The Greatest Books of All Time on Isolation

Click to learn how this list is calculated.

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.

View: List Grid Table
Filter by: Genres Dates Countries

Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
6304 Les Lieux De Marguerite Duras Marguerite Duras 1977 French French
6311 Burial Rites Hannah Kent 2013 Australian English
6312 Dance, Dance, Dance Haruki Murakami 1988 Japanese Japanese
6327 The Day Of Creation J. G. Ballard 1987 British English
6330 My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts Amos Tutuola 1954 Nigerian English
6343 Another Country Karel Schoeman 1984 South African Afrikaans
6343 Repetition Peter Handke 1986 Austrian German
6350 A Wild Sheep Chase Haruki Murakami 1982 Japanese Japanese
6358 Heroes' Shrine For Sale or The Elegant Toilet Marios Hakkas 1993 Greek Greek
6403 The Chairs Eugène Ionesco 1952 French French
6402 The Last Inch James Aldridge 1958 British English
6406 L'iguana Anna Maria Ortese 1965 Italian Italian
6414 All Systems Red Martha Wells 2017 American English
6420 Collected Poems Dalia Rabikovitch 2009 Israeli Hebrew
6464 Comment S'en Sortir Sans Sortir Ghérasim Luca 1980 French French
6476 War & War László Krasznahorkai 1999 Hungarian Hungarian
6482 Year Of Wonders Geraldine Brooks 2001 Australian English
6522 Crow Lake Mary Lawson 2002 Canadian English
6547 The Boarded Window Ambrose Bierce 1891 American English
6548 Heldenplatz Thomas Bernhard 1988 Austrian German
6556 Žmogus, Kuris Miega Georges Perec 1967 French French
6564 Avalanche Blaga Dimitrova 1980 Bulgarian Bulgarian
6581 So The Wind Won't Blow It All Away Richard Brautigan 1982 American English
6603 Collected Stories Elizabeth Bowen 1980 Irish English
6629 No Man's Land Harold Pinter 1975 British English
6637 The Stadium Of Wimbledon Daniele del Giudice 1983 Italian Italian
6654 Beauty Salon Mario Bellatin 1994 Mexican Spanish
6657 A Dream In Polar Fog Yuri Rytkheu 2005 Russian Russian
6657 Berittener Bogenschütze Brigitte Kronauer 1989 German German
6679 The Imago Sequence And Other Stories Laird Barron 2007 American English
6688 Le Drame De La Vie & Le Discours Aux Animaux Valère Novarina 1984 French French
6695 The Stories Of Breece D'j Pancake Breece D'J Pancake 1983 American English
6699 The Little Stranger Sarah Waters 2009 British English
6700 It's A Good Life Jerome Bixby 1953 American English
6713 The Land Of Green Plums Herta Müller 1994 German German
6746 The Seven Solitudes Of Lorsa Lopez Sony Labou Tansi 1985 Congolese French
6748 Psalm At Journey's End Erik Fosnes Hansen 1990 Norwegian Norwegian
6761 Difficult Loves Italo Calvino 1958 Italian Italian
6791 The True Deceiver Tove Jansson 1982 Finnish Swedish
6797 Oh, Whistle, And I'll Come To You, My Lad M. R. James 1904 British English
6801 Bird Box Josh Malerman 2014 American English
6806 Maudit Manège Philippe Djian 1986 French French
6810 Down A Dark Hall Lois Duncan 1974 American English
6821 The Swimmer John Cheever 1964 American English
6821 Let It Come Down Paul Bowles 1952 American English
6821 The Lost Weekend Charles Jackson 1944 American English
6846 King Solomon's Carpet Barbara Vine 1991 British English
6857 Hell Has No Limits José Donoso 1965 Chilean Spanish
6867 Collected Poems Philip Larkin 1988 British English
6872 Eustace Chisholm And The Works James Purdy 1967 American English
6896 Doomsday Book Connie Willis 1992 American English
6902 Autobiography Thomas Bernhard 1975 Austrian German
6913 With The Animals Noëlle Revaz 2002 Swiss French
6921 São Bernardo Graciliano Ramos 1934 Brazilian Portuguese
6939 A Reckless Character and Other Stories Ivan Turgenev 1883 Russian Russian
6939 Shipwrecks Akira Yoshimura 1982 Japanese Japanese
6972 The Exquisite Corpse Alfred Chester 1967 American English
6974 The Ice House Minette Walters 1992 British English
