The Greatest Books of All Time on Loss

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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
5775 Χαιρε Ποτε Kiki Dimoula 1988 Greek Greek
6003 Kate Vaiden Reynolds Price 1986 American English
6005 No One's Rose Paul Celan 1963 German German
6005 Poem Of The End Marina Tsvetaeva 1923 Russian Russian
6189 Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman Haruki Murakami 2006 Japanese Japanese
6199 Girl in Hyacinth Blue Susan Vreeland 1999 American English
6261 Give Me Back My Mountains Albert Wass 1971 Hungarian Hungarian
6289 Visitation Jenny Erpenbeck 2008 German German
6304 Les Lieux De Marguerite Duras Marguerite Duras 1977 French French
6343 Reise Durch Die Nacht Friederike Mayröcker 1986 Austrian German
6362 Во сне ты горько плакал Yuri Kazakov 1995 Russian Russian
6411 Bluets Maggie Nelson 2009 American English
6420 Collected Poems Dalia Rabikovitch 2009 Israeli Hebrew
6477 Case Histories Kate Atkinson 2004 British English
6548 Kindheit In Ostpreußen Marion Gräfin Dönhoff 1988 German German
6581 So The Wind Won't Blow It All Away Richard Brautigan 1982 American English
6623 Looking For The Possible Dance A. L. Kennedy 1993 British English
6637 Savannah Bay Marguerite Duras 1983 French French
6665 Crying In H Mart Michelle Zauner 2021 American English
6737 Silver Stallion Junghyo Ahn 1990 Korean Korean
6748 Hoffman's Hunger Leon de Winter 1990 Dutch Dutch
6817 Seven Husbands Of Evelyn Hugo Taylor Jenkins Reid 2017 American English
6841 Rapture Carol Ann Duffy 2005 British English
6845 For Those I Loved Martin Gray 1971 French French
6846 Three Georges Perec 1991 French French
6851 Apeirogon Colum McCann 2020 Irish English
6869 Captain Nemo's Library Per Olov Enquist 1991 Swedish Swedish
6873 The End of the Story Lydia Davis 1995 American English
6878 Lettres Aux Années De Nostalgie Kenzaburō Ōe 1987 Japanese Japanese
6916 The Paper Menagerie And Other Stories Ken Liu 2016 American English
6923 The Monkey's Paw W. W. Jacobs 1902 British English
6929 Jayber Crow Wendell Berry 2000 American English
7001 Collected Poems Jack Gilbert 2012 American English
7008 Gente Que Se Fue David Gistau 2010 Spanish Spanish
7056 Kaddish For An Unborn Child Imre Kertész 1990 Hungarian Hungarian
7056 Some Thing Black Jacques Roubaud 1990 French French
7099 The Dutch House Ann Patchett 2019 American English
7105 Brother, I'm Dying Edwidge Danticat 2007 Haitian English
7151 The Shawl Cynthia Ozick 1989 American English
7175 Wild Cheryl Strayed 2012 American English
7216 Complete Poems Ernest Dowson 1905 British English
7216 Little Boy Lost Marghanita Laski 1949 British English
7606 Writing Marguerite Duras 1993 French French
7632 Telephone Percival Everett 2020 American English
7684 Looking for Alaska John Green 2005 American English
7692 Quiet Flows The Una Faruk Šehić 2011 Bosnian Bosnian
7737 The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel Amy Hempel 2006 American English
7764 Too Much Happiness Alice Munro 2009 Canadian English
7791 Weetzie Bat Francesca Lia Block 1989 American English
7803 Für Elise Szabó, Magda 1984 Hungarian Hungarian
7898 The Night Watch Sarah Waters 2006 British English
7911 Poems Of Keith Douglas Keith Douglas 1951 British English
7967 Poems Of W. S. Merwin W. S. Merwin 1952 American English
7989 Sita Kate Millett 1976 American English
8022 Loved And Missed Susie Boyt 2023 British English
8091 Paris Nocturne Patrick Modiano 2003 French French
8098 The Hotel New Hampshire John Irving 1981 American English
8169 One Day In December Josie Silver 2018 British English
8191 The Fisherman John Langan 2016 American English
