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
10135 A Lesson From Aloes Athol Fugard 1978 South African English
10135 Nocturnes For The King Of Naples Edmund White 1978 American English
10135 A Call In The Midst Of The Crowd Alfred Corn 1978 American Unknown
10135 Dinner Along The Amazon Timothy Findley 1984 Canadian English
10157 On The Way To My Father’s Funeral Jonathan Baumbach 2004 American English
10183 Immigrant, Montana Amitava Kumar 2017 American English
10184 Winter Journal Paul Auster 2012 American English
10193 Duplex Kathryn Davis 2013 American English
10194 Une Enfance De Reve Catherine Millet 2014 French French
10205 Neuromaani Jaakko Yli-Juonikas 2012 Finnish Finnish
10206 The Pegnitz Junction Mavis Gallant 1973 Canadian English
10214 V. Tony Harrison 1985 British English
10229 Que Cavalos São Aqueles Que Fazem Sombra No Mar? António Lobo Antunes 2009 Portuguese Portuguese
10239 Persons and Places George Santayana 1944 American English
10239 Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Dog Dylan Thomas 1940 British English
10258 Poems Of F. T. Prince F. T. Prince 1979 British English
10258 Slow Homecoming Peter Handke 1979 Austrian German
10258 Selected Poems Donald Justice 1979 American English
10258 The Ether Dome And Other Poems Allen Grossman 1979 American English
10275 La Burla Del Tiempo Mauricio Electorat 2004 Chilean Spanish
10286 I Was Born There, I Was Born Here Mourid Barghouti 2011 Palestinian Arabic
10300 Requiem Shizuko Gō 1986 Japanese Japanese
10303 Cleaned Out Annie Ernaux 1974 French French
10303 Dear Departed Marguerite Yourcenar 1974 French French
10303 The Summer Of The Great Grandmother Madeleine L'Engle 1974 American English
10353 Wylding Hall Elizabeth Hand 2015 American English
10377 Memories Of My Melancholy Whores Gabriel García Márquez 2004 Colombian Spanish
10384 The Remains Of Love Zeruya Shalev 2011 Israeli Hebrew
10389 Mudwoman Joyce Carol Oates 2012 American English
10391 Sea Of Tranquillity Paul Russell 1994 Unknown English
10406 The Double Invention Of Komo Jay Wright 1980 American Unknown
10445 The Speed Of Light Javier Cercas 2005 Spanish Spanish
10446 The Testament Of Mary Colm Toibin 2012 Irish English
10448 This Republic of Suffering Drew Gilpin Faust 2008 American English
10448 Nothing to be Frightened Of Julian Barnes 2008 British English
10490 The House Of Doors Tan Twang Eng 2023 Malaysian English
10510 Postcolonial Love Poem Natalie Diaz 2020 American English
10548 18% Gray Zachary Karabashliev 2008 Bulgarian Bulgarian
10551 The Body Keeps The Score Bessel van der Kolk 2014 American English
10552 Poems Twice Told Jay Macpherson 1981 Canadian English
10552 Peniel And Other Poems Kevin Hart 1981 Australian English
10552 The Early Motion James Dickey 1981 American Unknown
10552 Seven Plays Sam Shepard 1981 American English
10588 Varieties of Disturbance Lydia Davis 2007 American English
10596 Autobiography Of A Family Photo Jacqueline Woodson 1995 American English
10706 The Dress Diary Kate Strasdin 2023 Unknown English
10694 The Great Reclamation Rachel Heng 2023 Unknown English
10745 From The First Nine James Merrill 1982 American Unknown
10745 Selected Poems Galway Kinnell 1982 American English
10745 The Collected Poems 1931 1987 Czesław Miłosz 1988 Polish Polish
10762 Collected Poems D. J. Enright 1987 British English
10779 Burnt Sugar Avni Doshi 2020 Indian English
10789 Lilas Rouge Reinhard Kaiser-Mühlecker 2012 Unknown French
10796 Kin Miljenko Jergović 2013 Croatian Croatian
10803 La Montagne Jean-Noël Pancrazi 2012 French French
10814 Montauk Max Frisch 1975 Swiss German
10831 Border Kapka Kassabova 2017 Bulgarian English
