The Greatest Experimental Books Since 1900

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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
1533 Dreamtigers Jorge Luis Borges 1960 Argentinian Spanish
1564 G. John Berger 1972 British English
1565 A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again David Foster Wallace 1997 American English
1610 The Hours Michael Cunningham 1998 American English
1617 Ways Of Seeing John Berger 1972 British English
1619 Nostalgia Mircea Cărtărescu 1989 Romanian Romanian
1633 In Watermelon Sugar Richard Brautigan 1968 American English
1644 The Nature of Things Francis Ponge 1942 French French
1659 The Americans Robert Frank 1959 American English
1702 Oreo Fran Ross 1974 American English
1703 The Argonauts Maggie Nelson 2015 American English
1715 The Clay Machine-gun Victor Pelevin 1996 Russian Russian
1731 Delta of Venus Anaïs Nin 1977 French English
1733 Tender Buttons Gertrude Stein 1914 American English
1737 Exercises in Style Raymond Queneau 1947 French French
1769 Under Milk Wood Dylan Thomas 1954 British English
1822 Small Lives Pierre Michon 1984 French French
1829 To The Friend Who Did Not Save My Life Hervé Guibert 1990 French French
1861 Citizen Claudia Rankine 2014 American English
1886 Poems, New And Collected, 1957 1997 Wislawa Szymborska 1998 Polish Polish
1909 The Collected Stories Of Lydia Davis Lydia Davis 2009 American English
1922 Tropisms Nathalie Sarraute 1939 French French
1933 Capital of Pain Paul Éluard 1926 French French
1942 The Land At The End Of The World António Lobo Antunes 1979 Portuguese Portuguese
1953 Titus Alone Mervyn Peake 1959 British English
1961 Demian Hermann Hesse 1919 German German
1962 The Prose Of The Trans Siberian Blaise Cendrars 1913 French French
1967 Leviathan Arno Schmidt 1949 German German
1969 Poppy And Memory Paul Celan 1950 German German
1979 Furor and Mystery René Char 1948 French French
1980 Chapel Road Louis-Paul Boon 1953 Belgian Dutch
1991 All about H. Hatterr G. V. Desani 1948 Indian English
2004 A School For Fools Sasha Sokolov 1976 Russian Russian
2053 Spain, Take This Chalice from Me César Vallejo 1939 Peruvian Spanish
2057 Sixty Stories Donald Barthelme 1981 American English
2059 The Passion Of New Eve Angela Carter 1977 British English
2063 Watt Samuel Beckett 1953 Irish English
2064 The Egghead Republic Arno Schmidt 1957 German German
2066 The Infernal Desire Machines Of Doctor Hoffman Angela Carter 1972 British English
2067 How Late It Was, How Late James Kelman 1994 Scottish English
2116 Querelle of Brest Jean Genet 1947 French French
2126 Life In The Folds Henri Michaux 1949 French French
2225 Aspects of the Novel E. M. Forster 1927 British English
2246 The Bald Soprano Eugène Ionesco 1950 French French
2256 Correction Thomas Bernhard 1975 Austrian German
2301 Le Roman Inachevé Louis Aragon 1956 French French
2304 Giles Goat-Boy John Barth 1966 American English
2309 Chance And Necessity Jacques Monod 1970 French French
2310 Sexing the Cherry Jeanette Winterson 1989 British English
2311 Solenoid Mircea Cărtărescu 2015 Romanian Romanian
2313 The Left-Handed Woman Peter Handke 1976 Austrian German
2335 How to be both Ali Smith 2014 British English
2361 On the Heights of Despair Emil Cioran 1934 Romanian Romanian
2381 The Will To Power Friedrich Nietzsche 1901 German German
2405 A Sorrow Beyond Dreams Peter Handke 1972 Austrian German
2417 Bright Lights, Big City Jay McInerney 1984 American English
2420 The Melancholy of Resistance László Krasznahorkai 1989 Hungarian Hungarian
2468 On Beauty Zadie Smith 2005 British English
2482 Blood and Guts in High School Kathy Acker 1978 American English
