The Greatest Books of All Time on Memory

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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
10139 Selected Poetry Andrea Zanzotto 1978 Italian Italian
10139 Poems Of Jorge De Sena Jorge de Sena 1978 Portuguese Portuguese
10139 What I Love Odysseas Elytis 1978 Greek Greek
10139 A Lesson From Aloes Athol Fugard 1978 South African English
10139 Nocturnes For The King Of Naples Edmund White 1978 American English
10139 A Call In The Midst Of The Crowd Alfred Corn 1978 American Unknown
10139 Dinner Along The Amazon Timothy Findley 1984 Canadian English
10161 On The Way To My Father’s Funeral Jonathan Baumbach 2004 American English
10173 A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain Robert Olen Butler 1992 American English
10188 Immigrant, Montana Amitava Kumar 2017 American English
10189 Winter Journal Paul Auster 2012 American English
10198 Duplex Kathryn Davis 2013 American English
10199 Une Enfance De Reve Catherine Millet 2014 French French
10210 Neuromaani Jaakko Yli-Juonikas 2012 Finnish Finnish
10211 The Pegnitz Junction Mavis Gallant 1973 Canadian English
10220 V. Tony Harrison 1985 British English
10235 Que Cavalos São Aqueles Que Fazem Sombra No Mar? António Lobo Antunes 2009 Portuguese Portuguese
10245 Persons and Places George Santayana 1944 American English
10263 Poems Of F. T. Prince F. T. Prince 1979 British English
10263 Slow Homecoming Peter Handke 1979 Austrian German
10263 Selected Poems Donald Justice 1979 American English
10263 The Ether Dome And Other Poems Allen Grossman 1979 American English
10280 La Burla Del Tiempo Mauricio Electorat 2004 Chilean Spanish
10291 I Was Born There, I Was Born Here Mourid Barghouti 2011 Palestinian Arabic
10305 Requiem Shizuko Gō 1986 Japanese Japanese
10308 Cleaned Out Annie Ernaux 1974 French French
10308 Dear Departed Marguerite Yourcenar 1974 French French
10308 The Summer Of The Great Grandmother Madeleine L'Engle 1974 American English
10358 Wylding Hall Elizabeth Hand 2015 American English
10382 Memories Of My Melancholy Whores Gabriel García Márquez 2004 Colombian Spanish
10389 The Remains Of Love Zeruya Shalev 2011 Israeli Hebrew
10394 Mudwoman Joyce Carol Oates 2012 American English
10396 Sea Of Tranquillity Paul Russell 1994 Unknown English
10411 The Double Invention Of Komo Jay Wright 1980 American Unknown
10450 The Speed Of Light Javier Cercas 2005 Spanish Spanish
10451 The Testament Of Mary Colm Toibin 2012 Irish English
10453 This Republic of Suffering Drew Gilpin Faust 2008 American English
10495 The House Of Doors Tan Twang Eng 2023 Malaysian English
10515 Postcolonial Love Poem Natalie Diaz 2020 American English
10554 18% Gray Zachary Karabashliev 2008 Bulgarian Bulgarian
10557 The Body Keeps The Score Bessel van der Kolk 2014 American English
10558 Poems Twice Told Jay Macpherson 1981 Canadian English
10558 Peniel And Other Poems Kevin Hart 1981 Australian English
10558 The Early Motion James Dickey 1981 American Unknown
10558 Seven Plays Sam Shepard 1981 American English
10594 Varieties of Disturbance Lydia Davis 2007 American English
10602 Autobiography Of A Family Photo Jacqueline Woodson 1995 American English
10712 The Dress Diary Kate Strasdin 2023 Unknown English
10700 The Great Reclamation Rachel Heng 2023 Unknown English
10751 From The First Nine James Merrill 1982 American Unknown
10751 Selected Poems Galway Kinnell 1982 American English
10751 The Collected Poems 1931 1987 Czesław Miłosz 1988 Polish Polish
10768 Collected Poems D. J. Enright 1987 British English
10785 Burnt Sugar Avni Doshi 2020 Indian English
10795 Lilas Rouge Reinhard Kaiser-Mühlecker 2012 Unknown French
10802 Kin Miljenko Jergović 2013 Croatian Croatian
