The Greatest Books of All Time on Isolation

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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
1942 The Land At The End Of The World António Lobo Antunes 1979 Portuguese Portuguese
1953 Titus Alone Mervyn Peake 1959 British English
1967 Leviathan Arno Schmidt 1949 German German
1972 The Virgin Suicides Jeffrey Eugenides 1993 American English
1973 The Invisible Man H. G. Wells 1897 British English
1977 House with the Blind Glass Windows Herbjørg Wassmo 1981 Norwegian Norwegian
2011 Pincher Martin William Golding 1956 British English
2014 A Journal Of The Plague Year Daniel Defoe 1722 British English
2027 Quartet in Autumn Barbara Pym 1977 British English
2061 The Last World Christoph Ransmayr 1988 Austrian German
2063 Watt Samuel Beckett 1953 Irish English
2067 How Late It Was, How Late James Kelman 1994 Scottish English
2074 Snow Falling on Cedars David Guterson 1994 American English
2078 The Major Plays Anton Chekhov 1964 Russian Russian
2083 The Memoirs of a Survivor Doris May Lessing 1974 British English
2094 Derborence Charles Ferdinand Ramuz 1934 Swiss French
2105 Desert Solitaire Edward Abbey 1968 American English
2113 The Luminous Novel Mario Levrero 2005 Uruguayan Spanish
2140 The Interrogation J. M. G. Le Clezio 1963 French French
2146 The Night Land William Hope Hodgson 1912 British English
2147 Aniara Harry Martinson 1956 Swedish Swedish
2153 The Track Of The Cat Walter Van Tilburg Clark 1949 American English
2159 Soul and Other Stories Andrey Platonov 1999 Russian Russian
2166 Morvern Callar Alan Warner 1995 Scottish English
2174 Surfacing Margaret Atwood 1972 Canadian English
2181 The Little Demon Fedor Sologub 1907 Russian Russian
2209 Sub Rosa Robert Aickman 1968 British English
2224 My Year of Rest and Relaxation Ottessa Moshfegh 2018 American English
2238 The Twilight Years Sawako Ariyoshi 1972 Japanese Japanese
2242 Milkman Anna Burns 2018 Irish English
2243 The Tombs Of Atuan Ursula K. Le Guin 1971 American English
2256 Correction Thomas Bernhard 1975 Austrian German
2262 The Crystal World J. G. Ballard 1966 British English
2270 The Nun Denis Diderot 1796 French French
2278 One of Ours Willa Cather 1922 American English
2279 Poems of Eugenio Montale Eugenio Montale 1925 Italian Italian
2311 Solenoid Mircea Cărtărescu 2015 Romanian Romanian
2313 The Left-Handed Woman Peter Handke 1976 Austrian German
2314 Ship Of Fools Katherine Anne Porter 1962 American English
2340 Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth Chris Ware 2000 American English
2351 The Box Man Kobo Abé 1973 Japanese Japanese
2356 The Butcher Boy Patrick McCabe 1992 Irish English
2359 Bartleby & Co Enrique Vila-Matas 2000 Spanish Spanish
2360 On the Heights of Despair Emil Cioran 1934 Romanian Romanian
2372 The Crack-Up F. Scott Fitzgerald 1945 American English
2392 Satantango László Krasznahorkai 1985 Hungarian Hungarian
2399 Remembering Babylon David Malouf 1993 Australian English
2408 That They May Face the Rising Sun John McGahern 2002 Irish English
2413 The Stars My Destination Alfred Bester 1956 American English
2414 Educated Tara Westover 2018 American English
2432 The Forever War Joe Haldeman 1974 American English
2446 Blindness Henry Green 1926 British English
2464 Non Stop Brian Aldiss 1958 British English
2468 The Hill Of Dreams Arthur Machen 1907 British English
2490 The Moon And Sixpence W. Somerset Maugham 1919 British English
2492 All Souls Javier Marias 1989 Spanish Spanish
2506 Mrs. Bridge Evan S. Connell 1959 American English