2493 All Souls Javier Marias 1989 Spanish Spanish
2496 The Garden Of Forking Paths Jorge Luis Borges 1941 Argentinian Spanish
2513 Howl, Kaddish And Other Poems Allen Ginsberg 1956 American English
2541 Pilgrimage Dorothy Richardson 1915 British English
2556 Dangling Man Saul Bellow 1944 American English
2559 Death Sentence Maurice Blanchot 1948 French French
2578 Complete Poems E. E. Cummings 1960 American English
2580 A Cup Of Rage Raduan Nassar 1978 Brazilian Portuguese
2582 Scenes From The Life Of A Faun Arno Schmidt 1953 German German
2588 Red Shift Alan Garner 1973 British English
2600 Almost Transparent Blue Ryū Murakami 1976 Japanese Japanese
2641 The Palm At The End Of The Mind Wallace Stevens 1971 American English
2648 The ABC of Reading Ezra Pound 1934 American English
2653 Sleepless Nights Elizabeth Hardwick 1979 American English
2657 Ariel Sylvia Plath 1965 American English
2667 The Songlines Bruce Chatwin 1987 British English
2693 Near To The Wild Heart Clarice Lispector 1943 Brazilian Portuguese
2708 A Lover's Discourse Roland Barthes 1977 French French
2725 The Book Of Questions Edmond Jabès 1963 French French
2806 James Percival Everett 2024 American English
2834 The Luzhin Defense Vladimir Nabokov 1930 Russian Russian
2843 10:04 Ben Lerner 2014 American English
2847 The Museum of Unconditional Surrender Dubravka Ugrešić 1997 Croatian Croatian
2877 Palace of the Peacock Wilson Harris 1960 Guyanese English
2960 A Poem Without A Hero Anna Akhmatova 1960 Russian Russian
2966 The Erasers Alain Robbe-Grillet 1953 French French
2969 A Dream Play August Strindberg 1902 Swedish Swedish
2975 The Female Man Joanna Russ 1975 American English
2995 The Doors Of Perception Aldous Huxley 1954 British English
2999 A Cloud In Trousers Vladimir Mayakovsky 1915 Russian Russian
3008 Camera Lucida Roland Barthes 1980 French French
3009 Labyrinths Christopher Okigbo 1971 Nigerian English
3012 By Night in Chile Roberto Bolaño 2000 Chilean Spanish
3034 Novel on Yellow Paper Stevie Smith 1936 British English
3056 The Invention of Solitude Paul Auster 1982 American English
3057 The Enigma of Arrival V. S. Naipaul 1987 British English
3063 Home Land Sam Lipsyte 2004 American English
3074 Lunch Poems Frank O'Hara 1964 American English
3080 Los lanzallamas Roberto Arlt 1931 Argentinian Spanish
3097 Open City Teju Cole 2011 American English
3111 Anagrams Lorrie Moore 1986 American English
3117 The White Album Joan Didion 1979 American English
3121 The Possibility Of An Island Michel Houellebecq 2005 French French
3145 Dhalgren Samuel R. Delany 1975 American English
3162 Natural Novel Georgi Gospodinov 1999 Bulgarian Bulgarian
3164 Dept. of Speculation Jenny Offill 2014 American English
3165 Gender Trouble Judith Butler 1990 American English
3175 Spring And All William Carlos Williams 1923 American English
3175 The Thirtieth Year Ingeborg Bachmann 1961 Austrian German
3186 The Quest For Corvo A. J. A. Symons 1934 British English
3188 City, Sister, Silver Jáchym Topol 1994 Czech Czech
3191 Trilce César Vallejo 1922 Peruvian Spanish
3193 The Aesthetics Of Resistance Peter Weiss 1975 German German
3209 Briefing For A Descent Into Hell Doris May Lessing 1971 British English
3212 Betty Blue Philippe Djian 1985 French French
3223 Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder Lawrence Weschler 1995 American English
3260 The 42nd Parallel John Dos Passos 1930 American English
3275 The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll Alvaro Mutis 1993 Colombian Spanish
3309 The Theater and Its Double Antonin Artaud 1938 French French
3324 Hell Henri Barbusse 1908 French French
3324 Impressions of Africa Raymond Roussel 1910 French French