The Greatest Books of All Time on Guilt

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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
2177 Old People And The Things That Pass Louis Couperus 1906 Dutch Dutch
2202 The Kindly Ones Jonathan Littell 2006 French French
2218 The Sense of an Ending Julian Barnes 2011 British English
2233 Resurrection Leo Tolstoy 1899 Russian Russian
2236 Billiards at Half-Past Nine Heinrich Böll 1959 German German
2261 Appointment in Samarra John O'Hara 1934 American English
2265 The Murderess Alexandros Papadiamantis 1903 Greek Greek
2267 A Grain Of Wheat Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o 1967 Kenyan English
2281 Boris Godunov Alexander Pushkin 1831 Russian Russian
2302 Ironweed William Kennedy 1983 American English
2343 Small Things Like These Claire Keegan 2021 Irish English
2354 Enemies, A Love Story Isaac Bashevis Singer 1972 American Yiddish
2363 The Sorrow Of War Bao Ninh 1990 Vietnamese Vietnamese
2396 The Drowned and the Saved Primo Levi 1986 Italian Italian
2460 The League Of Frightened Men Rex Stout 1935 American English
2516 Hippolytus Euripides -428 Greek Ancient greek
2532 Young Goodman Brown & Other Short Stories Nathaniel Hawthorne 1835 American English
2547 Death in Rome Wolfgang Koeppen 1954 German German
2554 Amok Stefan Zweig 1922 Austrian German
2580 Trial And Error Anthony Berkeley 1937 British English
2791 Dog Years Günter Grass 1963 German German
2872 Boyhood J. M. Coetzee 1997 South African English
2899 A Private Affair Beppe Fenoglio 1963 Italian Italian
2901 Cremation Rafael Chirbes 2007 Spanish Spanish
3020 The Ministry Of Fear Graham Greene 1943 British English
3064 The Secret River Kate Grenville 2005 Australian English
3068 An Artist of the Floating World Kazuo Ishiguro 1986 British English
3146 A Simple Plan Scott Smith 1993 American English
3224 Forever Flowing Vasily Grossman 1970 Russian Russian
3285 The Door Szabó, Magda 1987 Hungarian Hungarian
3324 L'Abbé C Georges Bataille 1950 French French
3324 The Guiltless Hermann Broch 1950 Austrian German
3377 Ordinary People Judith Guest 1976 American English
3407 In A Lonely Place Karl Edward Wagner 1977 American English
3579 Flowering Judas and Other Stories Katherine Anne Porter 1930 American English
3637 The Portable Faulkner William Faulkner 1946 American English
3637 Leviathan Julien Green 1929 French French
3637 The Questionnaire Ernst von Salomon 1951 German German
3637 The Criminal Of Lost Honor Friedrich Schiller 1786 German German
3637 The Embezzled Heaven Franz Werfel 1940 Austrian German
3802 Manon des sources Marcel Pagnol 1963 French French
3875 We Need To Talk About Kevin Lionel Shriver 2003 American English
3929 A Posthumous Confession Marcellus Emants 1894 Dutch Dutch
3952 Modern Greek Stories Georgios Vizyinos 1883 Greek Greek
4055 The Tunnel William H. Gass 1995 American English
4089 The Little Tragedies Alexander Pushkin 1832 Russian Russian
4104 Wolfskin Hans Lebert 1960 Austrian German
4119 Each Man In His Darkness Julien Green 1960 French French
4149 The Devotion Of Suspect X Keigo Higashino 2005 Japanese Japanese
4217 Heracles Euripides -416 Greek Ancient greek
4223 Orestes Euripides -408 Greek Ancient greek
4222 The Spectre Of Alexander Wolf Gaito Gazdanov 1947 French Russian
4269 Eight Million Ways To Die Lawrence Block 1982 American English
4290 Mystic River Dennis Lehane 2001 American English
4502 Killers of the Dream Lillian Smith 1949 American English
4503 Osadeni Dushi Dimitar Dimov 1945 Bulgarian Bulgarian
4524 Falconer John Cheever 1977 American English
4612 Cold Heaven Brian Moore 1983 British English
