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
2349 Poems Of Louis Aragon Louis Aragon 1920 French French
2365 The Sorrow Of War Bao Ninh 1990 Vietnamese Vietnamese
2369 The Arcades Project Walter Benjamin 1982 German German
2389 Breathing Lessons Anne Tyler 1988 American English
2398 The Drowned and the Saved Primo Levi 1986 Italian Italian
2406 A Sorrow Beyond Dreams Peter Handke 1972 Austrian German
2410 That They May Face the Rising Sun John McGahern 2002 Irish English
2417 Lyrical Ballads William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1798 British English
2427 Soul Mountain Xingjian Gao 1990 Chinese Chinese
2439 The Crow Road Iain Banks 1992 British English
2441 Poems Of Anna Akhmatova Anna Akhmatova 1912 Russian Russian
2479 L'acacia Claude Simon 1989 French French
2486 The Good War Studs Terkel 1984 American English
2494 All Souls Javier Marias 1989 Spanish Spanish
2525 Old Filth Jane Gardam 2004 British English
2528 On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous Ocean Vuong 2019 American English
2538 Jazz Toni Morrison 1992 American English
2539 Clear Light of Day Anita Desai 1980 Indian English
2560 Death Sentence Maurice Blanchot 1948 French French
2566 Poetry Quintus Lutatius Catulus -89 Roman Latin
2572 Childhood Nathalie Sarraute 1983 French French
2573 A Longing For The Light Vicente Aleixandre 1979 Spanish Spanish
2579 Les Contemplations Victor Hugo 1856 French French
2582 Scenes From The Life Of A Faun Arno Schmidt 1953 German German
2599 The Witness Juan José Saer 1983 Argentinian Spanish
2603 Regarding the Pain of Others Susan Sontag 2003 American English
2619 The Mezzanine Nicholson Baker 1988 American English
2640 The Child in Time Ian McEwan 1987 British English
2644 The Complete Poems And Plays T. S. Eliot 1952 British English
2653 Sleepless Nights Elizabeth Hardwick 1979 American English
2654 The Skeleton Amrita Pritam 1950 Indian Punjabi
2658 The Daughter Pavlos Matesis 1990 Greek Greek
2661 The Years with Laura Diaz Carlos Fuentes 1999 Mexican Spanish
2688 Blinding Mircea Cărtărescu 1996 Romanian Romanian
2706 Lost Children Archive Valeria Luiselli 2019 Mexican English
2717 The Great War and Modern Memory Paul Fussell 1975 American English
2725 The Book Of Questions Edmond Jabès 1963 French French
2727 Last Poems A. E. Housman 1922 British English
2736 Severance Ling Ma 2018 American English
2752 Out Of Africa Karen Blixen 1937 Danish Danish
2793 Dog Years Günter Grass 1963 German German
2808 The Art of Memory Frances A. Yates 1966 British English
2809 Summertime J. M. Coetzee 2009 South African English
2816 The Golden Apples Eudora Welty 1949 American English
2841 The Stone Angel Margaret Laurence 1964 Canadian English
2846 The Book Of Ptath A. E. van Vogt 1943 American English
2849 The Museum of Unconditional Surrender Dubravka Ugrešić 1997 Croatian Croatian
2883 Septology Jon Fosse 2019 Norwegian Norwegian
2887 Everything Is Illuminated Jonathan Safran Foer 2002 American English
2902 Cremation Rafael Chirbes 2007 Spanish Spanish
2912 Tu Patricia Grace 2004 New Zealand English
2923 The Progress of Love Alice Munro 1986 Canadian English
2927 The Return Hisham Matar 2016 Libyan English
2934 On Overgrown Paths Knut Hamsun 1949 Norwegian Norwegian
2956 Sanatorium Under The Sign Of The Hourglass Bruno Schulz 1937 Polish Polish
2957 Fugitive Pieces Anne Michaels 1996 Canadian English
2960 A Poem Without A Hero Anna Akhmatova 1960 Russian Russian
2967 The Sea John Banville 2005 Irish English
2965 The Erasers Alain Robbe-Grillet 1953 French French
2971 The Steppe Anton Chekhov 1888 Russian Russian
