The Greatest Books of All Time on Memory

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
13817 Microcosms Claudio Magris 1997 Italian Italian
13817 I Bei Momenti Enzo Siciliano 1997 Italian Italian
13817 Darkness Dacia Maraini 1995 Italian Italian
13817 Il Dolore Perfetto Ugo Riccarelli 2004 Italian Italian
13817 Il Viaggiatore Notturno Maurizio Maggiani 2005 Italian Italian
13817 The Hummingbird Sandro Veronesi 2019 Italian Italian
13817 Due Vite Emanuele Trevi 2020 Italian Italian
13878 Edwin Mullhouse Steven Millhauser 1972 American English
13921 Blind Sunflowers Alberto Méndez 2004 Spanish Spanish
13941 Anything Is Possible Elizabeth Strout 2017 American English
13941 A Tale For The Time Being Ruth Ozeki 2013 American English
13941 The Story Of My Teeth Valeria Luiselli 2015 Mexican Spanish
13962 Moonwalking With Einstein Joshua Foer 2011 American English
13969 The Birds Of The Innocent Wood Deirdre Madden 1988 Irish English
13971 Revenant Gun Yoon Ha Lee 2018 Korean-American English
13971 Hotel World Ali Smith 2001 British English
13971 What We Owe Golnaz Hashemzadeh Bonde 2017 Swedish English
13971 Book Of Mutter Kate Zambreno 2017 American English
14001 A Chronicle Of Ancient Sunlight Henry Williamson 1951 British English
14011 Emperor Of The Air Ethan Canin 1988 American English
14025 The Rosewater Insurrection Tade Thompson 2019 British English
14025 The Rosewater Redemption Tade Thompson 2019 British English
14025 Ardency Kevin Young 2011 American English
14025 The Wife's Tale Aida Edemariam 2018 Canadian English
14042 Surrogate City Hugo Hamilton 1990 Irish Unknown
14046 又見棕櫚, 又見棕櫚 Yu Lihua 1971 Chinese Chinese
14056 Sybil Flora Rheta Schreiber 1973 American English
14063 The Troika Stepan Chapman 1997 American English
14063 Silent Close No. 6 Monika Maron 1991 German German
14074 Pilgrim Timothy Findley 1999 Canadian English
14104 Los Días Azules Fernando Vallejo 2020 Colombian Spanish
14113 The Man Who Saw Everything Deborah Levy 2019 British English
14113 Eyes Bottle Dark With A Mouthful Of Flowers Jake Skeets 2019 American English
14122 Why We Sleep Matthew Walker 2017 American English
14138 ...And Call Me Conrad Roger Zelazny 1965 American English
14155 Mulberry And Peach Hualing Nieh 1976 Chinese Chinese
14212 Thank You and Other Poems Kenneth Koch 1962 American English
14232 Dart Alice Oswald 2002 British English
14232 The Separation Christopher Priest 2002 British English
14232 The Starless Sea Erin Morgenstern 2019 American English
14232 Disoriental Négar Djavadi 2016 French French
14232 View With A Grain Of Sand Wislawa Szymborska 1995 Polish Polish
14344 The Woman Who Walked Into Doors Roddy Doyle 1996 Irish English
14345 Reading In The Dark Seamus Deane 1996 Irish English
14347 The Waters of Kronos Conrad Richter 1960 American English
14347 Paco's Story Larry Heinemann 1986 American English
14389 Rivers and Mountains John Ashbery 1966 American English
14400 Los Estratos Juan Cárdenas 2013 Colombian Spanish
14410 Youth, A Narrative Joseph Conrad 1898 British English
14425 The Summer My Mother Had Green Eyes Tatiana Țîbuleac 2016 Moldovan Romanian
14432 Fault Lines Nancy Huston 2006 French French
14450 A Spool Of Blue Thread Anne Tyler 2015 American English
14457 Nog Rudy Wurlitzer 1969 American English
14457 Collected Stories of Peter Taylor Peter Taylor 1969 American English
14457 Brain Rules John Medina 2008 American English
14480 The Banyan Tree Christopher Nolan 1999 Irish English
14481 Glanz Und Gloria Henning Ahrens 2003 German German
14487 The Jiling Chronicles Li Yung-p'ing 1986 Chinese Unknown
14490 Sarah's Key Tatiana de Rosnay 2006 French French
14492 A History Of Burning Janika Oza 2023 Unknown English
