The Greatest Books of All Time Set in Hope

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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
17 The Lord Of The Rings J. R. R. Tolkien 1959 English English
19 The Bible Unknown -1400 Jewish Hebrew, aramaic, greek
26 The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck 1939 American English
54 The Old Man and the Sea Ernest Hemingway 1952 American English
67 A Farewell to Arms Ernest Hemingway 1929 American English
101 Waiting for Godot Samuel Beckett 1953 Irish French
113 The Diary of a Young Girl Anne Frank 1947 Dutch Dutch
118 The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter Carson McCullers 1940 American English
126 If This Is a Man Primo Levi 1947 Italian Italian
128 The Stories of Anton Chekhov Anton Chekhov 1900 Russian Russian
148 One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 1962 Russian Russian
201 Berlin Alexanderplatz Alfred Döblin 1929 German German
214 Life and Fate Vasily Grossman 1980 Russian Russian
263 The Tartar Steppe Dino Buzzati 1940 Italian Italian
265 Cry, the Beloved Country Alan Paton 1948 South African English
290 The Road Cormac McCarthy 2006 American English
292 Of Human Bondage W. Somerset Maugham 1915 British English
317 The Poems of Robert Frost Robert Frost 1913 American English
408 The Myth of Sisyphus Albert Camus 1942 French French
501 Another Country James Baldwin 1962 American English
549 A Fine Balance Rohinton Mistry 1995 Indian English
551 Pilgrim's Progress John Bunyan 1678 British English
572 Three Sisters Anton Chekhov 1901 Russian Russian
582 Man's Search for Meaning Viktor Frankl 1946 Austrian German
593 Complete Poems of Giacomo Leopardi Giacomo Leopardi 1831 Italian Italian
610 Requiem Anna Akhmatova 1963 Russian Russian
695 Boys Alive Pier Paolo Pasolini 1955 Italian Italian
749 The Fire Next Time James Baldwin 1963 American English
770 The Underground Railroad Colson Whitehead 2016 American English
777 I Am Legend Richard Matheson 1954 American English
792 A Kestrel for a Knave Barry Hines 1968 British English
809 Poems by Machado Antonio Machado 1907 Spanish Spanish
824 Rhymes And Legends Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer 1871 Spanish Spanish
882 The Hour of the Star Clarice Lispector 1977 Brazilian Portuguese
937 The Sea Wall Marguerite Duras 1950 French French
989 The Lonely Londoners Sam Selvon 1956 Trinidadian English
1021 If Not Now, When? Primo Levi 1982 Italian Italian
1023 Transit Anna Seghers 1944 German German
1032 In The Heart Of The Seas Shmuel Yosef Agnon 1938 Israeli Hebrew
1035 Uncle Vanya Anton Chekhov 1897 Russian Russian
1114 Andersonville MacKinlay Kantor 1955 American English
1143 Tevye The Dairyman And The Railroad Stories Sholem Aleichem 1894 Jewish Yiddish
1206 Pachinko Min Jin Lee 2017 American English
1209 Between the World and Me Ta-Nehisi Coates 2015 American English
1237 Jacob the Liar Jurek Becker 1969 German German
1328 Parable Of The Sower Octavia E. Butler 1993 American English
1365 Nectar in a Sieve Kamala Markandaya 1954 Indian English
1373 Winter's Tale Mark Helprin 1983 American English
1381 Station Eleven Emily St John Mandel 2014 Canadian English
1413 All the Light We Cannot See Anthony Doerr 2014 American English
1433 Random Family Adrian Nicole LeBlanc 2003 American English
1451 The Children of Men P. D. James 1992 British English
1495 Behind the Beautiful Forevers Katherine Boo 2012 American English
1499 Three Comrades Erich Maria Remarque 1936 German German
1502 The Beautyful Ones are Not Yet Born Ayi K. Armah 1968 Ghanaian English
1513 The Women of Brewster Place Gloria Naylor 1982 American English
1514 Pelle The Conqueror Martin Andersen Nexø 1906 Danish Danish
1522 Cancer Ward Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 1967 Russian Russian
