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
6498 The Black Count Tom Reiss 2012 French English
6511 Incest Christine Angot 1999 French French
6515 Ghost Image Hervé Guibert 1981 French French
6515 A Frozen Woman Annie Ernaux 1981 French French
6519 The Escaped Cock D. H. Lawrence 1929 British English
6535 Hunger Roxane Gay 2017 American English
6538 Black Feminist Thought Patricia Hill Collins 1990 American English
6546 Kindheit In Ostpreußen Marion Gräfin Dönhoff 1988 German German
6554 Žmogus, Kuris Miega Georges Perec 1967 French French
6556 Hernani Victor Hugo 1830 French French
6574 Ingrid Caven Jean-Jacques Schuhl 2000 French French
6580 Freshwater Akwaeke Emezi 2018 Nigerian English
6584 Crystal Boys Pai Hsien-yung 1983 Chinese Chinese
6584 Im Bach Des Wals Paul Nizon 1983 Swiss German
6601 Collected Stories Elizabeth Bowen 1980 Irish English
6619 Zone Mathias Enard 2008 French French
6630 Confessions Jaume Cabré 2011 Spanish Catalan
6635 Journey To The Land Of The Real Victor Segalen 1983 French French
6635 Savannah Bay Marguerite Duras 1983 French French
6635 The Opoponax Monique Wittig 1983 French French
6635 The Stadium Of Wimbledon Daniele del Giudice 1983 Italian Italian
6655 Berittener Bogenschütze Brigitte Kronauer 1989 German German
6668 Complete Short Stories Mark Twain 1957 American English
6673 Minor Characters Joyce Johnson 1983 American English
6687 Le Drame De La Vie & Le Discours Aux Animaux Valère Novarina 1984 French French
6709 The Old Drift Namwali Serpell 2019 Zambian English
6716 The Conjure Man Dies Rudolph Fisher 1932 American English
6736 My Misspent Youth Meghan Daum 2001 American English
6736 The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup Susan Orlean 2001 American English
6745 A Matter Of Feeling Janine Boissard 1985 French French
6745 The Seven Solitudes Of Lorsa Lopez Sony Labou Tansi 1985 Congolese French
6747 The Silent Steppe Mukhamet Shayakhmetov 2006 Kazakh English
6747 Psalm At Journey's End Erik Fosnes Hansen 1990 Norwegian Norwegian
6747 De Advocaat Van De Hanen A. F. Th. van der Heijden 1990 Dutch Dutch
6747 Infanta Bodo Kirchhoff 1990 German German
6747 Hoffman's Hunger Leon de Winter 1990 Dutch Dutch
6747 Sturmzeit Charlotte Link 1990 German German
6755 The Corpse Walker Liao Yiwu 2008 Chinese Chinese
6757 La Bâtarde Violette Leduc 1964 French French
6760 Difficult Loves Italo Calvino 1958 Italian Italian
6762 Citizen And Subject Mahmood Mamdani 1996 Ugandan English
6786 Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments Saidiya Hartman 2019 American English
6789 The Eleven Pierre Michon 2009 French French
6790 The True Deceiver Tove Jansson 1982 Finnish Swedish
6806 Maudit Manège Philippe Djian 1986 French French
6814 The Owl's Absence Bae Suah 2010 Korean Korean
6821 Collected Stories Of William Saroyan William Saroyan 1943 American English
6837 Yellowface R. F. Kuang 2023 American English
6840 Other Inquisitions Jorge Luis Borges 1952 Argentinian Spanish
6843 A History of the World in 100 Objects Neil MacGregor 2010 British English
6857 Hell Has No Limits José Donoso 1965 Chilean Spanish
6867 Collected Poems Philip Larkin 1988 British English
6868 The Cruel Prince Holly Black 2018 American English
6869 Captain Nemo's Library Per Olov Enquist 1991 Swedish Swedish
6872 Eustace Chisholm And The Works James Purdy 1967 American English
6873 Love's Work Gillian Rose 1995 British English
6878 Lettres Aux Années De Nostalgie Kenzaburō Ōe 1987 Japanese Japanese
6899 Exhalation Ted Chiang 2019 American English
6902 Autobiography Thomas Bernhard 1975 Austrian German
6907 The Years of Rice and Salt Kim Stanley Robinson 2002 American English
6913 With The Animals Noëlle Revaz 2002 Swiss French
