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
2012 Pincher Martin William Golding 1956 British English
2015 A Journal Of The Plague Year Daniel Defoe 1722 British English
2028 Quartet in Autumn Barbara Pym 1977 British English
2062 The Last World Christoph Ransmayr 1988 Austrian German
2064 Watt Samuel Beckett 1953 Irish English
2068 How Late It Was, How Late James Kelman 1994 Scottish English
2075 Snow Falling on Cedars David Guterson 1994 American English
2079 The Major Plays Anton Chekhov 1964 Russian Russian
2084 The Memoirs of a Survivor Doris May Lessing 1974 British English
2095 Derborence Charles Ferdinand Ramuz 1934 Swiss French
2107 Desert Solitaire Edward Abbey 1968 American English
2114 The Luminous Novel Mario Levrero 2005 Uruguayan Spanish
2141 The Interrogation J. M. G. Le Clezio 1963 French French
2147 The Night Land William Hope Hodgson 1912 British English
2148 Aniara Harry Martinson 1956 Swedish Swedish
2154 The Track Of The Cat Walter Van Tilburg Clark 1949 American English
2160 Soul and Other Stories Andrey Platonov 1999 Russian Russian
2168 Morvern Callar Alan Warner 1995 Scottish English
2175 Surfacing Margaret Atwood 1972 Canadian English
2182 The Little Demon Fedor Sologub 1907 Russian Russian
2210 Sub Rosa Robert Aickman 1968 British English
2225 My Year of Rest and Relaxation Ottessa Moshfegh 2018 American English
2239 The Twilight Years Sawako Ariyoshi 1972 Japanese Japanese
2243 Milkman Anna Burns 2018 Irish English
2244 The Tombs Of Atuan Ursula K. Le Guin 1971 American English
2257 Correction Thomas Bernhard 1975 Austrian German
2263 The Crystal World J. G. Ballard 1966 British English
2271 The Nun Denis Diderot 1796 French French
2279 One of Ours Willa Cather 1922 American English
2280 Poems of Eugenio Montale Eugenio Montale 1925 Italian Italian
2312 Solenoid Mircea Cărtărescu 2015 Romanian Romanian
2314 The Left-Handed Woman Peter Handke 1976 Austrian German
2315 Ship Of Fools Katherine Anne Porter 1962 American English
2342 Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth Chris Ware 2000 American English
2353 The Box Man Kobo Abé 1973 Japanese Japanese
2358 The Butcher Boy Patrick McCabe 1992 Irish English
2361 Bartleby & Co Enrique Vila-Matas 2000 Spanish Spanish
2362 On the Heights of Despair Emil Cioran 1934 Romanian Romanian
2374 The Crack-Up F. Scott Fitzgerald 1945 American English
2394 Satantango László Krasznahorkai 1985 Hungarian Hungarian
2401 Remembering Babylon David Malouf 1993 Australian English
2410 That They May Face the Rising Sun John McGahern 2002 Irish English
2415 The Stars My Destination Alfred Bester 1956 American English
2416 Educated Tara Westover 2018 American English
2434 The Forever War Joe Haldeman 1974 American English
2448 Blindness Henry Green 1926 British English
2466 Non Stop Brian Aldiss 1958 British English
2470 The Hill Of Dreams Arthur Machen 1907 British English
2492 The Moon And Sixpence W. Somerset Maugham 1919 British English
2494 All Souls Javier Marias 1989 Spanish Spanish
2508 Mrs. Bridge Evan S. Connell 1959 American English
2513 On the Black Hill Bruce Chatwin 1982 British English
2519 Rites of Passage William Golding 1980 British English
2534 Young Goodman Brown & Other Short Stories Nathaniel Hawthorne 1835 American English
2536 Into the Wild Jon Krakauer 1996 American English
2541 Journal, 1935 44 Mihail Sebastian 1996 Romanian Romanian
2547 Amok Stefan Zweig 1922 Austrian German
2556 Dangling Man Saul Bellow 1944 American English
2560 Death Sentence Maurice Blanchot 1948 French French
2565 The Family Of Pascual Duarte Camilo José Cela 1942 Spanish Spanish
2599 The Witness Juan José Saer 1983 Argentinian Spanish
2606 Ender's Game Orson Scott Card 1985 American English
2610 Whatever Michel Houellebecq 1994 French French
2637 The Lament Of The Linnet Anna Maria Ortese 1997 Italian Italian
2652 Circe Madeline Miller 2018 American English
2675 The Mountain Lion Jean Stafford 1947 American English
2689 The Ceremonies T. E. D. Klein 1984 American English
2702 Close Range Annie Proulx 1999 American English
2730 Overcoat Nikolai Gogol 1842 Russian Russian
2736 Severance Ling Ma 2018 American English
2741 The Martian Andy Weir 2011 American English
2752 Out Of Africa Karen Blixen 1937 Danish Danish
2783 Mountain Interval Robert Frost 1916 American English
2784 North Of Boston Robert Frost 1914 American English
2810 Jacob Have I Loved Katherine Paterson 1980 American English
2816 The Golden Apples Eudora Welty 1949 American English
2835 The Luzhin Defense Vladimir Nabokov 1930 Russian Russian
2839 The Bottle Factory Outing Beryl Bainbridge 1974 British English
2866 Endgame Samuel Beckett 1957 Irish French
2874 Boyhood J. M. Coetzee 1997 South African English
2897 Speculations About Jakob Uwe Johnson 1959 German German
2901 City Clifford D. Simak 1952 American English
2917 The Woman In Black Susan Hill 1983 British English
2934 On Overgrown Paths Knut Hamsun 1949 Norwegian Norwegian
2935 Dolly City Orly Castel-Bloom 1992 Israeli Hebrew
2949 Eva Trout Elizabeth Bowen 1968 Irish English
2978 My Friends Emmanuel Bove 1924 French French
2986 Friday Michel Tournier 1967 French French
2988 Two Solitudes Hugh MacLennan 1945 Canadian English
2998 Staying On Paul Scott 1977 British English
3011 Wittgenstein's Mistress David Markson 1988 American English
3039 The Snow Goose Paul Gallico 1941 British English
3057 The Enigma of Arrival V. S. Naipaul 1987 British English
3083 Under the Skin Michel Faber 2000 British English
3097 Open City Teju Cole 2011 American English
3104 Spoon River Anthology Edgar Lee Masters 1915 American English
3119 Sessanta Racconti Dino Buzzati 1958 Italian Italian
3121 The Possibility Of An Island Michel Houellebecq 2005 French French
3130 Oryx and Crake Margaret Atwood 2003 Canadian English
3142 The Shrinking Man Richard Matheson 1956 American English
3161 Weights And Measures Joseph Roth 1937 Austrian German
3179 The Quick And The Dead Joy Williams 2000 American English
3185 Moon Palace Paul Auster 1989 American English
3191 Trilce César Vallejo 1922 Peruvian Spanish
3199 Mao II Don DeLillo 1991 American English
3209 Briefing For A Descent Into Hell Doris May Lessing 1971 British English
3215 The Forgotten Beasts Of Eld Patricia A. McKillip 1974 American English
3216 The Year of the Hare Arto Paasilinna 1975 Finnish Finnish
3225 The Driver's Seat Muriel Spark 1970 British English
3265 The Days Of Abandonment Elena Ferrante 2002 Italian Italian
3282 Blankets Craig Thompson 2003 American English
3285 The Door Szabó, Magda 1987 Hungarian Hungarian
3324 By the Open Sea August Strindberg 1890 Swedish Swedish
3324 Hell Henri Barbusse 1908 French French