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
2347 Poems Of Louis Aragon Louis Aragon 1920 French French
2363 The Sorrow Of War Bao Ninh 1990 Vietnamese Vietnamese
2367 The Arcades Project Walter Benjamin 1982 German German
2387 Breathing Lessons Anne Tyler 1988 American English
2396 The Drowned and the Saved Primo Levi 1986 Italian Italian
2404 A Sorrow Beyond Dreams Peter Handke 1972 Austrian German
2408 That They May Face the Rising Sun John McGahern 2002 Irish English
2415 Lyrical Ballads William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1798 British English
2425 Soul Mountain Xingjian Gao 1990 Chinese Chinese
2437 The Crow Road Iain Banks 1992 British English
2439 Poems Of Anna Akhmatova Anna Akhmatova 1912 Russian Russian
2477 L'acacia Claude Simon 1989 French French
2484 The Good War Studs Terkel 1984 American English
2492 All Souls Javier Marias 1989 Spanish Spanish
2523 Old Filth Jane Gardam 2004 British English
2526 On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous Ocean Vuong 2019 American English
2536 Jazz Toni Morrison 1992 American English
2537 Clear Light of Day Anita Desai 1980 Indian English
2558 Death Sentence Maurice Blanchot 1948 French French
2565 Poetry Quintus Lutatius Catulus -89 Roman Latin
2571 Childhood Nathalie Sarraute 1983 French French
2572 A Longing For The Light Vicente Aleixandre 1979 Spanish Spanish
2578 Les Contemplations Victor Hugo 1856 French French
2581 Scenes From The Life Of A Faun Arno Schmidt 1953 German German
2598 The Witness Juan José Saer 1983 Argentinian Spanish
2602 Regarding the Pain of Others Susan Sontag 2003 American English
2618 The Mezzanine Nicholson Baker 1988 American English
2639 The Child in Time Ian McEwan 1987 British English
2643 The Complete Poems And Plays T. S. Eliot 1952 British English
2652 Sleepless Nights Elizabeth Hardwick 1979 American English
2653 The Skeleton Amrita Pritam 1950 Indian Punjabi
2657 The Daughter Pavlos Matesis 1990 Greek Greek
2660 The Years with Laura Diaz Carlos Fuentes 1999 Mexican Spanish
2687 Blinding Mircea Cărtărescu 1996 Romanian Romanian
2705 Lost Children Archive Valeria Luiselli 2019 Mexican English
2716 The Great War and Modern Memory Paul Fussell 1975 American English
2724 The Book Of Questions Edmond Jabès 1963 French French
2726 Last Poems A. E. Housman 1922 British English
2735 Severance Ling Ma 2018 American English
2750 Out Of Africa Karen Blixen 1937 Danish Danish
2791 Dog Years Günter Grass 1963 German German
2806 The Art of Memory Frances A. Yates 1966 British English
2807 Summertime J. M. Coetzee 2009 South African English
2813 The Golden Apples Eudora Welty 1949 American English
2838 The Stone Angel Margaret Laurence 1964 Canadian English
2843 The Book Of Ptath A. E. van Vogt 1943 American English
2846 The Museum of Unconditional Surrender Dubravka Ugrešić 1997 Croatian Croatian
2880 Septology Jon Fosse 2019 Norwegian Norwegian
2884 Everything Is Illuminated Jonathan Safran Foer 2002 American English
2899 Cremation Rafael Chirbes 2007 Spanish Spanish
2909 Tu Patricia Grace 2004 New Zealand English
2920 The Progress of Love Alice Munro 1986 Canadian English
2924 The Return Hisham Matar 2016 Libyan English
2931 On Overgrown Paths Knut Hamsun 1949 Norwegian Norwegian
2953 Sanatorium Under The Sign Of The Hourglass Bruno Schulz 1937 Polish Polish
2954 Fugitive Pieces Anne Michaels 1996 Canadian English
2957 A Poem Without A Hero Anna Akhmatova 1960 Russian Russian
2964 The Sea John Banville 2005 Irish English
2962 The Erasers Alain Robbe-Grillet 1953 French French
