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
14983 Sailing Alone Around The Room Billy Collins 2001 American English
14983 Cultural Amnesia Clive James 2007 Australian English
14983 Ongoingness Sarah Manguso 2015 American English
14983 The Night Of The Gun David Carr 2008 American English
14983 The Paper Palace Miranda Cowley Heller 2021 American English
14983 The Enlightenment Of The Greengage Tree Shokoofeh Azar 2017 Iranian Persian
14983 The Glass Hotel Emily St John Mandel 2020 Canadian English
14983 There Is No Antimemetics Division qntm 2020 Unknown English
14983 The Englishman's Boy Guy Vanderhaeghe 1996 Canadian English
14983 The Fantastic Flying Books Of Mr. Morris Lessmore William Joyce 2011 American English
14983 Faces In The Crowd Valeria Luiselli 2011 Mexican Spanish
14983 Please Look After Mom Kyung-sook Shin 2008 Korean Korean
14983 Fatherland Burkhard Bilger 2023 Unknown English
14983 Held Anne Michaels 2023 Unknown English
14983 The New Confessions William Boyd 1987 British English
14983 The Most Secret Memory Of Men Mohamed Mbougar Sarr 2023 Senegalese French
14983 Above Ground Clint Smith 2023 American English
14983 Absolution Alice McDermott 2023 American English
14983 Affinities Brian Dillon 2023 British English
14983 Evening Edged In Gold Arno Schmidt 1975 German German
14983 Siete Casas Vacías Samanta Schweblin 2015 Argentinian Spanish
15559 Music For Wartime Rebecca Makkai 2015 American English
15586 Life In The West Brian Aldiss 1980 British English
15599 The Old Capital Chu Tʽien-hsin 1996 Chinese Chinese
15608 A Thousand Brains Jeff Hawkins 2021 American English
15632 舊址 Li Rui 1998 Chinese Chinese
15659 Oculus Sally Wen Mao 2019 American English
15678 Maybe Lillian Hellman American English
15678 Places Where I’ve Done Time William Saroyan American English
15678 The Oxford Book Of English Verse John Malcolm Brinnin Unknown English
15791 Collected Poems Of T. S. Eliot 1909 1935 T. S. Eliot 1936 American English
15802 Into That Darkness Gitta Sereny 1974 British English
15827 The Issa Valley Czesław Miłosz 1955 Polish Polish
15812 The Family Nina Fedorova 1940 Unknown English
15817 A World I Never Made James T. Farrell 1936 American English
15861 The Death Of The Past J. H. Plumb 1969 British English
15897 A Walker in the City Alfred Kazin 1951 American English
15897 The Lady From Guatemala V. S. Pritchett 1957 British English
15897 Old Times Harold Pinter 1971 British English
15897 Happy Days Samuel Beckett 1961 French English
15897 Diving Into The Wreck Adrienne Rich 1973 American English
15897 A Personal Record Joseph Conrad 1912 American English
15897 A Mass For The Dead William Gibson 1968 American English
15897 String Too Short To Be Saved Donald Hall 1961 American English
15897 Between Meals A. J. Liebling 1962 American English
15897 Dawn Blossoms Plucked At Dusk Lu Xun 1928 Chinese Chinese
15897 Bid Me To Live Hilda Doolittle 1960 British English
15897 The Singer Of Tales Albert Bates Lord 1960 American English
15886 At The Mind's Limits Jean Améry 1966 German German
15897 Fourteenth Of October Bryher 1952 British English
15897 Long Remember MacKinlay Kantor 1934 American English
16490 Random Harvest James Hilton 1941 British English
16530 That's How It Was Maureen Duffy 1962 British English
16530 Akenfield Ronald Blythe 1969 American English
16555 Letter From An Unknown Woman Stefan Zweig 1922 Austrian German
16522 A Noite Elie Wiesel 1956 French Yiddish
16658 Madonna In A Fur Coat Sabahattin Ali 1943 Turkish Turkish
16642 Slaughter House Five Ryan North 1969 Unknown Unknown
16650 Der Spaziergang Robert Walser 1917 Swiss German
16727 Las Confesiones Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1782 Genevan French
