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
13923 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
14931 Miss Mac Intosh, My Darling Marguerite Young 1965 American English
14945 Double Or Nothing Raymond Federman 1971 American English
14984 Going Native Stephen Wright 1994 American English
14978 The Soft Machine William S. Burroughs 1961 American English
14984 Nova Express William S. Burroughs 1964 American English
14975 The Complete Poetry of César Vallejo César Vallejo 1968 Peruvian Spanish
14984 No One Belongs Here More Than You Miranda July 2007 American English
14984 On the Calculation Of Volume 2 Solvej Balle 2024 Danish Danish
14984 Jejuri Arun Kolatkar 1976 Indian English
14984 The Complete Cosmicomics Italo Calvino 1965 Italian Italian
14984 Tremor Teju Cole 2023 American Unknown
14984 The Vorrh Brian Catling 2012 British English
14984 Bury Your Gays Chuck Tingle 2024 Unknown English
14984 The Faculty of Dreams Sara Stridsberg 2006 Swedish Swedish
14984 Affinities Brian Dillon 2023 British English
14984 Siete Casas Vacías Samanta Schweblin 2015 Argentinian Spanish
15649 Peter Whiffle Carl Van Vechten 1922 American English
15664 Oculus Sally Wen Mao 2019 American English
15729 Passionate Journey Frans Masereel 1919 Belgian German
15737 Deliver Us From Love Suzanne Brogger 1976 Danish Danish
15800 Collected Poems Of T. S. Eliot 1909 1935 T. S. Eliot 1936 American English
15845 A Confederate General From Big Sur Richard Brautigan 1900 American English
15908 Behaviorism John Watson 1924 American English
15908 An Inquiry Into The Good Nishida Kitarō 1911 Japanese Japanese
15908 The Literary Work Of Art Roman Ingarden 1931 Polish German
15908 Cronopios And Famas Julio Cortazar 1962 Cuban Spanish
15908 Ushant Conrad Aiken 1952 Ushant English
15908 Seven Types Of Ambiguity William Empson 1930 British English
15904 The Retreat To Commitment William Warren Bartley 1962 American English
15908 Death Of A Naturalist Seamus Heaney 1966 Irish English
15882 Americana Don DeLillo 1971 American English
15884 água Viva Clarice Lispector 1973 Brazilian Portuguese
15908 Man Of Smoke Aldo Palazzeschi 1911 Italian Italian
15908 Childhood Of Nivasio Dolcemare Alberto Savinio 1938 Italian Italian
16501 Sun & Steel Yukio Mishima 1968 Japanese Japanese
15908 People In The Room Norah Lange 1950 Argentine Spanish
15908 The Naked Woman Armonía Somers 1950 Uruguayan Spanish
16595 The Pill Vs. The Springhill Mine Disaster Richard Brautigan 1968 American English
16635 Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff 1950 Armenian Russian
16653 The Water Method Man John Irving 1972 American English
16629 100 Selected Poems E. E. Cummings 1954 American English
16724 The Peregrine J. A. Baker 1967 British English
17150 Facts of Life Maureen Howard 1965 American English
17150 Art and Culture Clement Greenberg 1961 American English
17150 The PowerBook Jeanette Winterson 2000 British English
17150 Hopeful Monsters Nicholas Mosley 1990 British English
17150 The Ticket That Exploded William S. Burroughs 1962 American English
17150 Take It Or Leave It Raymond Federman 1976 American English
17150 The Stain Rikki Ducornet 1984 American English
17150 Entering Fire Rikki Ducornet 1986 American English
17150 Genoa Paul C. Metcalf 1965 American English
17150 The Age of Wire and String Ben Marcus 1995 American English
17150 Up Ronald Sukenick 1968 American English
17150 You Bright and Risen Angels William T. Vollmann 1987 American English
17150 Mulligan Stew Gilbert Sorrentino 1979 American English
17150 In Memoriam to Identity Kathy Acker 1990 American English
17150 Hogg Samuel R. Delany 1995 American English
17150 Ray Barry Hannah 1980 American English
17150 The Invented Part Rodrigo Fresán 2014 Argentinian Spanish
17150 Such Christine Brooke-Rose 1966 British English
17150 Eucalyptus Murray Bail 1998 Australian English
17150 Red John Logan 2009 American English
17150 Heroines Kate Zambreno 2012 American English
17150 Paradigms Lost John L. Casti 1989 American English
17150 The Cosmic Landscape Leonard Susskind 2005 American English
17150 Against Method Paul Feyerabend 1975 German English
17150 Spurs Jacques Derrida 1976 French French
17150 Medieval In La Jim Paul 1996 American English
17150 Artful Ali Smith 2012 British English
17150 A Moment's Liberty Virginia Woolf 1990 British English
17150 On Such A Full Sea Chang-rae Lee 2014 American English
17150 The Dada Painters and Poets Robert Motherwell 1978 American English
17150 Great Mambo Chicken And The Transhuman Condition Ed Regis 1990 American English
17150 Man After Man Dougal Dixon 1990 British English
17150 Eunoia Christian Bök 2001 Canadian English
17150 The Middle Stories Sheila Heti 2001 Canadian English
17150 In Search Of Walid Masoud Jabra Ibrahim Jabra 1978 Palestinian Arabic
17150 Rama And The Dragon Edward al Kharrat 1980 Egyptian Arabic
17150 The Game Of Forgetting Mohammed Berrada 1987 Moroccan Arabic
17150 The Windy City Moussa Ould Ebnou 1998 Unknown Unknown
17150 Les 1001 années de la nostalgie Rachid Boudjedra 1997 Algerian French
17150 Time And Narrative (Time & Narrative) Paul Ricœur 1983 French French
17150 Leica Format Daša Drndić 2003 Croatian Croatian
17150 Stick Out Your Tongue Ma Jian 1987 Chinese Chinese
17150 But Beautiful Geoff Dyer 1991 British English
17150 Woodworm Layla Martínez 2024 Spanish Unknown
17150 Invisible Monsters Chuck Palahniuk 1999 American English
17150 Metamagical Themas Douglas Hofstadter 1985 American English
17150 Evolutionary Epistemology, Rationality, And The Sociology Of Knowledge Gerard Radnitzky 1987 German English
17150 Pink Slime Fernanda Trías 2024 Uruguayan Spanish
17150 Men In The Off Hours Anne Carson 2000 Canadian English