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
8008 Fire And Hemlock Diana Wynne Jones 1985 British English
8008 Still Life A. S. Byatt 1985 British English
8018 Mirrors Eduardo Galeano 2008 Uruguayan Spanish
8025 The Dew Breaker Edwidge Danticat 2004 American English
8029 Falling Man Don DeLillo 2007 American English
8057 Palestine Hubert Haddad 1989 French French
8061 Santo Oficio De La Memoria Mempo Giardinelli 1991 Argentinian Spanish
8067 All That She Carried Tiya Miles 2021 American English
8068 Minor Angels Antoine Volodine 1999 French French
8075 Selected Poems Ferenc Juhasz 1954 Hungarian Hungarian
8075 Poems Of Léonie Adams Léonie Adams 1954 American English
8075 Clea Lawrence Durrell 1960 British English
8090 Paris Nocturne Patrick Modiano 2003 French French
8094 Molly Fox’s Birthday Deirdre Madden 2008 Irish English
8097 Day A. L. Kennedy 2007 British English
8098 Selected Poems Tomas Tranströmer 1981 Swedish Swedish
8105 Memorias De Mama Blanca Teresa de la Parra 1929 Venezuelan Spanish
8105 My Mother's House And Sido Colette 1922 French French
8105 New Islands And Other Stories María Luisa Bombal 1939 Chilean Spanish
8142 Simple Stories Ingo Schulze 1998 German German
8142 Vor Uns Die Sintflut Urs Widmer 1998 Swiss German
8165 In A State Of Memory Tununa Mercado 1990 Argentinian Spanish
8166 Returning To Reims Didier Eribon 2009 French French
8175 Cuando Ya No Importe Juan Carlos Onetti 1993 Uruguayan Spanish
8176 Three Novels Samuel Beckett 1955 Irish French
8191 The Order Of Time Carlo Rovelli 2017 Italian Italian
8201 Insomnia Drawings Louise Bourgeois 2000 Unknown English
8201 The Day I Wasn't There Hélène Cixous 2000 French French
8206 89 Poems Zbigniew Herbert 1956 Polish Polish
8213 Stories In An Almost Classical Mode Harold Brodkey 1989 American English
8216 Bells In Winter Czesław Miłosz 1978 Polish Polish
8238 How The Dead Live Will Self 2000 British English
8241 19 Knives Mark Anthony Jarman 1997 Canadian English
8245 Old Times On The Mississippi Mark Twain 1876 American English
8275 Love And Summer William Trevor 2009 Irish English
8283 Nowhere Man Aleksandar Hemon 2002 Bosnian English
8278 The Wind Claude Simon 1957 French French
8278 Selected Poems Hilda Doolittle 1957 American English
8291 The Author Of Himself Marcel Reich-Ranicki 1999 German German
8299 Lizard Tails Juan Marsé 2004 Spanish Spanish
8334 The Grass Claude Simon 1958 French French
8334 Fable Robert Pinget 1958 French French
8350 The Farming of Bones Edwidge Danticat 1998 Haitian English
8383 Ella Cantaba Boleros Guillermo Cabrera Infante 1992 Cuban Spanish
8386 Poems Of Edmond Jabès Edmond Jabès 1959 French French
8386 In The Labyrinth Alain Robbe-Grillet 1959 French French
8401 The Art Of Losing Alice Zeniter 2017 French French
8438 Faithful Place Tana French 2010 Irish English
8437 Heaven And Hell Jón Kalman Stefánsson 2007 Icelandic Icelandic
8441 The Natashas Yelena Moskovich 2016 Russian English
8441 Panorama Dušan Šarotar 2016 Slovenian Slovene
8441 The Interim Wolfgang Hilbig 2000 German German
8441 Der Geliebte Der Mutter Urs Widmer 2000 Swiss German
8454 The Light of the World Elizabeth Alexander 2015 American English
8468 Selected Writings Salvatore Quasimodo 1960 Italian Italian