1569 Empire of the Sun J. G. Ballard 1984 British English
1670 The Emigrants Vilhelm Moberg 1949 Swedish Swedish
1773 The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne Brian Moore 1955 Irish English
1793 The Last Unicorn Peter S. Beagle 1968 American English
1813 Swan Song Robert R. McCammon 1987 American English
1877 Cold Mountain Charles Frazier 1997 American English
1878 East Goes West Younghill Kang 1937 American English
1933 Capital of Pain Paul Éluard 1926 French French
1954 They Shoot Horses, Don't They? Horace McCoy 1935 American English
1958 Let the Great World Spin Colum McCann 2009 Irish English
1971 Parable of the Talents Octavia E. Butler 1998 American English
2008 Job Joseph Roth 1930 Austrian German
2009 The War Marguerite Duras 1985 French French
2013 Poems Of César Vallejo César Vallejo 1922 Peruvian Spanish
2029 Nobody's Boy Hector Malot 1878 French French
2046 The Brothers Lionheart Astrid Lindgren 1973 Swedish Swedish
2053 Spain, Take This Chalice from Me César Vallejo 1939 Peruvian Spanish
2058 A Thousand Splendid Suns Khaled Hosseini 2007 Afghan English
2080 A Little Princess Frances Hodgson Burnett 1905 British English
2147 Aniara Harry Martinson 1956 Swedish Swedish
2159 Soul and Other Stories Andrey Platonov 1999 Russian Russian
2163 A Personal Matter Kenzaburō Ōe 1964 Japanese Japanese
2187 No One Writes to the Colonel Gabriel García Márquez 1961 Colombian Spanish
2208 Trainspotting Irvine Welsh 1993 Scottish English
2227 Exit West Mohsin Hamid 2017 Pakistani English
2260 The Iceman Cometh Eugene O'Neill 1946 American English
2277 The Twelve Alexander Blok 1918 Russian Russian
2279 Poems of Eugenio Montale Eugenio Montale 1925 Italian Italian
2337 The Pearl John Steinbeck 1947 American English
2347 Poems Of Louis Aragon Louis Aragon 1920 French French
2363 The Sorrow Of War Bao Ninh 1990 Vietnamese Vietnamese
2371 The Man Who Planted Trees Jean Giono 1953 French French
2392 Satantango László Krasznahorkai 1985 Hungarian Hungarian
2439 Poems Of Anna Akhmatova Anna Akhmatova 1912 Russian Russian
2504 Pastoralia George Saunders 2000 American English
2578 Les Contemplations Victor Hugo 1856 French French
2616 The Beautiful Mrs. Seidenman Andrzej Szczypiorski 1986 Polish Polish
2636 The Lament Of The Linnet Anna Maria Ortese 1997 Italian Italian
2650 The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian Sherman Alexie 2007 American English
2732 Seize The Day Saul Bellow 1956 American English
2811 Matigari Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o 1987 Kenyan Gikuyu
2847 What Is the What Dave Eggers 2006 American English
2925 The Return Hisham Matar 2016 Libyan English
2957 The Lower Depths Maxim Gorky 1902 Russian Russian
2976 My Friends Emmanuel Bove 1924 French French
3066 Tintin In Tibet Hergé 1960 Belgian French
3103 Spoon River Anthology Edgar Lee Masters 1915 American English
3143 Poems Hayyim Nahman Bialik 1901 Israeli Hebrew
3324 The Tin Flute Gabrielle Roy 1945 Canadian French
3382 Like Life Lorrie Moore 1990 American English
3383 Poems Miguel de Unamuno 1907 Spanish Spanish
3384 The Plague-Sower Gesualdo Bufalino 1981 Italian Italian
3387 Human Poems César Vallejo 1939 Peruvian Spanish
3420 In The Country Of Last Things Paul Auster 1987 American English
3450 Mistborn Brandon Sanderson 2006 American English
3459 The Glass Menagerie Tennessee Williams 1944 American English
3486 The Fault in Our Stars John Green 2012 American English
3521 Nothing to Envy Barbara Demick 2009 American English
3638 The Return and Other Stories Andrey Platonov 1946 Russian Russian
3638 And where Were You, Adam? Heinrich Böll 1951 German German
3638 Bicycle Thieves Luigi Bartolini 1946 Italian Italian
3638 Who Once Eats Out Of The Tin Bowl Hans Fallada 1934 German German