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
4705 The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter Katherine Anne Porter 1965 American English
4710 Pigeon Feathers And Other Stories John Updike 1962 American English
4710 My Michael Amos Oz 1968 Israeli Hebrew
4719 The Sword of the Lictor Gene Wolfe 1982 American English
4744 Oeuvre Poétique Léopold Sédar Senghor 1964 Senegalese French
4747 Blood Oranges John Hawkes 1971 American English
4748 The Glamour Christopher Priest 1984 British English
4761 Vertigo W. G. Sebald 1990 German German
4777 Helping Verbs Of The Heart Peter Esterhazy 1985 Hungarian Hungarian
4802 Dictee Theresa Hak Kyung Cha 1982 American English
4827 The Largesse of the Sea Maiden Denis Johnson 2018 American English
4828 Patterns of Childhood Christa Wolf 1976 German German
4834 A Haunted Man And The Ghost's Bargain Charles Dickens 1848 British English
4855 Zettels Traum Arno Schmidt 1970 German German
4886 The Secret Scripture Sebastian Barry 2008 Irish English
4887 Natura Morta Josef Winkler 2001 Unknown German
4888 The Book of Salt Monique Truong 2003 American English
4928 The Poorhouse Fair John Updike 1959 American English
4935 Dreaming in Cuban Cristina García 1992 Cuban English
4939 Being Dead Jim Crace 1999 British English
4941 The Buried Giant Kazuo Ishiguro 2015 British English
4948 Paper Children Mariana Marin 1987 Romanian Romanian
4978 The Hare with Amber Eyes Edmund de Waal 2010 British English
4993 Tigana Guy Gavriel Kay 1990 Canadian English
5009 Zone One Colson Whitehead 2011 American English
5018 Hourglass Danilo Kiš 1972 Serbian Serbo-croatian
5022 Deathfeast Takis Sinopoulos 1978 Greek Greek
5029 Honored Guest Joy Williams 2004 American English
5038 Life is a Carawanserai Has Two Doors I Went in One I Came out the Other Emine Sevgi Özdamar 1992 Turkish German
5093 Sartoris William Faulkner 1929 American English
5107 The Ministry Of Pain Dubravka Ugrešić 2004 Croatian Croatian
5107 Dancing In Odessa Ilya Kaminsky 2004 Ukrainian English
5116 North Toward Home Willie Morris 1967 American English
5119 In The Night Of Time Antonio Muñoz Molina 2012 Spanish Spanish
5124 Maria Nephele Odysseas Elytis 1979 Greek Greek
5130 The Snows Of Yesteryear Gregor von Rezzori 1989 Austrian German
5130 Triptych Claude Simon 1973 French English
5186 Stay True Hua Hsu 2022 Chinese English
5240 Abschied Johannes R. Becher 1974 German German
5253 Geur der droefenis Alfred Kossmann 1980 Dutch Dutch
5258 Cockroaches Scholastique Mukasonga 2006 French French
5286 Fields Of Glory Jean Rouaud 1990 French French
5289 Revenge Yōko Ogawa 1998 Japanese Japanese
5299 The Museum Of Innocence Orhan Pamuk 2008 Turkish Turkish
5291 Tadellöser & Wolff Walter Kempowski 1975 German German
5312 A General Theory Of Oblivion José Eduardo Agualusa 2012 Angolan Portuguese
5336 Ellis Island Georges Perec 1980 French French
5343 Epileptic David B 1996 French French
5351 Stasiland Anna Funder 2002 Australian English
5360 Schilten Hermann Burger 1976 Swiss German
5385 In Memory Of Memory Maria Stepanova 2017 Russian Russian
5387 St. Urbain's Horseman Mordecai Richler 1971 Canadian English
5388 Tom Lake Ann Patchett 2023 American English
5414 The Brodeck Report Philippe Claudel 2007 French French
5415 A Dictionary Of Maqiao Han Shaogong 1996 Chinese Chinese
5418 In the Heart of the Heart of the Country William H. Gass 1968 American English
5419 What The Dead Know Laura Lippman 2007 American English
5442 Egy polgár vallomásai Sandor Marai 1934 Hungarian Hungarian
5445 The bells of Bicêtre Georges Simenon 1963 Belgian French
5445 The Lover A. B. Yehoshua 1977 Israeli Hebrew
