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
14985 Sailing Alone Around The Room Billy Collins 2001 American English
14985 Cultural Amnesia Clive James 2007 Australian English
14985 Ongoingness Sarah Manguso 2015 American English
14985 The Night Of The Gun David Carr 2008 American English
14985 The Paper Palace Miranda Cowley Heller 2021 American English
14985 The Enlightenment Of The Greengage Tree Shokoofeh Azar 2017 Iranian Persian
14985 The Glass Hotel Emily St John Mandel 2020 Canadian English
14985 There Is No Antimemetics Division qntm 2020 Unknown English
14985 The Englishman's Boy Guy Vanderhaeghe 1996 Canadian English
14985 The Fantastic Flying Books Of Mr. Morris Lessmore William Joyce 2011 American English
14985 Faces In The Crowd Valeria Luiselli 2011 Mexican Spanish
14985 Please Look After Mom Kyung-sook Shin 2008 Korean Korean
14985 Fatherland Burkhard Bilger 2023 Unknown English
14985 Held Anne Michaels 2023 Unknown English
14985 The New Confessions William Boyd 1987 British English
14985 The Most Secret Memory Of Men Mohamed Mbougar Sarr 2023 Senegalese French
14985 Above Ground Clint Smith 2023 American English
14985 Absolution Alice McDermott 2023 American English
14985 Affinities Brian Dillon 2023 British English
14985 Evening Edged In Gold Arno Schmidt 1975 German German
14985 Siete Casas Vacías Samanta Schweblin 2015 Argentinian Spanish
15567 Music For Wartime Rebecca Makkai 2015 American English
15594 Life In The West Brian Aldiss 1980 British English
15607 The Old Capital Chu Tʽien-hsin 1996 Chinese Chinese
15616 A Thousand Brains Jeff Hawkins 2021 American English
15640 舊址 Li Rui 1998 Chinese Chinese
15667 Oculus Sally Wen Mao 2019 American English
15686 Maybe Lillian Hellman American English
15686 Places Where I’ve Done Time William Saroyan American English
15686 The Oxford Book Of English Verse John Malcolm Brinnin Unknown English
15806 Collected Poems Of T. S. Eliot 1909 1935 T. S. Eliot 1936 American English
15805 The Family Nina Fedorova 1940 Unknown English
15818 Into That Darkness Gitta Sereny 1974 British English
15838 The Issa Valley Czesław Miłosz 1955 Polish Polish
15812 A World I Never Made James T. Farrell 1936 American English
15872 The Death Of The Past J. H. Plumb 1969 British English
15870 Random Harvest James Hilton 1941 British English
15915 A Walker in the City Alfred Kazin 1951 American English
15915 The Lady From Guatemala V. S. Pritchett 1957 British English
15915 Old Times Harold Pinter 1971 British English
15915 Happy Days Samuel Beckett 1961 French English
15915 Diving Into The Wreck Adrienne Rich 1973 American English
15915 A Personal Record Joseph Conrad 1912 American English
15915 A Mass For The Dead William Gibson 1968 American English
15915 String Too Short To Be Saved Donald Hall 1961 American English
15915 Between Meals A. J. Liebling 1962 American English
15915 Dawn Blossoms Plucked At Dusk Lu Xun 1928 Chinese Chinese
15915 Bid Me To Live Hilda Doolittle 1960 British English
15915 The Singer Of Tales Albert Bates Lord 1960 American English
15902 At The Mind's Limits Jean Améry 1966 German German
15915 Fourteenth Of October Bryher 1952 British English
15915 Long Remember MacKinlay Kantor 1934 American English
16549 That's How It Was Maureen Duffy 1962 British English
16549 Akenfield Ronald Blythe 1969 American English
16573 Letter From An Unknown Woman Stefan Zweig 1922 Austrian German
16540 A Noite Elie Wiesel 1956 French Yiddish
16629 Morgenlandfahrt Hermann Hesse 1932 Swiss German
16599 They Went On Together Robert Nathan 1941 American English
16691 Madonna In A Fur Coat Sabahattin Ali 1943 Turkish Turkish
16671 Slaughter House Five Ryan North 1969 Unknown Unknown