10837 The End Of Days Jenny Erpenbeck 2012 German German
10870 The Floating World Cynthia Kadohata 1989 American English
10870 Lost In Translation Eva Hoffman 1989 Canadian English
10897 The Hooligan's Return Norman Manea 2003 Romanian Romanian
10900 Inside My Mother Ali Cobby Eckermann 2015 Australian English
10898 Before I Forget Anne Pauly 2019 French French
10905 Grief Andrew Holleran 2022 American English
10905 Samedi The Deafness Jesse Ball 2007 American English
10905 The Last Novel David Markson 2007 American English
10913 Guerre Et Pluie Velibor Čolić 2014 Unknown French
10920 The Lost Father Marina Warner 1988 British English
10920 Stirrings Still Samuel Beckett 1988 Irish English
10932 Langrishe, Go Down Aidan Higgins 1966 Irish English
10942 Travelling In The Family Carlos Drummond de Andrade 1984 Brazilian Portuguese
10942 Selected Poems Philip Levine 1984 American English
10940 Latitudes Of Longing Shubhangi Swarup 2018 Indian English
10940 Barracoon Zora Neale Hurston 2018 American English
10942 The Event Juan José Saer 1988 Argentinian Spanish
10956 Radiant Terminus Antoine Volodine 2014 French French
10962 The Hair of Harold Roux Thomas Williams 1974 American English
10968 Jacob’s Ladder Ludmila Ulitskaya 2015 Russian Russian
10975 Love Must Not Be Forgotten Jie Zhang 1980 Chinese Chinese
10990 The Twilight Zone Nona Fernández 2016 Chilean Spanish
10998 Shifting The Silence Etel Adnan 2020 Unknown English
10999 Friend Of My Youth Alice Munro 1990 Canadian English
10999 Balkan Ghosts Robert D. Kaplan 1993 American English
10999 In The Lake Of The Woods Tim O'Brien 1994 American English
10999 The Island Of The Day Before Umberto Eco 1994 Italian Italian
11008 Birthday César Aira 2019 Argentinian Spanish
11022 Four Novels Marguerite Duras 1985 French French
11022 Tremor Adam Zagajewski 1985 Polish Polish
11022 Poems Of Charles Simic Charles Simic 1985 American English
11029 Cinema And History Marc Ferro 1977 French French
11039 The Shadow King Maaza Mengiste 2019 American English
11055 Look Solmaz Sharif 2016 American English
11057 The Red Grass Boris Vian 1949 French French
11061 All The Wrong Places James Fenton 1994 British English
11070 About a Mountain John D'Agata 2010 American English
11079 Insomniac City Bill Hayes 2017 American English
11079 The Refugees Viet Thanh Nguyen 2017 American English
11079 Mirror Sydney Vanessa Berry 2017 Australian English
11127 Imaginary Homelands Salman Rushdie 1991 British English
11161 Poems Of Paul Muldoon Paul Muldoon 1986 Irish English
11161 Selected Poetry Jaroslav Seifert 1986 Czech Czech
11161 Travels Yehuda Amichai 1986 Israeli Hebrew
11174 Daybook Anne Truitt 1982 American English
11182 Lost In The City Edward P. Jones 1992 American English
11203 Canoës Maylis de Kerangal 2021 French French
11203 The M Case Grégoire Bouillier 2021 French French
11211 Book Of My Mother Albert Cohen 1954 French French
11232 Until Stones Become Lighter Than Water António Lobo Antunes 2017 Portuguese Portuguese
11250 In My Mother's House Kim Chernin 1983 American English
11250 Scraps Of Life Marjorie Agosín 1983 Chilean Spanish
11250 Sister Age M. F. K. Fisher 1983 American English
11250 Womenfolks Shirley Abbott 1983 American English
11271 Space In Motion Juan Goytisolo 1987 Spanish Unknown
11271 I Am The Dust Under Your Feet Walter Abish 1987 American English
11289 This Life Karel Schoeman 1993 South African Afrikaans
11296 New Cemetery Simon Armitage 2017 English English
11300 My Last Sigh Luis Buñuel 1982 Spanish Spanish
11305 The Simple Truth Philip Levine 1994 American English
11313 When The Emperor Was Divine Julie Otsuka 2002 American English
11327 Molnfri Bombnatt Vibeke Olsson 1995 Swedish Swedish