14498 Why Don't Students Like School? Daniel T. Willingham 2009 American English
14544 In The Valley Of The Sun Andy Davidson American English
14553 The Cat's Table Michael Ondaatje 2011 Canadian English
14588 Primera Persona Margarita García Robayo 2017 Colombian Spanish
14598 Our Story Begins Tobias Wolff 2008 American English
14616 Chess King Shi-Kuo Chang 1988 Chinese Chinese
14641 Somos Luces Abismales Carolina Sanin 2018 Colombian Spanish
14645 Fin De Siècle Splendor Chu Tʽien-wen 1990 Chinese Chinese
14649 Searching for Caleb Anne Tyler 1975 American English
14649 I Would Have Saved Them If I Could Leonard Michaels 1975 American English
14679 Pushcart Prize Anthology Pushcart Prize 1976 American English
14730 I, etcetera Susan Sontag 1978 American English
14826 The Story Of A Life Konstantin Paustovsky 1945 Russian Russian
14873 Palm Of The Hand Stories Yasunari Kawabata 1949 Japanese Japanese
14935 The City And The Stars Arthur C. Clarke 1956 British English
14933 Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said Philip K. Dick 1974 American English
14944 Double Or Nothing Raymond Federman 1971 American English
14961 Dying Inside Robert Silverberg 1972 American English
14964 Greybeard Brian Aldiss 1964 British English
14983 If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things Jon McGregor 2002 British English
14983 Breath, Eyes, Memory Edwidge Danticat 1994 Haitian English
14983 Binocular Vision Edith Pearlman 2011 American English
14983 The Hand That First Held Mine Maggie O'Farrell 2010 British English
14983 A Drinking Life Pete Hamill 1994 American English
14983 Animal Dreams Barbara Kingsolver 1990 American English
14983 Lucy Jamaica Kincaid 1990 Antiguan English
14983 South of the Border, West of the Sun Haruki Murakami 1992 Japanese Japanese
14983 Call Me Zebra Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi 2018 American English
14983 Passage Connie Willis 2001 American English
14983 Song Of Time Ian R. MacLeod 2008 British English
14983 Before I Go To Sleep S. J. Watson 2011 British English
14983 Memory Lois McMaster Bujold 1996 American English
14975 Time Out Of Joint Philip K. Dick 1959 American English
14983 Downriver Iain Sinclair 1991 British English
14983 Crossing The River Caryl Phillips 1993 British English
14983 The Folding Star Alan Hollinghurst 1994 British English
14983 The Forgotten Waltz Anne Enright 2011 Irish English
14983 A Little Devil In America Hanif Abdurraqib 2021 American English
14983 Native Guard Natasha Trethewey 2006 American English
14983 The Shadow Year Jeffrey Ford 2008 American English
14983 The Chimes Anna Smaill 2015 New Zealand English
14983 The Sudden Appearance Of Hope Claire North 2016 British English
14983 Engine Summer John Crowley 1979 American English
14983 From The Fifteenth District Mavis Gallant 1979 Canadian English
14983 A Strange And Sublime Address Amit Chaudhuri 1991 Indian English
14983 John Annie Baker 2015 American English
14970 All That Fall Samuel Beckett 1957 Irish English
14983 The Weir Conor McPherson 1997 Irish English
14983 Away Jane Urquhart 1993 Canadian English
14983 Summer Ali Smith 2020 British English
14983 A Brightness Long Ago Guy Gavriel Kay 2019 Canadian English
14983 Some Kind Of Fairy Tale Graham Joyce 2012 British English
14983 Dear Life Alice Munro 2012 Canadian English
14983 Chasm City Alastair Reynolds 2001 British English
14983 Feersum Endjinn Iain Banks 1994 British English
14983 The Maze Runner James Dashner 2009 American English
14983 Dreamcatcher Stephen King 2001 American English
14983 Bliss Montage Ling Ma 2022 American English
14983 Red Memory Tania Branigan 2023 Chinese English
14983 How To Read The Air Dinaw Mengestu 2010 American English