5458 The Yellow House Sarah M. Broom 2019 American English
5475 Fado Alexandrino António Lobo Antunes 1983 Portuguese Portuguese
5490 The Lost Daniel Mendelsohn 2006 American English
5499 Warsaw Diary Kazimierz Brandys 1978 Polish Polish
5499 Schlachtbeschreibung Alexander Kluge 1978 German German
5581 Professor Martens' Departure Jaan Kross 1984 Estonian Estonian
5594 The Sound Of Things Falling Juan Gabriel Vásquez 2011 Colombian Spanish
5595 The Lazarus Project Aleksandar Hemon 2008 Bosnian English
5596 Bloodlands Timothy Snyder 2010 American English
5622 Wave Sonali Deraniyagala 2013 Sri Lankan English
5633 Pictures From Home Larry Sultan 1992 American English
5644 Before I Was Born And After My Death Ivailo Petrov 1968 Bulgarian Bulgarian
5646 The Bear William Faulkner 1942 American English
5665 A Wake For The Living Radmila Lazić 1996 Serbian Serbian
5665 Medea And Her Children Lyudmila Ulitskaya 1996 Russian Russian
5665 Le Polygone Etoile Kateb Yacine 1961 French French
5665 The Loser György Konrád 1980 Hungarian Hungarian
5691 Night Boat To Tangier Kevin Barry 2019 Irish English
5692 How I Came To Know Fish Ota Pavel 1971 Czech Czech
5697 The Little Virtues Natalia Ginzburg 1962 Italian Italian
5699 Ancillary Justice Ann Leckie 2013 American English
5706 Ο Λουσίας Nikos Houliaras 1987 Greek Greek
5706 Sertarul Cu Aplauze Ana Blandiana 1992 Romanian Romanian
5715 Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World Haruki Murakami 1985 Japanese Japanese
5724 Simple Passion Annie Ernaux 1991 French French
5727 I, The Divine Rabih Alameddine 2001 Lebanese English
5729 In The Presence Of Absence Mahmoud Darwish 2006 Palestinian Arabic
5731 Time And Space Juan Ramón Jiménez 1988 Spanish Spanish
5735 The Ghost Road Pat Barker 1995 British English
5736 Only Forward Michael Marshall Smith 1994 British English
5746 Open Secrets Alice Munro 1994 Canadian English
5748 The Insult Rupert Thomson 1996 British English
5750 Die Tessinerin Thomas Hürlimann 1981 Swiss German
5757 Earthly Paradise Colette 1966 French French
5772 Χαιρε Ποτε Kiki Dimoula 1988 Greek Greek
5780 The Sergeant In The Snow Mario Rigoni Stern 1953 Italian Italian
5805 Mysterious Skin Scott Heim 1995 American English
5807 An Ordinary Youth Walter Kempowski 1971 German Unknown
5855 The New Life Dante Alighieri 1295 Italian Italian
5860 My Life and Hard Times James Thurber 1933 American English
5860 Poems Of John Clare John Clare 1820 British English
5860 Twenty Love Poems And A Song Of Despair Pablo Neruda 1924 Chilean Spanish
5900 Poems Of George Darley George Darley 1840 Irish English
5926 Go Went Gone Jenny Erpenbeck 2015 German German
5932 Look At Me Now And Here I Am Gertrude Stein 1967 American Unknown
5935 Hurramabad Andrei Volos 1998 Russian Russian
5935 Spätestens Im November Hans Erich Nossack 1982 German German
5935 Die Bertinis Ralph Giordano 1982 German German
5952 Collected Stories Gabriel García Márquez 1996 Colombian Spanish
5959 This Is Happiness Niall Williams 2019 Irish English
5992 The Green Road Anne Enright 2015 Irish English
6002 Leaves of Hypnos René Char 1946 French French
6002 An Anecdoted Topography Of Chance Daniel Spoerri 1962 Multiple French
6002 Ceux De 14 Maurice Genevoix 1949 French French
6002 Die Niederschrift Des Gustav Anias Horn Hans Henny Jahnn 1949 German German
6002 Dire I–Ii Danielle Collobert 1972 French French
6002 Les Murs De Fresnes Henri Calet 1945 French French
6002 No One's Rose Paul Celan 1963 German German
6002 Poem Of The End Marina Tsvetaeva 1923 Russian Russian
6002 Quai Des Grands Augustins Jean Rhys 1930 Unknown French