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
3324 The Living and the Dead Patrick White 1941 Australian English
3380 The Shadow Line Joseph Conrad 1917 British English
3384 The Plague-Sower Gesualdo Bufalino 1981 Italian Italian
3407 In A Lonely Place Karl Edward Wagner 1977 American English
3409 The deadbeats Ward Ruyslinck 1957 Belgian Dutch
3409 The Birds Tarjei Vesaas 1957 Norwegian Norwegian
3416 Bécon Les Bruyères Emmanuel Bove 1927 French French
3420 In The Country Of Last Things Paul Auster 1987 American English
3423 The Back Room Carmen Martín Gaite 1978 Spanish Spanish
3426 The Violent Bear It Away Flannery O'Connor 1960 American English
3431 The Stories of Ray Bradbury Ray Bradbury 1980 American English
3432 Betrayed by Rita Hayworth Manuel Puig 1968 Argentinian Spanish
3439 The Needle's Eye Fanny Howe 1970 American English
3440 The House Next Door Anne Rivers Siddons 1978 American English
3445 Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids Kenzaburō Ōe 1958 Japanese Japanese
3460 Captain Pantoja And The Special Service Mario Vargas Llosa 1973 Peruvian Spanish
3485 The Scorpion Fish Nicolas Bouvier 1982 French French
3506 Speak Laurie Halse Anderson 1999 American English
3511 Alone With The Horrors Ramsey Campbell 1993 British English
3521 Nothing to Envy Barbara Demick 2009 American English
3534 The Birthday Party Harold Pinter 1958 British English
3551 The Improvement of Human Reason Ibn Tufayl 1170 Arabic Arabic
3553 Log Of The S.S. The Mrs Unguentine Stanley Crawford 1972 American English
3559 Faces In The Water Janet Frame 1961 New Zealander English
3580 Flowering Judas and Other Stories Katherine Anne Porter 1930 American English
3584 Married Life David Vogel 1986 Jewish English
3591 Do Everything in the Dark Gary Indiana 2003 American English
3594 The Day Lasts More Than A Hundred Years Chinghiz Aitmatov 1980 Kyrgyz Russian
3597 Time of Silence Luis Martín-Santos 1962 Spanish Spanish
3622 A Small, Good Thing Raymond Carver 1981 American English
3625 The Lost Salt Gift Of Blood Alistair MacLeod 1976 Canadian English
3628 Convenience Store Woman Sayaka Murata 2016 Japanese Japanese
3630 Party Going Henry Green 1939 British English
3638 The Portable Faulkner William Faulkner 1946 American English
3638 The White Ship Chinghiz Aitmatov 1970 Kyrgyz Russian
3638 Mr. Fortune's Maggot Sylvia Townsend Warner 1927 British English
3638 The Rider on the White Horse Theodor Storm 1888 German German
3638 The Tunnel Friedrich Dürrenmatt 1952 Swiss German
3638 Exile Lion Feuchtwanger 1940 German German
3638 Bolwieser Oskar Maria Graf 1931 German German
3638 Leviathan Julien Green 1929 French French
3638 The Poor Musician Franz Grillparzer 1848 Austrian German
3638 Fluss Ohne Ufer Hans Henny Jahnn 1949 German German
3638 On The Marble Cliffs Ernst Jünger 1939 German German
3638 The City Beyond The River Hermann Kasack 1947 German German
3638 Visite D'un Poète Charles Ferdinand Ramuz 1927 Swiss French
3638 Die Insel Felsenburg Johann Gottfried Schnabel 1731 German German
3638 The Assistant Robert Walser 1908 Swiss German
3638 Caspar Hauser Or The Inertia Of The Heart Jakob Wassermann 1908 German German
3638 The Man Outside Wolfgang Borchert 1947 German German
3802 Inside Mr. Enderby Anthony Burgess 1963 British English
3809 Wittgenstein's Nephew Thomas Bernhard 1982 Austrian German
3817 The Beach Alex Garland 1996 British English
3833 Invocation Of The Great Bear Ingeborg Bachmann 1956 Austrian German
3844 The Stone Raft José Saramago 1986 Portuguese Portuguese
3848 Piranesi Susanna Clarke 2020 British English
3869 Sansibar Or The Last Reason Alfred Andersch 1957 German German
