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
2924 The Poems of Walt Whitman Walt Whitman 1855 American English
2934 Dolly City Orly Castel-Bloom 1992 Israeli Hebrew
2969 The Amber Spyglass Philip Pullman 2000 British English
2987 Two Solitudes Hugh MacLennan 1945 Canadian English
3014 Friday Night Lights H. G. Bissinger 1990 American English
3050 Centennial James A. Michener 1974 American English
3053 National Episodes Benito Pérez Galdós 1873 Spanish Spanish
3079 Los lanzallamas Roberto Arlt 1931 Argentinian Spanish
3084 Diane Arbus Marvin Israel, Doon Arbus 1972 American English
3091 Disturbance Philippe Lançon 2018 French French
3103 Spoon River Anthology Edgar Lee Masters 1915 American English
3116 The White Album Joan Didion 1979 American English
3129 Oryx and Crake Margaret Atwood 2003 Canadian English
3131 The Man Who Loved Dogs Leonardo Padura 2009 Cuban Spanish
3134 Ake Wole Soyinka 1981 Nigerian English
3140 Als Wär’s Ein Stück Von Mir Carl Zuckmayer 1966 German German
3172 A Simple Story S.Y. Agnon 1935 Israeli Hebrew
3203 Fever Pitch Nick Hornby 1992 British English
3206 Submission Michel Houellebecq 2015 French French
3221 Ecce Homo Friedrich Nietzsche 1908 German German
3226 Millennium Trilogy Stieg Larsson 2005 Swedish Swedish
3229 Growing Up Absurd Paul Goodman 1960 American English
3232 The Books Of Jacob Olga Tokarczuk 2014 Polish Polish
3277 Up in the Old Hotel Joseph Mitchell 1992 American English
3278 Holy Week Louis Aragon 1958 French French
3280 The Hate U Give Angie Thomas 2017 American English
3317 Shantaram Gregory David Roberts 2003 Australian English
3323 By the Open Sea August Strindberg 1890 Swedish Swedish
3323 Memoirs of My Nervous Illness Daniel Paul Schreber 1903 German German
3371 The Nazi And The Barber Edgar Hilsenrath 1971 German German
3372 The Green Child Herbert Read 1935 British English
3373 A Man's Place Annie Ernaux 1983 French French
3389 La Realidad Y El Deseo Luis Cernuda 1936 Spanish Spanish
3390 Los Gozos Y Las Sombras Gonzalo Torrente Ballester 1957 Spanish Spanish
3399 Great Plains Ian Frazier 1989 American English
3400 Brothers Yu Hua 2005 Chinese Chinese
3415 Bécon Les Bruyères Emmanuel Bove 1927 French French
3421 Daylight Czesław Miłosz 1975 Polish Polish
3427 Short Letter, Long Farewell Peter Handke 1972 Austrian German
3450 Mistborn Brandon Sanderson 2006 American English
3468 The Story Of English Robert McCrum 1986 British English
3484 The Scorpion Fish Nicolas Bouvier 1982 French French
3485 The Fault in Our Stars John Green 2012 American English
3491 The Claw Of The Conciliator Gene Wolfe 1981 American English
3500 Family Matters Rohinton Mistry 2002 Canadian English
3505 Speak Laurie Halse Anderson 1999 American English
3516 The Presentation Of Self In Everyday Life Erving Goffman 1959 American English
3532 Girl, Woman, Other Bernardine Evaristo 2019 British English
3541 Her Body and Other Parties Carmen Maria Machado 2017 American English
3564 The Eighth Life Nino Haratishvili 2014 Georgian German
3570 The Inquisitors' Manual António Lobo Antunes 1996 Portuguese English
3583 Married Life David Vogel 1986 Jewish English
3594 Thick Tressie McMillan Cottom 2019 American English
3593 The Day Lasts More Than A Hundred Years Chinghiz Aitmatov 1980 Kyrgyz Russian
3602 Celtic Tales Hugo Pratt 1980 Italian Italian
3627 Convenience Store Woman Sayaka Murata 2016 Japanese Japanese
3637 Days In The Caucasus Banine 1945 French French
3637 Maya The Bee And Her Adventures Waldemar Bonsels 1912 German German
3637 Childe Harold's Pilgrimage Lord Byron 1812 British English
3637 The Leatherstocking Tales James Fenimore Cooper 1823 American English