2511 On the Black Hill Bruce Chatwin 1982 British English
2517 Rites of Passage William Golding 1980 British English
2532 Young Goodman Brown & Other Short Stories Nathaniel Hawthorne 1835 American English
2534 Into the Wild Jon Krakauer 1996 American English
2539 Journal, 1935 44 Mihail Sebastian 1996 Romanian Romanian
2554 Amok Stefan Zweig 1922 Austrian German
2555 Dangling Man Saul Bellow 1944 American English
2559 Death Sentence Maurice Blanchot 1948 French French
2564 The Family Of Pascual Duarte Camilo José Cela 1942 Spanish Spanish
2598 The Witness Juan José Saer 1983 Argentinian Spanish
2605 Ender's Game Orson Scott Card 1985 American English
2609 Whatever Michel Houellebecq 1994 French French
2636 The Lament Of The Linnet Anna Maria Ortese 1997 Italian Italian
2651 Circe Madeline Miller 2018 American English
2674 The Mountain Lion Jean Stafford 1947 American English
2688 The Ceremonies T. E. D. Klein 1984 American English
2701 Close Range Annie Proulx 1999 American English
2729 Overcoat Nikolai Gogol 1842 Russian Russian
2735 Severance Ling Ma 2018 American English
2740 The Martian Andy Weir 2011 American English
2750 Out Of Africa Karen Blixen 1937 Danish Danish
2782 Mountain Interval Robert Frost 1916 American English
2783 North Of Boston Robert Frost 1914 American English
2808 Jacob Have I Loved Katherine Paterson 1980 American English
2813 The Golden Apples Eudora Welty 1949 American English
2833 The Luzhin Defense Vladimir Nabokov 1930 Russian Russian
2853 The Bottle Factory Outing Beryl Bainbridge 1974 British English
2863 Endgame Samuel Beckett 1957 Irish French
2871 Boyhood J. M. Coetzee 1997 South African English
2895 Speculations About Jakob Uwe Johnson 1959 German German
2899 City Clifford D. Simak 1952 American English
2915 The Woman In Black Susan Hill 1983 British English
2932 On Overgrown Paths Knut Hamsun 1949 Norwegian Norwegian
2933 Dolly City Orly Castel-Bloom 1992 Israeli Hebrew
2947 Eva Trout Elizabeth Bowen 1968 Irish English
2976 My Friends Emmanuel Bove 1924 French French
2984 Friday Michel Tournier 1967 French French
2986 Two Solitudes Hugh MacLennan 1945 Canadian English
2996 Staying On Paul Scott 1977 British English
3009 Wittgenstein's Mistress David Markson 1988 American English
3036 The Snow Goose Paul Gallico 1941 British English
3055 The Enigma of Arrival V. S. Naipaul 1987 British English
3081 Under the Skin Michel Faber 2000 British English
3096 Open City Teju Cole 2011 American English
3103 Spoon River Anthology Edgar Lee Masters 1915 American English
3118 Sessanta Racconti Dino Buzzati 1958 Italian Italian
3120 The Possibility Of An Island Michel Houellebecq 2005 French French
3129 Oryx and Crake Margaret Atwood 2003 Canadian English
3141 The Shrinking Man Richard Matheson 1956 American English
3160 Weights And Measures Joseph Roth 1937 Austrian German
3178 The Quick And The Dead Joy Williams 2000 American English
3184 Moon Palace Paul Auster 1989 American English
3190 Trilce César Vallejo 1922 Peruvian Spanish
3198 Mao II Don DeLillo 1991 American English
3208 Briefing For A Descent Into Hell Doris May Lessing 1971 British English
3214 The Forgotten Beasts Of Eld Patricia A. McKillip 1974 American English
3215 The Year of the Hare Arto Paasilinna 1975 Finnish Finnish
3224 The Driver's Seat Muriel Spark 1970 British English
3264 The Days Of Abandonment Elena Ferrante 2002 Italian Italian
3281 Blankets Craig Thompson 2003 American English
3284 The Door Szabó, Magda 1987 Hungarian Hungarian
3324 By the Open Sea August Strindberg 1890 Swedish Swedish
3324 Hell Henri Barbusse 1908 French French