The Greatest Experimental Books Since 1952

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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
200 The Book of Disquiet Fernando Pessoa 1982 Portuguese Portuguese
232 2666 Roberto Bolaño 2004 Chilean Spanish
254 Gravity's Rainbow Thomas Pynchon 1973 American English
259 Naked Lunch William S. Burroughs 1959 American English
262 Austerlitz W. G. Sebald 2001 German German
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
354 Hopscotch Julio Cortazar 1963 Argentinian Spanish
355 The Savage Detectives Roberto Bolaño 1998 Chilean Spanish
360 Ada or Ardor Vladimir Nabokov 1969 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
502 W, or the Memory of Childhood Georges Perec 1975 French French
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
577 Anniversaries Uwe Johnson 1970 German German
607 House of Leaves Mark Z. Danielewski 2000 American English
634 Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Robert M. Pirsig 1974 American English
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
697 The Rings of Saturn W. G. Sebald 1995 German German
748 Howl and Other Poems Allen Ginsberg 1956 American English
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
936 A Void Georges Perec 1969 French French
968 Jesus' Son Denis Johnson 1992 American English
982 Speedboat Renata Adler 1976 American English
1015 Justine Lawrence Durrell 1957 British English
1022 Lincoln in the Bardo George Saunders 2017 American 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
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
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
1355 Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas Dylan Thomas 1952 British English
1387 Gödel, Escher, Bach Douglas Hofstadter 1979 American English
1411 Concrete Thomas Bernhard 1982 Austrian German
1421 Ubik Philip K. Dick 1969 American English
1424 Our Ancestors Italo Calvino 1952 Italian Italian
1443 Mason & Dixon Thomas Pynchon 1997 American English
1472 The Beauty Of The Husband Anne Carson 2001 Canadian 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
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
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
1942 The Land At The End Of The World António Lobo Antunes 1979 Portuguese Portuguese
1953 Titus Alone Mervyn Peake 1959 British English
1980 Chapel Road Louis-Paul Boon 1953 Belgian Dutch
2004 A School For Fools Sasha Sokolov 1976 Russian Russian
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
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
2334 How to be both Ali Smith 2014 British English
2404 A Sorrow Beyond Dreams Peter Handke 1972 Austrian German
2416 Bright Lights, Big City Jay McInerney 1984 American English
2419 The Melancholy of Resistance László Krasznahorkai 1989 Hungarian Hungarian
2467 On Beauty Zadie Smith 2005 British English
2481 Blood and Guts in High School Kathy Acker 1978 American English
2492 All Souls Javier Marias 1989 Spanish Spanish
2512 Howl, Kaddish And Other Poems Allen Ginsberg 1956 American English
2577 Complete Poems E. E. Cummings 1960 American English
2579 A Cup Of Rage Raduan Nassar 1978 Brazilian Portuguese
2581 Scenes From The Life Of A Faun Arno Schmidt 1953 German German
2587 Red Shift Alan Garner 1973 British English
2599 Almost Transparent Blue Ryū Murakami 1976 Japanese Japanese
2640 The Palm At The End Of The Mind Wallace Stevens 1971 American English
2652 Sleepless Nights Elizabeth Hardwick 1979 American English
2656 Ariel Sylvia Plath 1965 American English
2666 The Songlines Bruce Chatwin 1987 British English
2707 A Lover's Discourse Roland Barthes 1977 French French