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
1285 Selected Stories of Alice Munro Alice Munro 1996 Canadian English
1302 Poems Paul Celan 1952 German German
1305 Long Day's Journey Into Night Eugene O'Neill 1956 American English
1313 The Optimist's Daughter Eudora Welty 1972 American English
1315 Voices from Chernobyl Svetlana Alexievich 1997 Belarusian Russian
1342 The Principles of Psychology William James 1890 American English
1344 The Emigrants W. G. Sebald 1992 German German
1355 Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas Dylan Thomas 1952 British English
1369 Veronica Mary Gaitskill 2005 American English
1379 The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty Eudora Welty 1980 American English
1381 Station Eleven Emily St John Mandel 2014 Canadian English
1394 Soldiers of Salamis Javier Cercas 2001 Spanish Spanish
1408 Amongst Women John McGahern 1990 Irish English
1428 The Country of the Pointed Firs Sarah Orne Jewett 1896 American English
1431 Cakes And Ale Or, The Skeleton In The Cupboard W. Somerset Maugham 1930 British English
1435 Life After Life Kate Atkinson 2013 British English
1446 The Tongue Set Free Elias Canetti 1977 Austrian German
1454 Pushkin House Andrey Bitov 1978 Russian Russian
1457 Deliver Us Luigi Meneghello 1963 Italian Italian
1468 The Collected Stories of William Faulkner William Faulkner 1950 American English
1472 The Beauty Of The Husband Anne Carson 2001 Canadian English
1486 Locus Solus Raymond Roussel 1914 French French
1492 The Real Life of Sebastian Knight Vladimir Nabokov 1941 Russian English
1497 How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents Julia Alvarez 1991 Dominican English
1500 The Bourne Identity Robert Ludlum 1980 American English
1506 Selected Stories William Trevor 1992 Irish English
1508 The Tower William Butler Yeats 1928 Irish English
1552 Waterland Graham Swift 1983 British English
1553 Beauty and Sadness Yasunari Kawabata 1964 Japanese Japanese
1554 The Unconsoled Kazuo Ishiguro 1995 British English
1587 Past Continuous Yaakov Shabtai 1977 Israeli Hebrew
1595 The Garden Where the Brass Band Played Simon Vestdijk 1950 Dutch Dutch
1611 The Prelude William Wordsworth 1850 British English
1619 Nostalgia Mircea Cărtărescu 1989 Romanian Romanian
1623 Corregidora Gayl Jones 1975 American English
1627 Dora Bruder Patrick Modiano 1997 French French
1633 In Watermelon Sugar Richard Brautigan 1968 American English
1638 Postwar Tony Judt 2005 British English
1649 Cat's Eye Margaret Atwood 1988 Canadian English
1684 Train Dreams Denis Johnson 2002 American English
1693 The Lovely Bones Alice Sebold 2002 American English
1694 Cassandra Christa Wolf 1983 German German
1697 The Stone Diaries Carol Shields 1993 Canadian English
1700 The Hunger Angel Herta Müller 2009 German German
1716 Lake Wobegon Days Garrison Keillor 1985 American English
1723 1Q84 Haruki Murakami 2009 Japanese Japanese
1724 Logbook George Seferis 1940 Greek Greek
1765 Who Do You Think You Are? Alice Munro 1978 Canadian English
1769 Under Milk Wood Dylan Thomas 1954 British English
1776 Flowering Nettle Harry Martinson 1935 Swedish Swedish
1777 The Strudlhof Steps Heimito von Doderer 1951 German German
1780 Poems of Pablo Neruda Pablo Neruda 1970 Chilean Spanish
1784 Marks of Identity Juan Goytisolo 1966 Spanish Spanish
1790 The Master Colm Toibin 2004 Irish English
1797 Texaco Patrick Chamoiseau 1992 Martinican French
1799 The Giver Lois Lowry 1993 American English
1804 Cartucho And My Mother's Hands Nellie Campobello 1931 Mexican Spanish
1809 The Shadow of the Wind Carlos Ruiz Zafon 2001 Spanish Spanish
1822 Small Lives Pierre Michon 1984 French French
1824 The Engineer of Human Souls Josef Škvorecký 1977 Czech Czech