6914 Théresè And Isabelle Violette Leduc 1966 French French
6939 A Reckless Character and Other Stories Ivan Turgenev 1883 Russian Russian
6943 La Poupée Russe Gheorghe Crăciun 2004 Romanian Unknown
6957 There Will Be No Miracles Here Casey Gerald 2018 American English
6963 Sheeper Irving Rosenthal 1967 American English
6972 The Exquisite Corpse Alfred Chester 1967 American English
6974 The Ice House Minette Walters 1992 British English
6980 We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live Joan Didion 2006 American English
6986 The Testaments Margaret Atwood 2019 Canadian English
6989 Red China Blues Jan Wong 1996 Canadian English
6996 Dina's Book Herbjørg Wassmo 1989 Norwegian Norwegian
6996 Le Théâtre Des Paroles Valère Novarina 1989 French French
6996 You Don't Love Yourself Nathalie Sarraute 1989 French French
7003 Le Bonheur De La Nuit Hélène Bessette 1954 French French
7004 The Collected Plays Of Noel Coward Noel Coward 1979 British English
7008 Gente Que Se Fue David Gistau 2010 Spanish Spanish
7020 Albert Murray Albert Murray 2016 American Unknown
7042 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Simon Armitage 2007 British Middle english
7048 Personality Andrew O'Hagan 2003 Scottish English
7056 Kaddish For An Unborn Child Imre Kertész 1990 Hungarian Hungarian
7056 A Passionate Apprentice Virginia Woolf 1990 British English
7056 Just The End Of The World Jean-Luc Lagarce 1990 French French
7056 Write To Kill Daniel Pennac 1990 French Unknown
7075 The Glorious Heresies Lisa McInerney 2015 Irish English
7081 Hermina Sami Tchak 2003 French French
7086 La Verità Sul Caso D. Carlo Fruttero, Franco Lucentini 1993 Italian Italian
7086 The Virtuoso Margriet de Moor 1993 Dutch Dutch
7086 Lajja Taslima Nasrin 1993 Bangladeshi Bengali
7086 The Crocodile Bird Ruth Rendell 1993 British English
7100 Les Guerilleres Monique Wittig 1969 French French
7105 Brother, I'm Dying Edwidge Danticat 2007 Haitian English
7120 The Color Of Summer Reinaldo Arenas 1991 Cuban Spanish
7142 Hello Beautiful Ann Napolitano 2023 American English
7148 Atomic Habits James Clear 2018 American English
7153 Poems Adrienne Rich 1975 American English
7176 The Asylum Seeker Arnon Grunberg 2003 Dutch Dutch
7180 Retold African American Folktales David Haynes 1996 American Unknown
7189 Close To The Knives David Wojnarowicz 1991 American English
7190 The Complete Plays Of Eugene O'neill Eugene O'Neill 1959 American English
7191 Heartstopper Alice Oseman 2018 British English
7205 Flight From The Ussr Dato Turashvili 2010 Georgian Georgian
7205 Het Meesterstuk Anna Enquist 1994 Dutch Dutch
7215 The Complete Works In Verse And Prose Of Samuel Daniel Samuel Daniel 1601 British English
7215 Comedies, Tragedies, Poems George Chapman 1600 British English
7215 Poems Of Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1789 German German
7215 Complete Works Lewis Carroll 1939 British English
7215 Complete Plays Of Gilbert And Sullivan W. S. Gilbert 1938 British English
7215 Complete Poems Heinrich Heine 1856 German German
7215 Tales And Sketches Nathaniel Hawthorne 1837 American English
7215 Notebooks Nathaniel Hawthorne 1868 American English
7215 Short Novels And Tales Henry James 1891 American English
7215 Complete Verse Rudyard Kipling 1940 British English
7215 Plays And Stories Arthur Schnitzler 1929 Austrian German
7215 The Years Virginia Woolf 1937 British English
7215 A Princesa De Clèves Madame de La Fayette 1678 French French
7215 Samskara U.R. Ananthamurthy 1965 Indian Kannada
7215 The Spider's House Paul Bowles 1955 American English
7215 The Road To The City Natalia Ginzburg 1942 Italian Italian
7215 Little Boy Lost Marghanita Laski 1949 British English