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
4706 The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter Katherine Anne Porter 1965 American English
4711 Pigeon Feathers And Other Stories John Updike 1962 American English
4711 My Michael Amos Oz 1968 Israeli Hebrew
4720 The Sword of the Lictor Gene Wolfe 1982 American English
4745 Oeuvre Poétique Léopold Sédar Senghor 1964 Senegalese French
4748 Blood Oranges John Hawkes 1971 American English
4749 The Glamour Christopher Priest 1984 British English
4762 Vertigo W. G. Sebald 1990 German German
4779 Helping Verbs Of The Heart Peter Esterhazy 1985 Hungarian Hungarian
4803 Dictee Theresa Hak Kyung Cha 1982 American English
4828 The Largesse of the Sea Maiden Denis Johnson 2018 American English
4829 Patterns of Childhood Christa Wolf 1976 German German
4835 A Haunted Man And The Ghost's Bargain Charles Dickens 1848 British English
4856 Zettels Traum Arno Schmidt 1970 German German
4887 The Secret Scripture Sebastian Barry 2008 Irish English
4888 Natura Morta Josef Winkler 2001 Unknown German
4889 The Book of Salt Monique Truong 2003 American English
4930 The Poorhouse Fair John Updike 1959 American English
4937 Dreaming in Cuban Cristina García 1992 Cuban English
4941 Being Dead Jim Crace 1999 British English
4943 The Buried Giant Kazuo Ishiguro 2015 British English
4950 Paper Children Mariana Marin 1987 Romanian Romanian
4981 The Hare with Amber Eyes Edmund de Waal 2010 British English
4996 Tigana Guy Gavriel Kay 1990 Canadian English
5012 Zone One Colson Whitehead 2011 American English
5021 Hourglass Danilo Kiš 1972 Serbian Serbo-croatian
5025 Deathfeast Takis Sinopoulos 1978 Greek Greek
5032 Honored Guest Joy Williams 2004 American English
5041 Life is a Carawanserai Has Two Doors I Went in One I Came out the Other Emine Sevgi Özdamar 1992 Turkish German
5096 Sartoris William Faulkner 1929 American English
5110 The Ministry Of Pain Dubravka Ugrešić 2004 Croatian Croatian
5110 Dancing In Odessa Ilya Kaminsky 2004 Ukrainian English
5119 North Toward Home Willie Morris 1967 American English
5122 In The Night Of Time Antonio Muñoz Molina 2012 Spanish Spanish
5127 Maria Nephele Odysseas Elytis 1979 Greek Greek
5133 The Snows Of Yesteryear Gregor von Rezzori 1989 Austrian German
5133 Triptych Claude Simon 1973 French English
5189 Stay True Hua Hsu 2022 Chinese English
5242 Abschied Johannes R. Becher 1974 German German
5255 Geur der droefenis Alfred Kossmann 1980 Dutch Dutch
5260 Cockroaches Scholastique Mukasonga 2006 French French
5288 Fields Of Glory Jean Rouaud 1990 French French
5291 Revenge Yōko Ogawa 1998 Japanese Japanese
5301 The Museum Of Innocence Orhan Pamuk 2008 Turkish Turkish
5293 Tadellöser & Wolff Walter Kempowski 1975 German German
5314 A General Theory Of Oblivion José Eduardo Agualusa 2012 Angolan Portuguese
5338 Ellis Island Georges Perec 1980 French French
5345 Epileptic David B 1996 French French
5353 Stasiland Anna Funder 2002 Australian English
5362 Schilten Hermann Burger 1976 Swiss German
5388 In Memory Of Memory Maria Stepanova 2017 Russian Russian
5390 St. Urbain's Horseman Mordecai Richler 1971 Canadian English
5391 Tom Lake Ann Patchett 2023 American English
5417 The Brodeck Report Philippe Claudel 2007 French French
5418 A Dictionary Of Maqiao Han Shaogong 1996 Chinese Chinese
5421 In the Heart of the Heart of the Country William H. Gass 1968 American English
5422 What The Dead Know Laura Lippman 2007 American English
5445 Egy polgár vallomásai Sandor Marai 1934 Hungarian Hungarian
5448 The bells of Bicêtre Georges Simenon 1963 Belgian French