2993 A Book Of Memories Péter Nádas 1986 Hungarian Hungarian
2997 Childhood Leo Tolstoy 1852 Russian Russian
3008 Camera Lucida Roland Barthes 1980 French French
3011 Wittgenstein's Mistress David Markson 1988 American English
3049 Fever Dream Samanta Schweblin 2014 Argentinian Spanish
3052 Our Town Thornton Wilder 1938 American English
3056 The Invention of Solitude Paul Auster 1982 American English
3057 The Enigma of Arrival V. S. Naipaul 1987 British English
3060 Trust Hernan Díaz 2022 Argentinian English
3069 An Artist of the Floating World Kazuo Ishiguro 1986 British English
3070 Caramelo Sandra Cisneros 2002 American English
3075 Patrimony Philip Roth 1991 American English
3076 One Writer's Beginnings Eudora Welty 1984 American English
3087 Summer in Baden-Baden Leonid Tsypkin 1980 Russian Russian
3092 Disturbance Philippe Lançon 2018 French French
3097 Open City Teju Cole 2011 American English
3104 Spoon River Anthology Edgar Lee Masters 1915 American English
3120 The Mortal Wound Raffaele La Capria 1961 Italian Italian
3145 Dhalgren Samuel R. Delany 1975 American English
3159 Nine Princes In Amber Roger Zelazny 1970 American English
3162 Natural Novel Georgi Gospodinov 1999 Bulgarian Bulgarian
3163 Fierce Attachments Vivian Gornick 1987 American English
3169 North Seamus Heaney 1975 Irish English
3183 Minor Detail Adania Shibli 2017 Palestinian Arabic
3185 Moon Palace Paul Auster 1989 American English
3191 Trilce César Vallejo 1922 Peruvian Spanish
3203 Trap For Cinderella Sebastien Japrisot 1963 French French
3209 Briefing For A Descent Into Hell Doris May Lessing 1971 British English
3217 Brown Girl Dreaming Jacqueline Woodson 2014 American English
3224 Forever Flowing Vasily Grossman 1970 Russian Russian
3262 Chronicle In Stone Ismail Kadare 1971 Albanian Albanian
3263 The Selected Works of Cesare Pavese Cesare Pavese 1968 Italian Italian
3270 The Twins Tessa De Loo 1993 Dutch Dutch
3277 The Polish Rider Antonio Muñoz Molina 1991 Spanish Spanish
3285 The Door Szabó, Magda 1987 Hungarian Hungarian
3315 The Afternoon of Monsieur Andesmas Marguerite Duras 1962 French French
3324 Reveries of a Solitary Walker Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1782 French French
3324 Retreat Without Song Shahan Shahnur 1929 Armenian Armenian
3324 The Return of Philip Latinowicz Miroslav Krleža 1932 Croatian Croatian
3324 Eyeless in Gaza Aldous Huxley 1936 British English
3324 Conversations in Sicily Elio Vittorini 1941 Italian Italian
3324 Back Henry Green 1946 British English
3324 A Day in Spring Ciril Kosmač 1953 Slovenian Slovene
3324 Forever a Stranger Hella S. Haasse 1949 Dutch Dutch
3374 A Man's Place Annie Ernaux 1983 French French
3381 Der Laden Erwin Strittmatter 1983 German German
3384 The Plague-Sower Gesualdo Bufalino 1981 Italian Italian
3386 The Shadow Lines Amitav Ghosh 1988 Indian English
3390 La Realidad Y El Deseo Luis Cernuda 1936 Spanish Spanish
3391 Crónica Del Alba Ramón J. Sender 1942 Spanish Spanish
3404 The Unfortunates B. S. Johnson 1969 British English
3409 The Glass Bees Ernst Jünger 1957 German German
3415 Hanna's Daughters Marianne Fredriksson 1994 Swedish Swedish
3417 The Housekeeper And The Professor Yōko Ogawa 2003 Japanese Japanese
3420 In The Country Of Last Things Paul Auster 1987 American English
3419 Taipei People Pai Hsien-yung 1971 Chinese Chinese
3423 The Back Room Carmen Martín Gaite 1978 Spanish Spanish
3422 Daylight Czesław Miłosz 1975 Polish Polish
3439 The Needle's Eye Fanny Howe 1970 American English
3459 The Glass Menagerie Tennessee Williams 1944 American English