzo Consolo 1992 Italian Italian
13878 First Love And Other Shorts Samuel Beckett 1970 French French
13922 Dangerous Visions Harlan Ellison 1967 American English
13941 The Story Of My Teeth Valeria Luiselli 2015 Mexican Spanish
13964 Arbeit Und Struktur Wolfgang Herrndorf 2013 German German
13971 Hotel World Ali Smith 2001 British English
14009 Family Catastrophe Wang Wen-hsin 1973 Chinese Chinese
14047 Whereas Layli Long Soldier 2017 American English
14063 The Troika Stepan Chapman 1997 American English
14070 Erste Erde Epos Raoul Schrott 2016 Austrian German
14113 The Man Who Saw Everything Deborah Levy 2019 British English
14164 Am Weltenrand Sitzen Die Menschen Und Lachen Philipp Weiss 2018 Austrian German
14180 The Rhetoric of Fiction Wayne C. Booth 1961 American English
14232 Dart Alice Oswald 2002 British English
14232 In Ascension Martin MacInnes 2024 British English
14232 Memoirs Of A Polar Bear Yoko Tawada 2011 German German
14327 Shapes Of Native Nonfiction Elissa Washuta, Theresa Warburton 2019 Unknown English
14370 Aus Der Zuckerfabrik Dorothee Elmiger 2020 Swiss German
14389 Rivers and Mountains John Ashbery 1966 American English
14404 Die Inkommensurablen Raphaela Edelbauer 2021 Austrian German
14431 American Innovations Rivka Galchen 2014 American English
14434 Lost In The Funhouse John Barth 1968 American English
14457 Nog Rudy Wurlitzer 1969 American English
14498 Fiction and the Figures of Life William H. Gass 1970 American English
14598 The Pleasure of the Text Roland Barthes 1973 French French
14649 Superfiction Joe David Bellamy 1975 American English
14648 Wetlands Charlotte Roche 2008 German German
14649 Tadanori Yokoo Daido Moriyama 2006 Japanese Japanese
14730 I, etcetera Susan Sontag 1978 American English
14730 The World Within the Word William H. Gass 1978 American English
14730 The Book Alan Watts 1966 British English
14777 Monsieur Teste Paul Valéry 1896 French French
14930 Miss Mac Intosh, My Darling Marguerite Young 1965 American English
14944 Double Or Nothing Raymond Federman 1971 American English
14983 Going Native Stephen Wright 1994 American English
14977 The Soft Machine William S. Burroughs 1961 American English
14983 Nova Express William S. Burroughs 1964 American English
14974 The Complete Poetry of César Vallejo César Vallejo 1968 Peruvian Spanish
14983 No One Belongs Here More Than You Miranda July 2007 American English
14983 On the Calculation Of Volume 2 Solvej Balle 2024 Danish Danish
14983 Jejuri Arun Kolatkar 1976 Indian English
14983 The Complete Cosmicomics Italo Calvino 1965 Italian Italian
14983 Tremor Teju Cole 2023 American Unknown
14983 The Vorrh Brian Catling 2012 British English
14983 Bury Your Gays Chuck Tingle 2024 Unknown English
14983 The Faculty of Dreams Sara Stridsberg 2006 Swedish Swedish
14983 Affinities Brian Dillon 2023 British English
14983 Siete Casas Vacías Samanta Schweblin 2015 Argentinian Spanish
15644 Peter Whiffle Carl Van Vechten 1922 American English
15659 Oculus Sally Wen Mao 2019 American English
15678 Knots R.D. Laing Scottish English
15678 The Motorcycle Betrayal Poems Diane Wakoski American English
15724 Passionate Journey Frans Masereel 1919 Belgian German
15731 Deliver Us From Love Suzanne Brogger 1976 Danish Danish
15794 The Harz Journey And Selected Prose Heinrich Heine 1826 German German
15790 Collected Poems Of T. S. Eliot 1909 1935 T. S. Eliot 1936 American English
15838 A Confederate General From Big Sur Richard Brautigan 1900 American English
15897 Behaviorism John Watson 1924 American English
15897 An Inquiry Into The Good Nishida Kitarō 1911 Japanese Japanese
15897 Idealism And The Endgame Of Theory F. W. J. Schelling 1800 German German
15897 The Literary Work Of Art Roman Ingarden 1931 Polish German
15897 Cronopios And Famas Julio Cortazar 1962 Cuban Spanish
15897 Ushant Conrad Aiken 1952 Ushant English
15897 Seven Types Of Ambiguity William Empson 1930 British English
15894 The Retreat To Commitment William Warren Bartley 1962 American English
15897 Death Of A Naturalist Seamus Heaney 1966 Irish English
15876 Americana Don DeLillo 1971 American English
15877 água Viva Clarice Lispector 1973 Brazilian Portuguese
15897 Man Of Smoke Aldo Palazzeschi 1911 Italian Italian
15897 Childhood Of Nivasio Dolcemare Alberto Savinio 1938 Italian Italian
16489 Sun & Steel Yukio Mishima 1968 Japanese Japanese
15897 People In The Room Norah Lange 1950 Argentine Spanish
15897 The Naked Woman Armonía Somers 1950 Uruguayan Spanish