5448 The Lover A. B. Yehoshua 1977 Israeli Hebrew
5461 The Yellow House Sarah M. Broom 2019 American English
5478 Fado Alexandrino António Lobo Antunes 1983 Portuguese Portuguese
5493 The Lost Daniel Mendelsohn 2006 American English
5502 Warsaw Diary Kazimierz Brandys 1978 Polish Polish
5502 Schlachtbeschreibung Alexander Kluge 1978 German German
5583 Professor Martens' Departure Jaan Kross 1984 Estonian Estonian
5594 How It Is Samuel Beckett 1961 Irish French
5597 The Sound Of Things Falling Juan Gabriel Vásquez 2011 Colombian Spanish
5598 The Lazarus Project Aleksandar Hemon 2008 Bosnian English
5599 Bloodlands Timothy Snyder 2010 American English
5625 Wave Sonali Deraniyagala 2013 Sri Lankan English
5636 Pictures From Home Larry Sultan 1992 American English
5647 Before I Was Born And After My Death Ivailo Petrov 1968 Bulgarian Bulgarian
5649 The Bear William Faulkner 1942 American English
5668 A Wake For The Living Radmila Lazić 1996 Serbian Serbian
5668 Medea And Her Children Lyudmila Ulitskaya 1996 Russian Russian
5668 Le Polygone Etoile Kateb Yacine 1961 French French
5668 The Loser György Konrád 1980 Hungarian Hungarian
5694 Night Boat To Tangier Kevin Barry 2019 Irish English
5695 How I Came To Know Fish Ota Pavel 1971 Czech Czech
5700 The Little Virtues Natalia Ginzburg 1962 Italian Italian
5702 Ancillary Justice Ann Leckie 2013 American English
5709 Ο Λουσίας Nikos Houliaras 1987 Greek Greek
5709 Sertarul Cu Aplauze Ana Blandiana 1992 Romanian Romanian
5718 Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World Haruki Murakami 1985 Japanese Japanese
5727 Simple Passion Annie Ernaux 1991 French French
5730 I, The Divine Rabih Alameddine 2001 Lebanese English
5732 In The Presence Of Absence Mahmoud Darwish 2006 Palestinian Arabic
5734 Time And Space Juan Ramón Jiménez 1988 Spanish Spanish
5738 The Ghost Road Pat Barker 1995 British English
5739 Only Forward Michael Marshall Smith 1994 British English
5749 Open Secrets Alice Munro 1994 Canadian English
5751 The Insult Rupert Thomson 1996 British English
5753 Die Tessinerin Thomas Hürlimann 1981 Swiss German
5760 Earthly Paradise Colette 1966 French French
5775 Χαιρε Ποτε Kiki Dimoula 1988 Greek Greek
5783 The Sergeant In The Snow Mario Rigoni Stern 1953 Italian Italian
5808 Mysterious Skin Scott Heim 1995 American English
5810 An Ordinary Youth Walter Kempowski 1971 German Unknown
5858 The New Life Dante Alighieri 1295 Italian Italian
5863 My Life and Hard Times James Thurber 1933 American English
5863 Poems Of John Clare John Clare 1820 British English
5863 Twenty Love Poems And A Song Of Despair Pablo Neruda 1924 Chilean Spanish
5903 Poems Of George Darley George Darley 1840 Irish English
5929 Go Went Gone Jenny Erpenbeck 2015 German German
5936 Look At Me Now And Here I Am Gertrude Stein 1967 American Unknown
5939 Hurramabad Andrei Volos 1998 Russian Russian
5939 Spätestens Im November Hans Erich Nossack 1982 German German
5939 Die Bertinis Ralph Giordano 1982 German German
5956 Collected Stories Gabriel García Márquez 1996 Colombian Spanish
5963 This Is Happiness Niall Williams 2019 Irish English
5996 The Green Road Anne Enright 2015 Irish English
6005 Leaves of Hypnos René Char 1946 French French
6005 An Anecdoted Topography Of Chance Daniel Spoerri 1962 Multiple French
6005 Ceux De 14 Maurice Genevoix 1949 French French
6005 Die Niederschrift Des Gustav Anias Horn Hans Henny Jahnn 1949 German German
6005 Dire I–Ii Danielle Collobert 1972 French French
6005 Les Murs De Fresnes Henri Calet 1945 French French
6005 No One's Rose Paul Celan 1963 German German
6005 Poem Of The End Marina Tsvetaeva 1923 Russian Russian