8203 The Day I Wasn't There Hélène Cixous 2000 French French
8243 19 Knives Mark Anthony Jarman 1997 Canadian English
8275 The Education of Little Tree Forrest Carter 1976 American English
8285 Nowhere Man Aleksandar Hemon 2002 Bosnian English
8303 The Secret Life Of Bees Sue Monk Kidd 2001 American English
8352 The Farming of Bones Edwidge Danticat 1998 Haitian English
8397 The Stag's Leap Sharon Olds 2012 American English
8445 Der Geliebte Der Mutter Urs Widmer 2000 Swiss German
8459 The Light of the World Elizabeth Alexander 2015 American English
8473 Babylon Revisited And Other Stories F. Scott Fitzgerald 1960 American English
8491 The Book Of My Lives Aleksandar Hemon 2013 American English
8502 The Grass Harp Truman Capote 1956 American English
8578 The Sorrow Of War Dương Thu Hương 1990 Vietnamese Vietnamese
8593 Sonnenschein Daša Drndić 2007 Croatian Croatian
8652 Pedigree Patrick Modiano 2005 French French
8688 Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close Jonathan Safran Foer 2005 American English
8712 Sweet Talk Stephanie Vaughn 1990 American English
8773 Inland Téa Obreht 2019 American English
8844 Negative Space Luljeta Lleshanaku 2018 Albanian Albanian
8853 I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home Lorrie Moore 2023 American English
8856 The Water Dancer Ta-Nehisi Coates 2019 American English
8923 At The Stone Of Losses T. Carmi 1966 Israeli Hebrew
8939 Memorial Drive Natasha Trethewey 2020 American English
8970 The Shack William P. Young 2007 American English
9018 Improvement Joan Silber 2017 American English
9022 The Fall Of A Sparrow Robert Hellenga 1998 American English
9036 Them Old Cowboy Songs Annie Proulx 2008 American English
9054 The Crossover Kwame Alexander 2014 American English
9192 Nemesis Philip Roth 2010 American English
9228 That's How It Was Natalia Ginzburg Italian Italian
9261 The Memory Police Yōko Ogawa 2024 Japanese Japanese
9262 The Yellow Birds Kevin Powers 2012 American English
9294 Casualties John Pepper Clark 1970 Nigerian English
9317 Russia Is Burning Maria Bloshteyn 2020 Russian English
9317 Memory Rose Into Threshold Speech Paul Celan 2020 German German
9324 The Butterfly’s Burden Mahmoud Darwish 2007 Palestinian Arabic
9342 The Tender Land Kathleen Finneran 2000 American English
9356 The Old Garden Hwang Sok-yong 2000 Korean Korean
9510 Dita Saxova Arnost Lustig 1962 Czech Czech
9658 Rachel, Monique… Sophie Calle 2012 French French
9673 Strange Shores Arnaldur Indriðason 2010 Icelandic Icelandic
9681 Ordesa Manuel Vilas 2018 Spanish Spanish
9763 The Armies Evelio Rosero 2007 Colombian Spanish
9773 The Night Bookmobile Audrey Niffenegger 2010 American English
9802 Axiomatic Maria Tumarkin 2018 Australian English
9887 The Memory Of War James Fenton 1983 British English
9906 A Broken Mirror Merce Rodoreda 1974 Spanish Catalan
9931 A Dress Of Fire Dalia Ravikovitch 1976 Israeli Hebrew
10140 Nocturnes For The King Of Naples Edmund White 1978 American English
10182 Monkey Beach Eden Robinson 2000 Canadian English
10190 Winter Journal Paul Auster 2012 American English
10193 City of Glass Paul Auster 1985 American English
10236 Que Cavalos São Aqueles Que Fazem Sombra No Mar? António Lobo Antunes 2009 Portuguese Portuguese
10309 Dear Departed Marguerite Yourcenar 1974 French French
10390 The Remains Of Love Zeruya Shalev 2011 Israeli Hebrew
10452 The Testament Of Mary Colm Toibin 2012 Irish English
10555 18% Gray Zachary Karabashliev 2008 Bulgarian Bulgarian
10660 Grief Observed C. S. Lewis 1961 British English
10681 A Living Remedy Nicole Chung 2023 American English
10732 Black Butterflies Priscilla Morris 2022 Unknown English
10744 Imagine Me Gone Adam Haslett 2016 American English