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
5772 Χαιρε Ποτε Kiki Dimoula 1988 Greek Greek
6000 Kate Vaiden Reynolds Price 1986 American English
6002 No One's Rose Paul Celan 1963 German German
6002 Poem Of The End Marina Tsvetaeva 1923 Russian Russian
6185 Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman Haruki Murakami 2006 Japanese Japanese
6195 Girl in Hyacinth Blue Susan Vreeland 1999 American English
6258 Give Me Back My Mountains Albert Wass 1971 Hungarian Hungarian
6286 Visitation Jenny Erpenbeck 2008 German German
6301 Les Lieux De Marguerite Duras Marguerite Duras 1977 French French
6340 Reise Durch Die Nacht Friederike Mayröcker 1986 Austrian German
6359 Во сне ты горько плакал Yuri Kazakov 1995 Russian Russian
6408 Bluets Maggie Nelson 2009 American English
6417 Collected Poems Dalia Rabikovitch 2009 Israeli Hebrew
6475 Case Histories Kate Atkinson 2004 British English
6546 Kindheit In Ostpreußen Marion Gräfin Dönhoff 1988 German German
6579 So The Wind Won't Blow It All Away Richard Brautigan 1982 American English
6621 Looking For The Possible Dance A. L. Kennedy 1993 British English
6635 Savannah Bay Marguerite Duras 1983 French French
6664 Crying In H Mart Michelle Zauner 2021 American English
6736 Silver Stallion Junghyo Ahn 1990 Korean Korean
6747 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
7174 Wild Cheryl Strayed 2012 American English
7215 Complete Poems Ernest Dowson 1905 British English
7215 Little Boy Lost Marghanita Laski 1949 British English
7605 Writing Marguerite Duras 1993 French French
7631 Telephone Percival Everett 2020 American English
7683 Looking for Alaska John Green 2005 American English
7691 Quiet Flows The Una Faruk Šehić 2011 Bosnian Bosnian
7736 The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel Amy Hempel 2006 American English
7763 Too Much Happiness Alice Munro 2009 Canadian English
7790 Weetzie Bat Francesca Lia Block 1989 American English
7802 Für Elise Szabó, Magda 1984 Hungarian Hungarian
7897 The Night Watch Sarah Waters 2006 British English
7910 Poems Of Keith Douglas Keith Douglas 1951 British English
7966 Poems Of W. S. Merwin W. S. Merwin 1952 American English
7988 Sita Kate Millett 1976 American English
8021 Loved And Missed Susie Boyt 2023 British English
8090 Paris Nocturne Patrick Modiano 2003 French French
8096 The Hotel New Hampshire John Irving 1981 American English
8167 One Day In December Josie Silver 2018 British English
8189 The Fisherman John Langan 2016 American English
8201 The Day I Wasn't There Hélène Cixous 2000 French French
8241 19 Knives Mark Anthony Jarman 1997 Canadian English
8273 The Education of Little Tree Forrest Carter 1976 American English
8283 Nowhere Man Aleksandar Hemon 2002 Bosnian English
8301 The Secret Life Of Bees Sue Monk Kidd 2001 American English
8350 The Farming of Bones Edwidge Danticat 1998 Haitian English
8395 The Stag's Leap Sharon Olds 2012 American English
8443 Der Geliebte Der Mutter Urs Widmer 2000 Swiss German
8457 The Light of the World Elizabeth Alexander 2015 American English
8471 Babylon Revisited And Other Stories F. Scott Fitzgerald 1960 American English
8489 The Book Of My Lives Aleksandar Hemon 2013 American English
8500 The Grass Harp Truman Capote 1956 American English
8576 The Sorrow Of War Dương Thu Hương 1990 Vietnamese Vietnamese
8591 Sonnenschein Daša Drndić 2007 Croatian Croatian
8650 Pedigree Patrick Modiano 2005 French French
8686 Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close Jonathan Safran Foer 2005 American English
8710 Sweet Talk Stephanie Vaughn 1990 American English
8770 Inland Téa Obreht 2019 American English
8842 Negative Space Luljeta Lleshanaku 2018 Albanian Albanian
8851 I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home Lorrie Moore 2023 American English
8854 The Water Dancer Ta-Nehisi Coates 2019 American English
8921 At The Stone Of Losses T. Carmi 1966 Israeli Hebrew
8937 Memorial Drive Natasha Trethewey 2020 American English
8968 The Shack William P. Young 2007 American English
9016 Improvement Joan Silber 2017 American English
9020 The Fall Of A Sparrow Robert Hellenga 1998 American English
9034 Them Old Cowboy Songs Annie Proulx 2008 American English
9052 The Crossover Kwame Alexander 2014 American English
9191 Nemesis Philip Roth 2010 American English
9227 That's How It Was Natalia Ginzburg Italian Italian
9260 The Memory Police Yōko Ogawa 2024 Japanese Japanese
9261 The Yellow Birds Kevin Powers 2012 American English
9292 Casualties John Pepper Clark 1970 Nigerian English
9315 Russia Is Burning Maria Bloshteyn 2020 Russian English
9315 Memory Rose Into Threshold Speech Paul Celan 2020 German German
9322 The Butterfly’s Burden Mahmoud Darwish 2007 Palestinian Arabic
9340 The Tender Land Kathleen Finneran 2000 American English
9354 The Old Garden Hwang Sok-yong 2000 Korean Korean
9508 Dita Saxova Arnost Lustig 1962 Czech Czech
9655 Rachel, Monique… Sophie Calle 2012 French French
9670 Strange Shores Arnaldur Indriðason 2010 Icelandic Icelandic
9678 Ordesa Manuel Vilas 2018 Spanish Spanish
9760 The Armies Evelio Rosero 2007 Colombian Spanish
9770 The Night Bookmobile Audrey Niffenegger 2010 American English
9799 Axiomatic Maria Tumarkin 2018 Australian English
9884 The Memory Of War James Fenton 1983 British English
9903 A Broken Mirror Merce Rodoreda 1974 Spanish Catalan
9927 A Dress Of Fire Dalia Ravikovitch 1976 Israeli Hebrew
10136 Nocturnes For The King Of Naples Edmund White 1978 American English
10177 Monkey Beach Eden Robinson 2000 Canadian English
10185 Winter Journal Paul Auster 2012 American English
10188 City of Glass Paul Auster 1985 American English
10231 Que Cavalos São Aqueles Que Fazem Sombra No Mar? António Lobo Antunes 2009 Portuguese Portuguese
10305 Dear Departed Marguerite Yourcenar 1974 French French
10386 The Remains Of Love Zeruya Shalev 2011 Israeli Hebrew
10448 The Testament Of Mary Colm Toibin 2012 Irish English
10551 18% Gray Zachary Karabashliev 2008 Bulgarian Bulgarian
10655 Grief Observed C. S. Lewis 1961 British English
10676 A Living Remedy Nicole Chung 2023 American English
10727 Black Butterflies Priscilla Morris 2022 Unknown English
10739 Imagine Me Gone Adam Haslett 2016 American English