The Greatest Books of All Time on Freedom

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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
1799 The Giver Lois Lowry 1993 American English
1866 The Lion of Flanders Hendrik Conscience 1838 Belgian Dutch
1905 The Road to Klockrike Harry Martinson 1948 Swedish Swedish
1917 In the Time of the Butterflies Julia Alvarez 1994 Dominican English
1925 The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano Olaudah Equiano 1789 African English
1953 Titus Alone Mervyn Peake 1959 British English
1999 The Poetry of Luis Cernuda Luis Cernuda 1901 Spanish Spanish
2002 Freedom Jonathan Franzen 2010 American English
2003 Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Harriet Jacobs 1861 American English
2017 The Poems of Percy Bysshe Shelley Percy Bysshe Shelley 1810 British English
2019 The Death Ship B. Traven 1926 German German
2026 Memoirs of a Geisha Arthur Golden 1997 American English
2067 The Infernal Desire Machines Of Doctor Hoffman Angela Carter 1972 British English
2107 Desert Solitaire Edward Abbey 1968 American English
2141 The Interrogation J. M. G. Le Clezio 1963 French French
2149 Tractatus Theologico Politicus Baruch de Spinoza 1670 Dutch Latin
2185 In a Free State V. S. Naipaul 1971 Trinidadian English
2198 Veronika Decides to Die Paulo Coelho 1998 Brazilian Portuguese
2242 Collected Poems Arthur Rimbaud 1898 French French
2244 The Tombs Of Atuan Ursula K. Le Guin 1971 American English
2268 A Grain Of Wheat Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o 1967 Kenyan English
2271 The Nun Denis Diderot 1796 French French
2275 Hedda Gabler Henrik Ibsen 1890 Norwegian Norwegian
2319 The Sacred Night Tahar Ben Jelloun 1987 Moroccan French
2353 The Box Man Kobo Abé 1973 Japanese Japanese
2357 The Fruits of the Earth André Gide 1897 French French
2363 Our Nig Harriet E. Wilson 1859 American English
2412 The Fear Of Freedom Erich Fromm 1941 German English
2415 The Stars My Destination Alfred Bester 1956 American English
2416 Educated Tara Westover 2018 American English
2427 Soul Mountain Xingjian Gao 1990 Chinese Chinese
2464 Poems Of William Cullen Bryant William Cullen Bryant 1821 American English
2465 The Silent Duchess Dacia Maraini 1990 Italian Italian
2488 The Golden Compass Philip Pullman 1995 British English
2499 Room Emma Donoghue 2010 Irish English
2504 Homegoing Yaa Gyasi 2016 Ghanaian English
2514 Howl, Kaddish And Other Poems Allen Ginsberg 1956 American English
2536 Into the Wild Jon Krakauer 1996 American English
2548 Martín Fierro José Hernández 1872 Argentinian Spanish
2556 Dangling Man Saul Bellow 1944 American English
2561 The Human Condition Hannah Arendt 1958 German English
2598 A Fringe Of Leaves Patrick White 1976 Australian English
2682 The Czar's Madman Jaan Kross 1978 Estonian Estonian
2685 Selected Plays of Henrick Ibsen Henrik Ibsen 1900 Norwegian Norwegian
2693 Near To The Wild Heart Clarice Lispector 1943 Brazilian Portuguese
2700 Existentialism And Humanism Jean Paul Sartre 1946 French French
2752 My Fight for Birth Control Margaret Sanger 1931 American English
2752 Out Of Africa Karen Blixen 1937 Danish Danish
2782 The Legend Of Thyl Ulenspiegel And Lamme Goedzak Charles de Coster 1867 Belgian French
2814 Matigari Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o 1987 Kenyan Gikuyu
2858 A Mercy Toni Morrison 2008 American English
2898 Indigo Beverly Jenkins 1996 American English
2922 Discourses Of Epictetus Epictetus -108 Greek Greek
2925 The Poems of Walt Whitman Walt Whitman 1855 American English
2970 The Amber Spyglass Philip Pullman 2000 British English
2992 Frederick Douglass David W. Blight 2018 American English
3022 Captain Blood Rafael Sabatini 1922 British English
3099 Why We Can't Wait Martin Luther King 1964 American English