3885 Collected Plays John Millington Synge 1935 Irish English
3889 There But For The Ali Smith 2011 British English
3892 Beauty On Earth Charles Ferdinand Ramuz 1927 French French
3904 Other Voices, Other Rooms Truman Capote 1948 American English
3917 January Sara Gallardo 1971 Argentinian Spanish
3928 The Vice-Consul Marguerite Duras 1966 French French
3934 One Hundred Poems Kenneth Slessor 1944 Australian English
3938 All The World's Mornings Pascal Quignard 1991 French French
3954 Νηπενθή Kostas Karyotakis 1921 Greek Greek
3954 Ο Εξώστης Nikos Kakhtitsis 1963 Greek Greek
3954 Ποιήματα Α' και Β' Miltos Sachtouris 1945 Greek Greek
4062 The Ice Wall Yasushi Inoue 1959 Japanese Japanese
4082 Diary Of A Madman Nikolai Gogol 1835 Russian Russian
4090 Silk Alessandro Baricco 1996 Italian Italian
4106 Wolfskin Hans Lebert 1960 Austrian German
4114 The Old Woman Daniil Kharms 1939 Russian Russian
4146 Krapp's Last Tape Samuel Beckett 1958 Irish English
4153 American Genius Lynne Tillman 2006 American English
4171 Dissipatio H.G. Guido Morselli 1977 Italian Italian
4208 The Case Worker György Konrád 1969 Hungarian Hungarian
4208 Luka Antun Šoljan 1969 Croatian Croatian
4285 A Rose for Emily William Faulkner 1930 American English
4295 The Castle franz kafka 1926 German German
4310 The Lurking Fear And Other Stories H. P. Lovecraft 1923 American English
4310 A Girl In Winter Philip Larkin 1947 British English
4310 Williwaw Gore Vidal 1946 American English
4372 Frost Thomas Bernhard 1963 Austrian German
4372 Nobodaddy's Children Arno Schmidt 1963 German German
4385 Flowers in the Attic V. C. Andrews 1979 American English
4400 The Obscene Bird Of Night José Donoso 1970 Chilean Spanish
4411 The Pigeon Patrick Suskind 1987 German German
4421 Trifles Susan Glaspell 1916 American English
4431 And Really Frau Blum Would Very Much Like To Meet The Milkman Peter Bichsel 1964 Swiss German
4450 Shibumi Trevanian 1979 American English
4454 Gogol's Wife Tommaso Landolfi 1953 Italian Italian
4461 The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake Aimee Bender 2010 American English
4481 Revenge Of The Lawn Richard Brautigan 1971 American English
4491 Voyage In The Dark Jean Rhys 1934 British English
4493 All The Little Live Things Wallace Stegner 1967 American English
4492 Niourk Stefan Wul 1957 French French
4506 Different Seasons Stephen King 1982 American English
4526 Falconer John Cheever 1977 American English
4542 The Stone Of Laughter Hoda Barakat 1990 Lebanese Arabic
4544 Ingenious Pain Andrew Miller 1997 British English
4582 The Zone Sergei Dovlatov 1982 Russian Russian
4588 The Loser Thomas Bernhard 1983 Austrian German
4591 La Demoiselle sauvage Corinna Bille 1974 French French
4596 Man in the Holocene Max Frisch 1979 Swiss German
4598 The Fourth Dimension Yannis Ritsos 1972 Greek Greek
4612 Complete Short Stories D. H. Lawrence 1950 British English
4646 The Face Of Another Kobo Abé 1964 Japanese Japanese
4656 Coraline Neil Gaiman 2002 British English
4662 The Complete Stories Clarice Lispector 2016 Brazilian Portuguese
4666 Building Stories Chris Ware 2012 American English
4664 The Fan Man William Kotzwinkle 1974 American English
4670 Beethoven's Letters Ludwig van Beethoven 1866 German German
4685 The Complete Poems Philip Larkin 1988 British English
4707 The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter Katherine Anne Porter 1965 American English
4711 Grimus Salman Rushdie 1975 British English
4712 My Michael Amos Oz 1968 Israeli Hebrew
4720 The Old Man Who Read Love Stories Luis Sepúlveda 1989 Chilean Spanish
4721 The Sword of the Lictor Gene Wolfe 1982 American English
4724 Mission Box Aris Alexandrou 1974 Greek Greek