10809 La Montagne Jean-Noël Pancrazi 2012 French French
10820 Montauk Max Frisch 1975 Swiss German
10837 Border Kapka Kassabova 2017 Bulgarian English
10843 The End Of Days Jenny Erpenbeck 2012 German German
10876 The Floating World Cynthia Kadohata 1989 American English
10876 Lost In Translation Eva Hoffman 1989 Canadian English
10903 The Hooligan's Return Norman Manea 2003 Romanian Romanian
10906 Inside My Mother Ali Cobby Eckermann 2015 Australian English
10904 Before I Forget Anne Pauly 2019 French French
10911 Grief Andrew Holleran 2022 American English
10911 Samedi The Deafness Jesse Ball 2007 American English
10911 The Last Novel David Markson 2007 American English
10919 Guerre Et Pluie Velibor Čolić 2014 Unknown French
10926 The Lost Father Marina Warner 1988 British English
10926 Stirrings Still Samuel Beckett 1988 Irish English
10938 Langrishe, Go Down Aidan Higgins 1966 Irish English
10948 Travelling In The Family Carlos Drummond de Andrade 1984 Brazilian Portuguese
10948 Selected Poems Philip Levine 1984 American English
10946 Latitudes Of Longing Shubhangi Swarup 2018 Indian English
10946 Barracoon Zora Neale Hurston 2018 American English
10948 The Event Juan José Saer 1988 Argentinian Spanish
10962 Radiant Terminus Antoine Volodine 2014 French French
10968 The Hair of Harold Roux Thomas Williams 1974 American English
10974 Jacob’s Ladder Ludmila Ulitskaya 2015 Russian Russian
10981 Love Must Not Be Forgotten Jie Zhang 1980 Chinese Chinese
10996 The Twilight Zone Nona Fernández 2016 Chilean Spanish
11004 Shifting The Silence Etel Adnan 2020 Unknown English
11005 Friend Of My Youth Alice Munro 1990 Canadian English
11005 Balkan Ghosts Robert D. Kaplan 1993 American English
11005 In The Lake Of The Woods Tim O'Brien 1994 American English
11005 The Island Of The Day Before Umberto Eco 1994 Italian Italian
11014 Birthday César Aira 2019 Argentinian Spanish
11028 Four Novels Marguerite Duras 1985 French French
11028 Tremor Adam Zagajewski 1985 Polish Polish
11028 Poems Of Charles Simic Charles Simic 1985 American English
11035 Cinema And History Marc Ferro 1977 French French
11045 The Shadow King Maaza Mengiste 2019 American English
11061 Look Solmaz Sharif 2016 American English
11063 The Red Grass Boris Vian 1949 French French
11067 All The Wrong Places James Fenton 1994 British English
11076 About a Mountain John D'Agata 2010 American English
11085 Insomniac City Bill Hayes 2017 American English
11085 The Refugees Viet Thanh Nguyen 2017 American English
11085 Mirror Sydney Vanessa Berry 2017 Australian English
11133 Imaginary Homelands Salman Rushdie 1991 British English
11167 Poems Of Paul Muldoon Paul Muldoon 1986 Irish English
11167 Selected Poetry Jaroslav Seifert 1986 Czech Czech
11167 Travels Yehuda Amichai 1986 Israeli Hebrew
11180 Daybook Anne Truitt 1982 American English
11188 Lost In The City Edward P. Jones 1992 American English
11209 Canoës Maylis de Kerangal 2021 French French
11209 The M Case Grégoire Bouillier 2021 French French
11217 Book Of My Mother Albert Cohen 1954 French French
11238 Until Stones Become Lighter Than Water António Lobo Antunes 2017 Portuguese Portuguese
11256 In My Mother's House Kim Chernin 1983 American English
11256 Scraps Of Life Marjorie Agosín 1983 Chilean Spanish
11256 Sister Age M. F. K. Fisher 1983 American English
11256 Womenfolks Shirley Abbott 1983 American English
11277 Space In Motion Juan Goytisolo 1987 Spanish Unknown
11277 I Am The Dust Under Your Feet Walter Abish 1987 American English
11295 This Life Karel Schoeman 1993 South African Afrikaans
11302 New Cemetery Simon Armitage 2017 English English
11306 My Last Sigh Luis Buñuel 1982 Spanish Spanish
11311 The Simple Truth Philip Levine 1994 American English