The Greatest Books of All Time on Family Dynamics

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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
5 One Hundred Years of Solitude Gabriel García Márquez 1967 Colombian Spanish
10 Anna Karenina Leo Tolstoy 1877 Russian Russian
26 The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck 1939 American English
29 Jane Eyre Charlotte Brontë 1847 British English
49 Beloved Toni Morrison 1987 American English
79 As I Lay Dying William Faulkner 1930 American English
90 Buddenbrooks Thomas Mann 1901 German German
117 Tess of the d'Urbervilles Thomas Hardy 1891 British English
128 The Stories of Anton Chekhov Anton Chekhov 1900 Russian Russian
131 King Lear William Shakespeare 1608 British English
141 Brideshead Revisited Evelyn Waugh 1945 British English
144 Sons and Lovers D. H. Lawrence 1913 British English
157 The Color Purple Alice Walker 1982 American English
186 Bonjour Tristesse Francoise Sagan 1954 French French
193 East of Eden John Steinbeck 1952 American English
195 An American Tragedy Theodore Dreiser 1925 American English
197 Howards End E. M. Forster 1910 British English
204 The Remains of the Day Kazuo Ishiguro 1989 British English
214 Life and Fate Vasily Grossman 1980 Russian Russian
221 White Teeth Zadie Smith 2000 British English
223 A House for Mr. Biswas V. S. Naipaul 1961 Trinidadian English
237 The Corrections Jonathan Franzen 2001 American English
242 The Godfather Mario Puzo 1969 American English
244 A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Betty Smith 1943 American English
246 The Forsyte Saga John Galsworthy 1906 British English
248 Atonement Ian McEwan 2001 British English
253 Look Homeward, Angel Thomas Wolfe 1929 American English
260 Song of Solomon Toni Morrison 1977 American English
291 The House of the Spirits Isabel Allende 1982 Chilean Spanish
308 The Bluest Eye Toni Morrison 1970 American English
311 Winesburg, Ohio Sherwood Anderson 1919 American English
322 Household Tales Brothers Grimm 1812 German German
331 Housekeeping Marilynne Robinson 1980 American English
341 The Human Comedy Honoré de Balzac 1830 French French
349 The Death of Ivan Ilyich Leo Tolstoy 1886 Russian Russian
353 Go Tell it on the Mountain James Baldwin 1953 American English
359 The God of Small Things Arundhati Roy 1997 Indian English
370 The Year of Magical Thinking Joan Didion 2005 American English
406 Ragtime E. L. Doctorow 1975 American English
409 My Brilliant Friend Elena Ferrante 2012 American Italian
414 The Mill on the Floss George Eliot 1860 British English
428 Death Of A Salesman Arthur Miller 1949 American English
446 Joseph and His Brothers Thomas Mann 1933 German German
450 Way of All Flesh Samuel Butler 1903 British English
466 A Death in the Family James Agee 1957 American English
468 Daniel Deronda George Eliot 1876 British English
472 The Man Who Loved Children Christina Stead 1940 Australian English
475 Gilead Marilynne Robinson 2004 American English
488 The Shipping News Annie Proulx 1993 Canadian English
500 Everything That Rises Must Converge Flannery O'Connor 1965 American English
513 Kindred Octavia E. Butler 1979 American English
521 I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Maya Angelou 1969 American English
525 Family Sayings Natalia Ginzburg 1963 Italian Italian
560 Sula Toni Morrison 1973 American English
573 Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret Judy Blume 1970 American English
575 I Capture the Castle Dodie Smith 1948 British English
611 Revolutionary Road Richard Yates 1961 American English
640 Black Boy Richard Wright 1945 American English
658 Angle of Repose Wallace Stegner 1971 American English
680 The Stories of John Cheever John Cheever 1978 American English
685 Them Joyce Carol Oates 1969 American English
686 Rabbit Is Rich John Updike 1981 American English
722 Bastard Out of Carolina Dorothy Allison 1992 American English
738 The Joy Luck Club Amy Tan 1989 American English
749 The Fire Next Time James Baldwin 1963 American English
767 The Tree of Man Patrick White 1955 Australian English
772 The Group Mary McCarthy 1963 American English
784 Rabbit at Rest John Updike 1990 American English
788 Roots Alex Haley 1976 American English
814 The Secret Garden Frances Hodgson Burnett 1911 British English
837 The Sellout Paul Beatty 2015 American English
838 The Book of Daniel E. L. Doctorow 1971 American English
878 The Poisonwood Bible Barbara Kingsolver 1998 American English
885 A Tale of Love and Darkness Amos Oz 2002 Israeli Hebrew
892 The Kite Runner Khaled Hosseini 2003 Afghan English
898 My Struggle Karl Ove Knausgård 2009 Norwegian Norwegian
905 Coming of Age in Samoa Margaret Mead 1928 American English
914 The Yearling Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings 1938 American English
931 The House by the Medlar Tree Giovanni Verga 1881 Italian Italian
933 Lives of Girls and Women Alice Munro 1971 Canadian English
995 Dombey and Son Charles Dickens 1846 British English
997 Julie, or the New Heloise Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1761 French French
1000 A Thousand Acres Jane Smiley 1991 American English
1022 Lincoln in the Bardo George Saunders 2017 American English
1035 Uncle Vanya Anton Chekhov 1897 Russian Russian
1037 The Woman Warrior Maxine Hong Kingston 1976 American English
1042 Franny and Zooey J. D. Salinger 1961 American English
1043 Danny The Champion Of The World Roald Dahl 1975 British English
1050 The Buddha of Suburbia Hanif Kureishi 1990 British English
1060 Fun Home Alison Bechdel 2006 American English
1077 Cider with Rosie Laurie Lee 1959 British English
1085 The Book Thief Markus Zusak 2005 Australian English
1103 The Tenant of Wildfell Hall Anne Brontë 1848 British English
1152 The Wapshot Chronicle John Cheever 1957 American English
1158 Half of a Yellow Sun Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 2006 Nigerian English
1197 Light Years James Salter 1975 American English
1202 The Country Girls Edna O'Brien 1960 Irish English
1206 Pachinko Min Jin Lee 2017 American English
1230 The Magnificent Ambersons Booth Tarkington 1918 American English
1263 The Summer Book Tove Jansson 1972 Finnish Swedish
1285 Selected Stories of Alice Munro Alice Munro 1996 Canadian English
1294 Peyton Place Grace Metalious 1956 American English
1307 Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry Mildred D. Taylor 1976 American English
1309 The Member Of The Wedding Carson McCullers 1946 American English
1312 The Stories of Raymond Carver Raymond Carver 1981 American English
1316 The Fountain Overflows Rebecca West 1956 British English
1318 Love Medicine Louise Erdrich 1984 American English
1354 Olive Kitteridge Elizabeth Strout 2008 American English
1360 The Makioka Sisters Junichiro Tanizaki 1948 Japanese Japanese
1368 Salvage the Bones Jesmyn Ward 2011 American English
1379 The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty Eudora Welty 1980 American English
1408 Amongst Women John McGahern 1990 Irish English
1442 Little House In The Big Woods Laura Ingalls Wilder 1932 American English
1448 Suite Française Irène Némirovsky 2004 French French
1460 Never Mind Edward St Aubyn 1992 British English
1461 Oranges are not the only Fruit Jeanette Winterson 1985 British English
1464 Little Dorrit Charles Dickens 1855 British English
1468 The Collected Stories of William Faulkner William Faulkner 1950 American English
1495 Behind the Beautiful Forevers Katherine Boo 2012 American English
1497 How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents Julia Alvarez 1991 Dominican English