3637 Jew Süss Lion Feuchtwanger 1925 German German
3637 Exile Lion Feuchtwanger 1940 German German
3637 Bolwieser Oskar Maria Graf 1931 German German
3637 Leviathan Julien Green 1929 French French
3637 The Poor Musician Franz Grillparzer 1848 Austrian German
3637 Der Gaulschreck Im Rosennetz Fritz von Herzmanovsky-Orlando 1928 Austrian German
3637 Die Homosexualität Des Mannes Und Des Weibes Magnus Hirschfeld 1920 German German
3637 Fluss Ohne Ufer Hans Henny Jahnn 1949 German German
3637 The City Beyond The River Hermann Kasack 1947 German German
3637 The People Of Seldwyla Gottfried Keller 1872 Swiss German
3637 The Marquise Of O Heinrich von Kleist 1808 German German
3637 The Language Of The Third Reich Victor Klemperer 1947 German German
3637 Das Unauslöschliche Siegel Elisabeth Langgässer 1946 German German
3637 The Veil Of Veronica Gertrud von le Fort 1928 German German
3637 Child Of The Revolution Wolfgang Leonhard 1955 German German
3637 The Second Wife E. Marlitt 1899 German German
3637 Jürg Jenatsch Conrad Ferdinand Meyer 1876 Swiss German
3637 Stopfkuchen Wilhelm Karl Raabe 1891 German German
3637 Mitte Des Lebens Luise Rinser 1950 German German
3637 The Questionnaire Ernst von Salomon 1951 German German
3637 The Story Of My Life George Sand 1855 French French
3637 The Roads To Freedom Jean Paul Sartre 1945 French French
3637 The Road Into The Open Arthur Schnitzler 1908 Austrian German
3637 Die Feuerzangenbowle Heinrich Spoerl 1933 German German
3637 Franz Sternbald's Wanderings Ludwig Tieck 1798 German German
3637 The Ringer Edgar Wallace 1925 British English
3637 The Assistant Robert Walser 1908 Swiss German
3637 Caspar Hauser Or The Inertia Of The Heart Jakob Wassermann 1908 German German
3637 The Captain Of Köpenick Carl Zuckmayer 1931 German German
3832 Stories Of Three Decades Thomas Mann 1936 German German
3833 Invocation Of The Great Bear Ingeborg Bachmann 1956 Austrian German
3833 Повесть о жизни Konstantin Paustovsky 1956 Russian Russian
3855 Breath Tim Winton 2008 Australian English
3869 Sansibar Or The Last Reason Alfred Andersch 1957 German German
3873 The Alienist Caleb Carr 1994 American English
3875 We Need To Talk About Kevin Lionel Shriver 2003 American English
3877 Subconscious Opens Like A Fan Yona Wallach 1985 Israeli Hebrew
3892 Oriental Tales Marguerite Yourcenar 1938 French French
3907 Med Ana Schwoazzn Dintn Hans Carl Artmann 1958 Austrian German
3907 Homo Sociologicus Ralf Dahrendorf 1958 German German
3916 The Complete Poems of Marianne Moore Marianne Moore 1967 American English
3917 January Sara Gallardo 1971 Argentinian Spanish
3919 Staying Power Peter Fryer 1984 British English
3919 Collected Poems Allen Ginsberg 1984 American English
3927 The Poppy War R. F. Kuang 2018 Chinese English
3945 Doña Bárbara Rómulo Gallegos 1929 Venezuelan Spanish
3947 The Arrival Shaun Tan 2006 Australian English
3948 Antériorité Des Civilisations Nègres Cheikh Anta Diop 1954 Senegalese French
3954 The Complete Works Dionysios Solomos 1818 Greek Greek
3954 For Two Thousand Years Mihail Sebastian 1934 Romanian Romanian
3954 Adventures In Immediate Irreality M. Blecher 1936 Romanian Romanian
3954 Căderea în Lume Constantin Țoiu 1968 Romanian Romanian
4079 Children Of Blood And Bone Tomi Adeyemi 2018 Nigerian English
4106 Lange Schatten Marie Luise Kaschnitz 1960 German German
4106 Die Schaukel Annette Kolb 1960 German German
4106 Wolfskin Hans Lebert 1960 Austrian German
4106 Leavetaking Peter Weiss 1960 German German
4135 The Nonexistent Knight Italo Calvino 1959 Italian Italian
4154 Ankunft Im Alltag Brigitte Reimann 1961 German German
4154 Like A Tear In The Ocean Manès Sperber 1961 Unknown German