2968 The Steppe Anton Chekhov 1888 Russian Russian
2990 A Book Of Memories Péter Nádas 1986 Hungarian Hungarian
2994 Childhood Leo Tolstoy 1852 Russian Russian
3005 Camera Lucida Roland Barthes 1980 French French
3008 Wittgenstein's Mistress David Markson 1988 American English
3045 Fever Dream Samanta Schweblin 2014 Argentinian Spanish
3048 Our Town Thornton Wilder 1938 American English
3053 The Invention of Solitude Paul Auster 1982 American English
3054 The Enigma of Arrival V. S. Naipaul 1987 British English
3057 Trust Hernan Díaz 2022 Argentinian English
3066 An Artist of the Floating World Kazuo Ishiguro 1986 British English
3067 Caramelo Sandra Cisneros 2002 American English
3072 Patrimony Philip Roth 1991 American English
3073 One Writer's Beginnings Eudora Welty 1984 American English
3084 Summer in Baden-Baden Leonid Tsypkin 1980 Russian Russian
3090 Disturbance Philippe Lançon 2018 French French
3095 Open City Teju Cole 2011 American English
3102 Spoon River Anthology Edgar Lee Masters 1915 American English
3118 The Mortal Wound Raffaele La Capria 1961 Italian Italian
3143 Dhalgren Samuel R. Delany 1975 American English
3157 Nine Princes In Amber Roger Zelazny 1970 American English
3160 Natural Novel Georgi Gospodinov 1999 Bulgarian Bulgarian
3161 Fierce Attachments Vivian Gornick 1987 American English
3167 North Seamus Heaney 1975 Irish English
3181 Minor Detail Adania Shibli 2017 Palestinian Arabic
3183 Moon Palace Paul Auster 1989 American English
3189 Trilce César Vallejo 1922 Peruvian Spanish
3201 Trap For Cinderella Sebastien Japrisot 1963 French French
3207 Briefing For A Descent Into Hell Doris May Lessing 1971 British English
3215 Brown Girl Dreaming Jacqueline Woodson 2014 American English
3222 Forever Flowing Vasily Grossman 1970 Russian Russian
3260 Chronicle In Stone Ismail Kadare 1971 Albanian Albanian
3261 The Selected Works of Cesare Pavese Cesare Pavese 1968 Italian Italian
3268 The Twins Tessa De Loo 1993 Dutch Dutch
3275 The Polish Rider Antonio Muñoz Molina 1991 Spanish Spanish
3283 The Door Szabó, Magda 1987 Hungarian Hungarian
3314 The Afternoon of Monsieur Andesmas Marguerite Duras 1962 French French
3323 Reveries of a Solitary Walker Jean-Jacques Rousseau 1782 French French
3323 Retreat Without Song Shahan Shahnur 1929 Armenian Armenian
3323 The Return of Philip Latinowicz Miroslav Krleža 1932 Croatian Croatian
3323 Eyeless in Gaza Aldous Huxley 1936 British English
3323 Conversations in Sicily Elio Vittorini 1941 Italian Italian
3323 Back Henry Green 1946 British English
3323 A Day in Spring Ciril Kosmač 1953 Slovenian Slovene
3323 Forever a Stranger Hella S. Haasse 1949 Dutch Dutch
3373 A Man's Place Annie Ernaux 1983 French French
3380 Der Laden Erwin Strittmatter 1983 German German
3383 The Plague-Sower Gesualdo Bufalino 1981 Italian Italian
3385 The Shadow Lines Amitav Ghosh 1988 Indian English
3389 La Realidad Y El Deseo Luis Cernuda 1936 Spanish Spanish
3390 Crónica Del Alba Ramón J. Sender 1942 Spanish Spanish
3403 The Unfortunates B. S. Johnson 1969 British English
3408 The Glass Bees Ernst Jünger 1957 German German
3414 Hanna's Daughters Marianne Fredriksson 1994 Swedish Swedish
3416 The Housekeeper And The Professor Yōko Ogawa 2003 Japanese Japanese
3419 In The Country Of Last Things Paul Auster 1987 American English
3418 Taipei People Pai Hsien-yung 1971 Chinese Chinese
3422 The Back Room Carmen Martín Gaite 1978 Spanish Spanish
3421 Daylight Czesław Miłosz 1975 Polish Polish
3437 The Needle's Eye Fanny Howe 1970 American English
3458 The Glass Menagerie Tennessee Williams 1944 American English