1827 Experience Martin Amis 2000 British English
1830 Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant Anne Tyler 1982 American English
1832 Paradiso José Lezama Lima 1966 Cuban Spanish
1858 Terug naar Oegstgeest Jan Wolkers 1965 Dutch Dutch
1869 The Recognition of Sakuntala Kālidāsa -400 Indian Sanskrit
1886 Poems, New And Collected, 1957 1997 Wislawa Szymborska 1998 Polish Polish
1890 Obasan Joy Kogawa 1981 Canadian English
1894 Winter In The Blood James Welch 1974 American English
1904 The Diviners Margaret Laurence 1974 Canadian English
1909 The Collected Stories Of Lydia Davis Lydia Davis 2009 American English
1933 Capital of Pain Paul Éluard 1926 French French
1942 The Land At The End Of The World António Lobo Antunes 1979 Portuguese Portuguese
1962 The Prose Of The Trans Siberian Blaise Cendrars 1913 French French
1969 Poppy And Memory Paul Celan 1950 German German
1972 The Virgin Suicides Jeffrey Eugenides 1993 American English
1975 Peace Gene Wolfe 1975 American English
1979 Furor and Mystery René Char 1948 French French
1983 The Great Believers Rebecca Makkai 2018 American English
1986 The Sound of the Mountain Yasunari Kawabata 1954 Japanese Japanese
1987 The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat Oliver Sacks 1985 British English
1989 Your Face Tomorrow Javier Marias 2002 Spanish Spanish
1999 The Poetry of Luis Cernuda Luis Cernuda 1901 Spanish Spanish
2004 A School For Fools Sasha Sokolov 1976 Russian Russian
2009 The War Marguerite Duras 1985 French French
2010 The Notebook Nicholas Sparks 1996 American English
2026 Stanzas about the Death of his Father Jorge Manrique 1476 Spanish Spanish
2031 In Parenthesis David Jones 1937 British English
2061 The Last World Christoph Ransmayr 1988 Austrian German
2074 Snow Falling on Cedars David Guterson 1994 American English
2075 The Memory of Fire Trilogy Eduardo Galeano 1982 Uruguayan Spanish
2081 Στροφή George Seferis 1931 Greek Greek
2083 The Memoirs of a Survivor Doris May Lessing 1974 British English
2108 The Shell Seekers Rosamunde Pilcher 1987 British English
2112 House On The Embankment Yuri Trifonov 1976 Russian Russian
2113 The Luminous Novel Mario Levrero 2005 Uruguayan Spanish
2114 All Souls' Day Cees Nooteboom 1998 Dutch Dutch
2125 Tell Me a Riddle Tillie Olsen 1961 American English
2134 Farewell To Matyora Valentin Rasputin 1976 Russian Russian
2141 Mythago Wood Robert Holdstock 1984 British English
2161 The Poetical Works Of William Wordsworth William Wordsworth 1807 British English
2172 Essays Charles Lamb 1823 British English
2174 Surfacing Margaret Atwood 1972 Canadian English
2177 Old People And The Things That Pass Louis Couperus 1906 Dutch Dutch
2204 The Quest for Christa T. Christa Wolf 1968 German German
2214 Roman Elegies Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1795 German German
2214 The Lake of the Bees Theodor Storm 1849 German German
2218 The Sense of an Ending Julian Barnes 2011 British English
2236 Billiards at Half-Past Nine Heinrich Böll 1959 German German
2244 The Gathering Anne Enright 2007 Irish English
2257 A History Of The World In 10 1/2 Chapters Julian Barnes 1989 British English
2279 Poems of Eugenio Montale Eugenio Montale 1925 Italian Italian
2295 My Father's Glory Marcel Pagnol 1957 French French
2298 Poems Of George Seferis George Seferis 1931 Greek Greek
2301 Le Roman Inachevé Louis Aragon 1956 French French
2303 Machine Dreams Jayne Anne Phillips 1984 American English
2311 Solenoid Mircea Cărtărescu 2015 Romanian Romanian
2317 To The End Of The Land David Grossman 2008 Israeli Hebrew
2323 The Sixty Five Years Of Washington Juan José Saer 1983 Argentine Spanish
2334 How to be both Ali Smith 2014 British English
2346 A Summons to Memphis Peter Taylor 1986 American English