6984 Fine Just the Way It Is Annie Proulx 2008 American English
6983 Project Hail Mary Andy Weir 2021 American English
6996 Dina's Book Herbjørg Wassmo 1989 Norwegian Norwegian
7003 Le Bonheur De La Nuit Hélène Bessette 1954 French French
7048 Personality Andrew O'Hagan 2003 Scottish English
7056 Just The End Of The World Jean-Luc Lagarce 1990 French French
7086 There Once Lived A Woman Who Tried To Kill Her Neighbour’s Baby Ludmila Petrushevskaya 2009 Russian Russian
7086 The Crocodile Bird Ruth Rendell 1993 British English
7122 127 Hours Aaron Ralston 2004 American English
7133 Desolation Angels Jack Kerouac 1965 American English
7134 Slow Man J. M. Coetzee 2005 South African English
7143 Black Hole Charles Burns 1995 American English
7159 Midnight Sun Ramsey Campbell 1990 British English
7177 The Asylum Seeker Arnon Grunberg 2003 Dutch Dutch
7191 The Complete Plays Of Eugene O'neill Eugene O'Neill 1959 American English
7196 The Storm Tomás González 1985 Colombian Spanish
7206 Animalinside László Krasznahorkai, Max Neumann 2010 Hungarian Hungarian
7216 The Dance Of Death August Strindberg 1900 Swedish Swedish
7216 The City Of The Dreadful Night James Thomson 1880 British English
7216 Short Novels Fyodor Dostoevsky 1846 Russian Russian
7216 Tales And Sketches Nathaniel Hawthorne 1837 American English
7216 Notebooks Nathaniel Hawthorne 1868 American English
7216 Stories And Poems Of Stephen Crane Stephen Crane 1900 American English
7216 Short Novels And Tales Henry James 1891 American English
7216 Poems Of Georg Trakl Georg Trakl 1913 Austrian German
7216 Selected Tales Leonid Andreyev 1900 Russian Russian
7216 Poems Of Edwin Arlington Robinson Edwin Arlington Robinson 1897 American English
7216 Death In The Woods And Other Stories Sherwood Anderson 1933 American English
7216 Poems Of Robinson Jeffers Robinson Jeffers 1920 American English
7216 Who Was Changed And Who Was Dead Barbara Comyns 1954 British English
7216 The Road To The City Natalia Ginzburg 1942 Italian Italian
7216 Orient Express Graham Greene 1932 British English
7216 The Bloater Rosemary Tonks 1968 English English
7569 All Fires The Fire Julio Cortazar 1966 Argentinian Spanish
7576 The Toilers Of The Sea Victor Hugo 1866 French French
7579 The Mosquito Coast Paul Theroux 1981 American English
7606 L'interruption Dominique Noguez 1993 French French
7612 The Short Stories Katherine Mansfield 1945 New Zealander English
7639 An Imaginary Life David Malouf 1978 Australian English
7652 The Republic Of Nothing Lesley Choyce 1994 Canadian English
7654 Tropical Night Falling Manuel Puig 1988 Argentinian Spanish
7698 The Ruins Scott Smith 2006 American English
7701 Tirza Arnon Grunberg 2006 Dutch Dutch
7704 Julie Of The Wolves Jean Craighead George 1972 American English
7713 The Snow Of The Admiral Alvaro Mutis 1986 Colombian Spanish
7733 The Story Of Harold Terry Andrews 1974 American English
7763 The Collected Stories of Heinrich Boll Heinrich Böll 1972 German German
7764 Too Much Happiness Alice Munro 2009 Canadian English
7799 Dreamsnake Vonda N. McIntyre 1978 American English
7820 Selected Writings Henri Michaux 1949 French French
7819 Sister Gin June Arnold 1975 American English
7832 A Spare Life Lidija Dimkovksa 2012 Macedonian Macedonian
7832 Elling Ingvar Ambjørnsen 1996 Norwegian Norwegian
7853 La Sorcière Marie NDiaye 1996 French French
7877 Baumgartner Paul Auster 2023 American English
7883 Mexican Gothic Silvia Moreno-Garcia 2020 Mexican English
7897 Dangerous Laughter Steven Millhauser 2008 American English
7915 Spring Flowers, Spring Frost Ismail Kadare 2000 Albanian Albanian
7960 The Country Of The Blind H. G. Wells 1904 British English
7967 Complete Poems And Selected Letters And Prose Hart Crane 1952 American English
7981 The Man Who Loved Only Numbers Paul Hoffman 1998 American English
7993 A World Apart Gustaw Herling 1951 Polish Polish