3102 Reading Lolita in Tehran Azar Nafisi 2003 Iranian English
3126 Daisy Miller Henry James 1878 American English
3216 The Year of the Hare Arto Paasilinna 1975 Finnish Finnish
3224 Forever Flowing Vasily Grossman 1970 Russian Russian
3225 The Driver's Seat Muriel Spark 1970 British English
3237 The Man Died Wole Soyinka 1972 Nigerian English
3280 Before Night Falls Reinaldo Arenas 1992 Cuban Spanish
3373 The Green Child Herbert Read 1935 British English
3386 The Shadow Lines Amitav Ghosh 1988 Indian English
3390 La Realidad Y El Deseo Luis Cernuda 1936 Spanish Spanish
3402 Shadow Over Mars Leigh Brackett 1944 American English
3406 The Great Indian Novel Shashi Tharoor 1989 Indian English
3436 On Wings Of Song Thomas M. Disch 1979 American English
3480 The Bookseller of Kabul Asne Seierstad 2002 Norwegian Norwegian
3518 Bureaucracy Ludwig von Mises 1944 Austrian English
3524 The Good Society Walter Lippmann 1937 American English
3557 The Black Jacobins C. L. R. James 1938 British English
3638 The Queen's Tiara Carl Jonas Love Almqvist 1834 Swedish Swedish
3638 The Thaw Ilya Ehrenburg 1954 Russian Russian
3638 The Raging Reporter Egon Erwin Kisch 1924 Czech German
3638 The Sexual Revolution Wilhelm Reich 1936 German German
3638 Kuttel Daddeldu Joachim Ringelnatz 1920 German German
3638 The Roads To Freedom Jean Paul Sartre 1945 French French
3638 The Road Into The Open Arthur Schnitzler 1908 Austrian German
3638 Rinaldo Rinaldini, The Robber Captain Christian August Vulpius 1799 German German
3860 Ethiopia Unbound J. E. Casely Hayford 1911 Ghanaian English
3869 Walden Two B. F. Skinner 1948 American English
3869 Sansibar Or The Last Reason Alfred Andersch 1957 German German
3885 Collected Plays John Millington Synge 1935 Irish English
3887 The Moon is a Harsh Mistress Robert A. Heinlein 1966 American English
3919 Collected Poems Allen Ginsberg 1984 American English
3952 Clotel William Wells Brown 1853 American English
3954 Το φως που καίει Kostas Varnalis 1922 Greek Greek
3954 Μπολιβαρ Nikos Engonopoulos 1944 Greek Greek
3954 Freedom Or Death Nikos Kazantzakis 1953 Greek Greek
3954 Odes Andreas Kalvos 1824 Greek Greek
3954 Κατά Σαδδουκαίων Michalis Katsaros 1953 Greek Greek
3954 The Memoirs Of General Makriyannis Makriyannis 1907 Greek Greek
3954 The Twelve Lays Of The Gypsy Kostis Palamas 1907 Greek Greek
3954 The Complete Works Dionysios Solomos 1818 Greek Greek
3954 The Free Besieged Dionysios Solomos 1825 Greek Greek
4095 The Flaw Antonis Samarakis 1965 Greek Greek
4099 Le Mauvais Sang Feu De Brousse à Trisse Coeur Tchicaya U. Tam'si 1955 Tchadian French
4100 Четвёртая проза Osip Mandelstam 1930 Russian Russian
4106 Summerhill Alexander Sutherland Neill 1960 British English
4121 Life's Good, Brother Nâzim Hikmet 1962 Turkish Turkish
4152 Oxherding Tale Charles R. Johnson 1982 American English
4164 The Good Lord Bird James McBride 2013 American English
4169 Letters On England Voltaire 1734 French French
4190 An Ember In The Ashes Sabaa Tahir 2015 American English
4206 Ghana Kwame Nkrumah 1957 Ghanaian English
4270 Who Can Be Happy And Free In Russia? Nikolay Nekrasov 1870 Russian Russian
4275 Journey From St. Petersburg To Moscow Alexander Radishchev 1790 Russian Russian
4276 The Gypsies Alexander Pushkin 1827 Russian Russian
4291 Finite And Infinite Games James P. Carse 1986 American English
4310 Indiana George Sand 1832 French French
4413 The Iron Candlestick Dimitar Talev 1952 Bulgarian Bulgarian
4462 Collected Works of Edna St. Vincent Millay Edna St. Vincent Millay 1956 American English
4506 Different Seasons Stephen King 1982 American English
4527 Living In Truth Vaclav Havel 1986 Czech Czech
4545 The Collected Poems Of Odysseus Elytis Odysseas Elytis 1971 Greek Greek
4581 Papillon Henri Charrière 1969 French French