4633 The Inability To Mourn Alexander Mitscherlich, Margarete Mitscherlich 1967 German German
4653 Tomorrow In The Battle Think On Me Javier Marias 1994 Spanish Spanish
4714 Jumping Jenny Anthony Berkeley 1933 British English
4788 The Master Builder Henrik Ibsen 1892 Norwegian Norwegian
4828 Patterns of Childhood Christa Wolf 1976 German German
4828 Blaming Elizabeth Taylor 1976 British English
4999 Teach Us To Outgrow Our Madness Kenzaburō Ōe 1969 Japanese Japanese
5146 Dawn Elie Wiesel 1961 Romanian French
5188 From Nine To Nine Leo Perutz 1918 Austrian German
5316 Faithless Joyce Carol Oates 2001 American English
5322 The Remorseful Day Colin Dexter 1999 British English
5389 St. Urbain's Horseman Mordecai Richler 1971 Canadian English
5416 The Brodeck Report Philippe Claudel 2007 French French
5473 The Unicorn Iris Murdoch 1963 British English
5517 Dolores Claiborne Stephen King 1992 American English
5666 Moira Julien Green 1950 French French
5892 The Power Of Darkness Leo Tolstoy 1886 Russian Russian
5897 The Ghost Sonata August Strindberg 1907 Swedish Swedish
5899 Parables, Fragments, Aphorisms Franz Kafka 1935 Czech German
6003 The Flood Yevgeny Zamyatin 1929 Russian Russian
6074 The Voyeur Alain Robbe-Grillet 1955 French French
6083 My Sister, The Serial Killer Oyinkan Braithwaite 2018 Nigerian English
6122 Monster Naoki Urasawa 1994 Japanese Japanese
6175 The Mansion William Faulkner 1959 American English
6275 The Narrow Road To The Deep North Richard Flanagan 2013 Australian English
6294 Dream Story Arthur Schnitzler 1926 Austrian German
6339 No No Boy John Okada 2024 American English
6410 Live Flesh Ruth Rendell 1986 British English
6446 Kapo Aleksandar Tišma 1987 Serbian Serbo-croatian
6527 The Painter Of Battles Arturo Pérez-Reverte 2006 Spanish Spanish
6631 Confessions Jaume Cabré 2011 Spanish Catalan
6681 Blacktop Wasteland S. A. Cosby 2020 American English
6730 Saturday Ian McEwan 2005 British English
6821 The Lost Weekend Charles Jackson 1944 American English
6839 The Awakening Of Helena Ritchie Margaret Deland 1906 American English
6870 The Mother Grazia Deledda 1920 Italian Italian
6933 The Tell Tale Heart And Other Writings Edgar Allan Poe 1843 American English
7137 Bury Your Dead Louise Penny 2010 Canadian English
7190 The Complete Plays Of Eugene O'neill Eugene O'Neill 1959 American English
7215 Danton's Death Georg Buchner 1835 German German
7215 Short Novels Fyodor Dostoevsky 1846 Russian Russian
7215 The Storm Aleksandr Ostrovsky 1860 Russian Russian
7215 Tales And Sketches Nathaniel Hawthorne 1837 American English
7215 The Woman Of The Pharisees François Mauriac 1941 French French
7215 Guilt Laszlo Németh 1943 Hungarian Hungarian
7215 Samskara U.R. Ananthamurthy 1965 Indian Kannada
7215 Lead Us Into Temptation Breandán Ó hEithir 1976 Irish English
7579 Speaker for the Dead Orson Scott Card 1986 American English
7733 Despair Vladimir Nabokov 1934 Russian Russian
7771 The Bad Seed William March 1954 American English
7788 Chatham School Affair Thomas Cook 1996 American English
7860 World Enough And Time Robert Penn Warren 1950 American English
7936 The Keys To The Street Ruth Rendell 1996 British English
7956 The House Gun Nadine Gordimer 1997 South African English
8025 The Dew Breaker Edwidge Danticat 2004 American English
8075 Amédée Eugène Ionesco 1954 French French
8097 Day A. L. Kennedy 2007 British English
8142 Bathsheba Torgny Lindgren 1984 Swedish Swedish
8471 No Longer At Ease Chinua Achebe 1960 Nigerian English
8471 Babylon Revisited And Other Stories F. Scott Fitzgerald 1960 American English
8589 The Promise Damon Galgut 2021 South African English
8653 El Hermano Asno Eduardo Barrios 1922 Chilean Spanish