The Greatest Experimental Books Since 1927

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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
72 Pale Fire Vladimir Nabokov 1962 American English
151 Molloy Samuel Beckett 1951 Irish French
185 U.S.A. Trilogy John Dos Passos 1930 American English
200 The Book of Disquiet Fernando Pessoa 1982 Portuguese Portuguese
231 Death of Virgil Hermann Broch 1945 Austrian German
232 2666 Roberto Bolaño 2004 Chilean Spanish
239 Tropic of Cancer Henry Miller 1934 American English
254 Gravity's Rainbow Thomas Pynchon 1973 American English
257 Finnegans Wake James Joyce 1939 Irish English
259 Naked Lunch William S. Burroughs 1959 American English
262 Austerlitz W. G. Sebald 2001 German German
269 Nightwood Djuna Barnes 1936 American English
270 Malone Dies Samuel Beckett 1951 Irish French
276 Life, a User's Manual Georges Perec 1978 French French
318 If on a Winter's Night a Traveller Italo Calvino 1979 Italian Italian
326 The Unnamable Samuel Beckett 1953 Irish French
333 Infinite Jest David Foster Wallace 1996 American English
348 The Glass Bead Game Hermann Hesse 1943 German German
354 Hopscotch Julio Cortazar 1963 Argentinian Spanish
355 The Savage Detectives Roberto Bolaño 1998 Chilean Spanish
357 At Swim Two-Birds Flann O'Brien 1939 Irish English
360 Ada or Ardor Vladimir Nabokov 1969 American English
384 Ferdydurke Witold Gombrowicz 1937 Polish Polish
394 Nadja André Breton 1928 French French
395 The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas Gertrude Stein 1933 American English
403 The Words Jean Paul Sartre 1963 French French
427 Cloud Atlas David Mitchell 2004 British English
438 Philosophical Investigations Ludwig Wittgenstein 1953 Austrian German
455 V Thomas Pynchon 1963 American English
473 The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle Haruki Murakami 1994 Japanese Japanese
479 Four Quartets T. S. Eliot 1943 British English
493 Auto Da Fé Elias Canetti 1935 Bulgarian German
496 Froth on the daydream Boris Vian 1947 French French
501 W, or the Memory of Childhood Georges Perec 1975 French French
514 Speak, Memory Vladimir Nabokov 1951 American English
526 Gormenghast Mervyn Peake 1950 British English
540 The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test Tom Wolfe 1968 American English
546 Jealousy Alain Robbe-Grillet 1957 French French
561 The Recognitions William Gaddis 1955 American English
565 Amerika Franz Kafka 1927 Czech German
577 Anniversaries Uwe Johnson 1970 German German
584 Poet in New York Federico García Lorca 1940 Spanish Spanish
607 House of Leaves Mark Z. Danielewski 2000 American English
629 Titus Groan Mervyn Peake 1946 British English
634 Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Robert M. Pirsig 1974 American English
638 Being and Nothingness Jean Paul Sartre 1943 French French
659 Mythologies Roland Barthes 1957 French French
672 Three Trapped Tigers Guillermo Cabrera Infante 1965 Cuban Spanish
683 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Hunter S. Thompson 1971 American English
692 The Hive Camilo José Cela 1951 Spanish Spanish
697 The Rings of Saturn W. G. Sebald 1995 German German
727 The Street of Crocodiles Bruno Schulz 1934 Polish Polish
748 Howl and Other Poems Allen Ginsberg 1956 American English
756 The Labyrinth of Solitude Octavio Paz 1950 Mexican Spanish
789 The Piano Teacher Elfriede Jelinek 1983 Austrian German
804 The Vegetarian Han Kang 2007 Korean Korean
836 Second Thoughts Michel Butor 1957 French French
841 Crash J. G. Ballard 1973 British English
874 The Last Samurai Helen DeWitt 2000 American English
882 The Hour of the Star Clarice Lispector 1977 Brazilian Portuguese
895 The Ravishing of Lol Stein Marguerite Duras 1964 French French
898 My Struggle Karl Ove Knausgård 2009 Norwegian Norwegian
910 The New York Trilogy Paul Auster 1985 American English
915 Malina Ingeborg Bachmann 1971 Austrian German
924 Where I'm Calling From Raymond Carver 1988 American English
929 Our Lady of the Flowers Jean Genet 1943 French French
936 A Void Georges Perec 1969 French French
964 Paroles Jacques Prévert 1946 French French
968 Jesus' Son Denis Johnson 1992 American English
982 Speedboat Renata Adler 1976 American English
999 Chevengur Andrey Platonov 1928 Russian Russian
1015 Justine Lawrence Durrell 1957 British English
1022 Lincoln in the Bardo George Saunders 2017 American English
1026 Murphy Samuel Beckett 1938 Irish English
1042 Franny and Zooey J. D. Salinger 1961 American English
1080 Mount Analogue René Daumal 1952 French French
1101 Outline Rachel Cusk 2014 British English
1106 The Passion Jeanette Winterson 1987 British English
1154 True History of the Kelly Gang Peter Carey 2000 Australian English
1166 Lanark Alasdair Gray 1981 Scottish English
1179 Living Henry Green 1929 British English
1213 The Floating Opera John Barth 1956 American English
1271 Extinction Thomas Bernhard 1986 Austrian German
1272 Erasure Percival Everett 2001 American English
1281 Mumbo Jumbo Ishmael Reed 1972 American English
1292 Two Serious Ladies Jane Bowles 1943 American English
1299 My Name is Red Orhan Pamuk 1998 Turkish Turkish
1302 Poems Paul Celan 1952 German German
1331 Cathedral Raymond Carver 1983 American English
1344 The Emigrants W. G. Sebald 1992 German German
1347 Story of the Eye Georges Bataille 1928 French French
1355 Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas Dylan Thomas 1952 British English
1387 Gödel, Escher, Bach Douglas Hofstadter 1979 American English
1399 Star Maker Olaf Stapledon 1937 British English
1411 Concrete Thomas Bernhard 1982 Austrian German
1414 Something About Eve James Branch Cabell 1927 American English
1421 Ubik Philip K. Dick 1969 American English
1424 Our Ancestors Italo Calvino 1952 Italian Italian
1441 The Cantos Ezra Pound 1933 American English
1443 Mason & Dixon Thomas Pynchon 1997 American English
1472 The Beauty Of The Husband Anne Carson 2001 Canadian English
1492 The Real Life of Sebastian Knight Vladimir Nabokov 1941 Russian English
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
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