The Greatest Books of All Time on Identity

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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
1234 Woman at Point Zero Nawal El Saadawi 1975 Egyptian Arabic
1236 Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories Ryunosuke Akutagawa 1915 Japanese Japanese
1259 The Female Eunuch Germaine Greer 1970 Australian English
1270 Omeros Derek Walcott 1990 Saint Lucian English
1273 Robert Browning's Poetry Robert Browning 1833 British English
1285 Selected Stories of Alice Munro Alice Munro 1996 Canadian English
1287 Odessa Stories Isaac Babel 1923 Ukrainian Russian
1289 A Game of Thrones George R. R. Martin 1996 American English
1291 Parzival Wolfram Eschenbach 1200 German Middle high german
1307 Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry Mildred D. Taylor 1976 American English
1312 The Stories of Raymond Carver Raymond Carver 1981 American English
1321 A Question of Power Bessie Head 1973 Botswanan English
1328 Parable Of The Sower Octavia E. Butler 1993 American English
1336 Peter Schlemihl Adalbert von Chamisso 1814 German German
1348 Sandman Neil Gaiman 1989 British English
1373 Winter's Tale Mark Helprin 1983 American English
1379 The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty Eudora Welty 1980 American English
1380 The Sword in the Stone T. H. White 1938 British English
1395 The Mists of Avalon Marion Zimmer Bradley 1983 American English
1421 Ubik Philip K. Dick 1969 American English
1424 Our Ancestors Italo Calvino 1952 Italian Italian
1453 The Martian Chronicles Ray Bradbury 1950 American English
1457 Deliver Us Luigi Meneghello 1963 Italian Italian
1469 Last Afternoons With Teresa Juan Marsé 1966 Spanish Spanish
1506 Selected Stories William Trevor 1992 Irish English
1513 The Women of Brewster Place Gloria Naylor 1982 American English
1529 Orientalism Edward W. Said 1978 Palestinian English
1533 Dreamtigers Jorge Luis Borges 1960 Argentinian Spanish
1575 Borstal Boy Brendan Behan 1958 Irish English
1579 The Collected Stories of Isaac Babel Isaac Babel 1934 Russian Russian
1582 Quicksand Nella Larsen 1928 American English
1597 Snow Crash Neal Stephenson 1992 American English
1609 The Drowned World J. G. Ballard 1962 British English
1627 Dora Bruder Patrick Modiano 1997 French French
1646 Shogun James Clavell 1975 British English
1648 Wizard of the Crow Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o 2006 Kenyan English
1659 The Americans Robert Frank 1959 American English
1661 A Midsummer Night's Dream William Shakespeare 1595 British English
1662 Down Second Avenue Es'kia Mphahlele 1959 South African English
1669 The Underdogs Mariano Azuela 1915 Mexican Spanish
1672 Pulphead John Jeremiah Sullivan 2011 American English
1698 Stories of Your Life and Others Ted Chiang 2002 American English
1718 The Fixer Bernard Malamud 1966 American English
1752 Men We Reaped Jesmyn Ward 2013 American English
1755 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince J. K. Rowling 2005 British English
1765 A Little Life Hanya Yanagihara 2015 American English
1836 Grendel John Gardner 1971 American English
1842 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire J. K. Rowling 2000 British English
1860 Notebook Of A Return To The Native Land Aimé Césaire 1939 French French
1886 Poems, New And Collected, 1957 1997 Wislawa Szymborska 1998 Polish Polish
1907 Consider The Lobster David Foster Wallace 2005 American English
1910 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix J. K. Rowling 2003 British English
1962 The Prose Of The Trans Siberian Blaise Cendrars 1913 French French
1969 Poppy And Memory Paul Celan 1950 German German
1987 The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat Oliver Sacks 1985 British English
2003 Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Harriet Jacobs 1861 American English
2013 Poems Of César Vallejo César Vallejo 1922 Peruvian Spanish