16677 Der Spaziergang Robert Walser 1917 Swiss German
16760 Las Confesiones Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1782 Genevan French
16774 Psychology: Briefer Course William James 1892 American English
17161 Seaview Toby Olson 1983 American English
17161 Sent for You Yesterday John Edgar Wideman 1983 American English
17161 Dusk James Salter 1988 American English
17161 Facts of Life Maureen Howard 1965 American English
17161 Time, Love, Memory Jonathan Weiner 1999 American English
17161 Thursbitch Alan Garner 2003 British English
17161 Peeling the Onion Günter Grass 2006 German German
17161 Collected Poems of Michael Donaghy Michael Donaghy 2004 British English
17161 District and Circle Seamus Heaney 2006 Irish English
17161 The Lost Leader Mick Imlah 2008 British English
17161 Picture Palace Paul Theroux 1978 American English
17161 The Spirit Level Seamus Heaney 1996 Irish English
17161 Take It Or Leave It Raymond Federman 1976 American English
17161 The Jade Cabinet Rikki Ducornet 1993 American English
17161 The Fountains of Neptune Rikki Ducornet 1992 American English
17161 Lookout cartridge Joseph McElroy 1974 American English
17161 The Age of Wire and String Ben Marcus 1995 American English
17161 The Citadel of the Autarch Gene Wolfe 1983 American English
17161 The Names N. Scott Momaday 1976 American English
17161 The Almanac of the Dead Leslie Marmon Silko 1991 American English
17161 Collected Poems 1912-1944 Hilda Doolittle 1983 American English
17161 War Dances Sherman Alexie 2009 American English
17161 The Collected Stories of Deborah Eisenberg Deborah Eisenberg 2010 American English
17161 The Invented Part Rodrigo Fresán 2014 Argentinian Spanish
17161 War Is a Force that Gives Us Meaning Chris Hedges 2002 American English
17161 Human Chain Seamus Heaney 2010 Irish English
17161 Broken Glass Alain Mabanckou 2005 Congolese French
17161 The Telling Ursula K. Le Guin 2000 American English
17161 The City in the Middle of the Night Charlie Jane Anders 2019 American English
17161 An American Childhood Annie Dillard 1987 American English
17161 Metaphor and Memory Cynthia Ozick 1989 American English
17161 Cards of Grief Jane Yolen 1984 American English
17161 Briar Rose Jane Yolen 1992 American English
17161 Bob Rebecca Stead, Wendy Mass 2018 American English
17161 The Child Garden Geoff Ryman 1989 British English
17161 Bug Week & Other Stories Airini Beautrais 2020 New Zealander English
17161 The Wish Child Catherine Chidgey 2016 New Zealander English
17161 Coming Rain Stephen Daisley 2015 Australian English
17161 Rangatira Paula Morris 2011 New Zealander English
17161 Blindsight Maurice Gee 2005 New Zealander English
17161 The Quantum Thief Hannu Rajaniemi 2010 Finnish English
17161 The Stars Are Legion Kameron Hurley 2017 American English
17161 In A Dark, Dark Wood Ruth Ware 2015 British English
17161 A Crime In The Neighborhood Suzanne Berne 1997 American English
17161 Baumgartner’s Bombay Anita Desai 1988 Indian English
17161 Old Cypress Nisha Da Cunha 1991 Indian Unknown
17161 Highland River Neil M. Gunn 1937 Scottish English
17161 A House Of Children Joyce Cary 1941 British English
17161 Winter Garden Robert Edric 1985 British English
17161 In The Light Of What We Know Zia Haider Rahman 2014 British English
17161 Attrib. And Other Stories Eley Williams 2017 British English
17161 Death And The Maiden Ariel Dorfman 1991 Chilean Spanish
17161 Johnno David Malouf 1975 Australian English
17161 The Making Of Memory Steven Rose 1992 British English
17161 The Swimmers Julie Otsuka 2022 American English
17161 So Many Ways To Begin Jon McGregor 2006 British English
17161 Reservoir 13 Jon McGregor 2017 British English