16595 Morgenlandfahrt Hermann Hesse 1932 Swiss German
16729 They Went On Together Robert Nathan 1941 American English
17119 Seaview Toby Olson 1983 American English
17119 Sent for You Yesterday John Edgar Wideman 1983 American English
17119 Dusk James Salter 1988 American English
17119 Facts of Life Maureen Howard 1965 American English
17119 Time, Love, Memory Jonathan Weiner 1999 American English
17119 Thursbitch Alan Garner 2003 British English
17119 Peeling the Onion Günter Grass 2006 German German
17119 Collected Poems of Michael Donaghy Michael Donaghy 2004 British English
17119 District and Circle Seamus Heaney 2006 Irish English
17119 The Lost Leader Mick Imlah 2008 British English
17119 Picture Palace Paul Theroux 1978 American English
17119 The Spirit Level Seamus Heaney 1996 Irish English
17119 Take It Or Leave It Raymond Federman 1976 American English
17119 The Jade Cabinet Rikki Ducornet 1993 American English
17119 The Fountains of Neptune Rikki Ducornet 1992 American English
17119 Lookout cartridge Joseph McElroy 1974 American English
17119 The Age of Wire and String Ben Marcus 1995 American English
17119 The Citadel of the Autarch Gene Wolfe 1983 American English
17119 The Names N. Scott Momaday 1976 American English
17119 The Almanac of the Dead Leslie Marmon Silko 1991 American English
17119 Collected Poems 1912-1944 Hilda Doolittle 1983 American English
17119 War Dances Sherman Alexie 2009 American English
17119 The Collected Stories of Deborah Eisenberg Deborah Eisenberg 2010 American English
17119 The Invented Part Rodrigo Fresán 2014 Argentinian Spanish
17119 War Is a Force that Gives Us Meaning Chris Hedges 2002 American English
17119 Human Chain Seamus Heaney 2010 Irish English
17119 Broken Glass Alain Mabanckou 2005 Congolese French
17119 The Telling Ursula K. Le Guin 2000 American English
17119 The City in the Middle of the Night Charlie Jane Anders 2019 American English
17119 An American Childhood Annie Dillard 1987 American English
17119 Metaphor and Memory Cynthia Ozick 1989 American English
17119 Cards of Grief Jane Yolen 1984 American English
17119 Briar Rose Jane Yolen 1992 American English
17119 Bob Rebecca Stead, Wendy Mass 2018 American English
17119 The Child Garden Geoff Ryman 1989 British English
17119 Bug Week & Other Stories Airini Beautrais 2020 New Zealander English
17119 The Wish Child Catherine Chidgey 2016 New Zealander English
17119 Coming Rain Stephen Daisley 2015 Australian English
17119 Rangatira Paula Morris 2011 New Zealander English
17119 Blindsight Maurice Gee 2005 New Zealander English
17119 The Quantum Thief Hannu Rajaniemi 2010 Finnish English
17119 The Stars Are Legion Kameron Hurley 2017 American English
17119 In A Dark, Dark Wood Ruth Ware 2015 British English
17119 A Crime In The Neighborhood Suzanne Berne 1997 American English
17119 Baumgartner’s Bombay Anita Desai 1988 Indian English
17119 Old Cypress Nisha Da Cunha 1991 Indian Unknown
17119 Highland River Neil M. Gunn 1937 Scottish English
17119 A House Of Children Joyce Cary 1941 British English
17119 Winter Garden Robert Edric 1985 British English
17119 In The Light Of What We Know Zia Haider Rahman 2014 British English
17119 Attrib. And Other Stories Eley Williams 2017 British English
17119 Death And The Maiden Ariel Dorfman 1991 Chilean Spanish
17119 Johnno David Malouf 1975 Australian English
17119 The Making Of Memory Steven Rose 1992 British English
17119 The Swimmers Julie Otsuka 2022 American English
17119 So Many Ways To Begin Jon McGregor 2006 British English
17119 Reservoir 13 Jon McGregor 2017 British English
17119 The Nature Of Blood Caryl Phillips 1997 British English