2018 The Death Ship B. Traven 1926 German German
2022 The Color of Water James McBride 1995 American English
2025 Memoirs of a Geisha Arthur Golden 1997 American English
2057 Sixty Stories Donald Barthelme 1981 American English
2075 The Memory of Fire Trilogy Eduardo Galeano 1982 Uruguayan Spanish
2080 A Little Princess Frances Hodgson Burnett 1905 British English
2103 The Bloody Chamber And Other Stories Angela Carter 1979 British English
2122 The Crystal Cave Mary Stewart 1970 British English
2144 Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets J. K. Rowling 1998 British English
2159 Soul and Other Stories Andrey Platonov 1999 Russian Russian
2161 The Uses of Literacy Richard Hoggart 1957 British English
2168 Terra Nostra Carlos Fuentes 1975 Mexican Spanish
2170 Noughts and Crosses Malorie Blackman 2001 British English
2175 Hawaii James A. Michener 1959 American English
2182 Far From the Tree Andrew Solomon 2012 American English
2192 American Gods Neil Gaiman 2001 British English
2195 Portrait Of Jennie Robert Nathan 1940 American English
2206 Dreams from My Father Barack Obama 1995 American English
2210 Exemplary Stories Miguel de Cervantes 1613 Spanish Spanish
2232 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows J. K. Rowling 2007 British English
2241 Collected Poems Arthur Rimbaud 1898 French French
2272 The Wretched of the Earth Frantz Fanon 1961 Algerian French
2301 Le Roman Inachevé Louis Aragon 1956 French French
2311 Solenoid Mircea Cărtărescu 2015 Romanian Romanian
2369 The Power of One Bryce Courtenay 1989 Australian English
2370 Happiness, as Such Natalia Ginzburg 1973 Italian Italian
2372 The Crack-Up F. Scott Fitzgerald 1945 American English
2389 The Wheel of Time Series Robert Jordan 1990 American English
2393 The Glass Castle Jeannette Walls 2005 American English
2410 The Fear Of Freedom Erich Fromm 1941 German English
2413 The Stars My Destination Alfred Bester 1956 American English
2414 Educated Tara Westover 2018 American English
2445 The Map And The Territory Michel Houellebecq 2010 French French
2486 The Golden Compass Philip Pullman 1995 British English
2491 A Lesson Before Dying Ernest J. Gaines 1993 American English
2495 The Garden Of Forking Paths Jorge Luis Borges 1941 Argentinian Spanish
2512 Howl, Kaddish And Other Poems Allen Ginsberg 1956 American English
2513 Deathbird Stories Harlan Ellison 1975 American English
2536 Jazz Toni Morrison 1992 American English
2547 Stories Heinrich von Kleist 1810 German German
2605 Ender's Game Orson Scott Card 1985 American English
2636 The Lament Of The Linnet Anna Maria Ortese 1997 Italian Italian
2643 The Complete Poems And Plays T. S. Eliot 1952 British English
2648 Gemini Michel Tournier 1975 French French
2650 The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian Sherman Alexie 2007 American English
2651 Circe Madeline Miller 2018 American English
2666 The Songlines Bruce Chatwin 1987 British English
2684 Selected Plays of Henrick Ibsen Henrik Ibsen 1900 Norwegian Norwegian
2687 Blinding Mircea Cărtărescu 1996 Romanian Romanian
2695 Dalva Jim Harrison 1988 American English
2697 All Over But The Shoutin' Rick Bragg 1997 American English
2708 The Help Kathryn Stockett 2009 American English
2751 Out Of Africa Karen Blixen 1937 Danish Danish
2768 Amsterdam Stories Nescio 1918 Dutch Dutch
2781 The Legend Of Thyl Ulenspiegel And Lamme Goedzak Charles de Coster 1867 Belgian French
2780 Mist Miguel de Unamuno 1914 Spanish English
2786 By Night Under The Stone Bridge Leo Perutz 1953 Austrian German
2790 The Island Of Second Sight Albert Vigoleis Thelen 1953 German English
2836 Facing Mount Kenya Jomo Kenyatta 1938 Kenyan English
2847 What Is the What Dave Eggers 2006 American English
2866 House Made of Dawn N. Scott Momaday 1968 American English
2895 Speculations About Jakob Uwe Johnson 1959 German German
2898 A Private Affair Beppe Fenoglio 1963 Italian Italian