8468 La Pell De Brau Salvador Espríu 1960 Catalan Catalan
8468 Collected Poems Edwin Muir 1960 Scottish English
8468 The Guyana Quartet Wilson Harris 1960 British English
8468 Poems Of Anne Hébert Anne Hébert 1960 Canadian French
8468 Collected Poems Weldon Kees 1960 American English
8468 Ceremony In Lone Tree Wright Morris 1960 American English
8468 Textermination Christine Brooke-Rose 1992 British English
8486 The Book Of My Lives Aleksandar Hemon 2013 American English
8489 Paula Isabel Allende 1994 Chilean Spanish
8496 Shadows Osvaldo Soriano 1993 Argentine Unknown
8498 Collected Poems Jane Kenyon 2005 American English
8514 Shanghai Nights Juan Marsé 1993 Spanish Unknown
8574 The Sorrow Of War Dương Thu Hương 1990 Vietnamese Vietnamese
8578 Cartas Cruzadas Darío Jaramillo 1995 Colombian Spanish
8583 The Postcard Anne Berest 2021 French French
8589 Sonnenschein Daša Drndić 2007 Croatian Croatian
8603 Poems Of Roy Fuller Roy Fuller 1962 British English
8603 Shadow Lands Johannes Bobrowski 1962 German German
8603 The Palace Of Shattered Vessels David Shahar 1962 Israeli Hebrew
8603 Poems Of Robert Hayden Robert Hayden 1962 American English
8614 Sidewalks Valeria Luiselli 2013 Mexican Spanish
8620 The Storm And Other Things Eugenio Montale 1978 Italian Italian
8627 Vanishing Point David Markson 2004 American English
8648 Jane Maggie Nelson 2005 American English
8648 Pedigree Patrick Modiano 2005 French French
8648 Three Days With My Mother François Weyergans 2005 Belgian French
8671 Collected Poems Wilfred Owen 1963 British English
8684 Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close Jonathan Safran Foer 2005 American English
8685 The One Before Juan José Saer 2015 Argentinian Spanish
8708 Sweet Talk Stephanie Vaughn 1990 American English
8718 Dancing With Cuba Alma Guillermoprieto 2004 Mexican Spanish
8724 The History of Silence Pedro Zarraluki 1995 Spanish Spanish
8734 Poems Of Sophia De Mello Breyner Sophia de Mello Breyner 1964 Portuguese Portuguese
8734 Second Skin John Hawkes 1964 American English
8734 Poems Of Alvin Feinman Alvin Feinman 1964 American English
8770 See Under: Love David Grossman 1986 Israeli Hebrew
8784 The Diaries Of Emilio Renzi Ricardo Piglia 2015 Argentinian Spanish
8788 What Work Is Philip Levine 1991 American English
8796 Time Regained Marcel Proust 1927 French French
8815 China In Ten Words Yu Hua 2011 Chinese Chinese
8822 Photographs Eudora Welty 1971 American English
8828 Hiroshima Notes Kenzaburō Ōe 1965 Japanese Japanese
8840 Negative Space Luljeta Lleshanaku 2018 Albanian Albanian
8849 I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home Lorrie Moore 2023 American English
8850 How German Is It Walter Abish 1980 American English
8852 The Water Dancer Ta-Nehisi Coates 2019 American English
8865 For the Union Dead Robert Lowell 1964 American English
8896 The Art Of Flight Sergio Pitol 1997 Mexican Spanish
8907 The Night Guest Fiona McFarlane 2013 Australian English
8914 As Metamorfoses Murilo Mendes 1938 Brazilian Portuguese
8919 Poems Of Louis Mac Neice Louis MacNeice 1966 Irish English
8919 At The Stone Of Losses T. Carmi 1966 Israeli Hebrew
8935 Memorial Drive Natasha Trethewey 2020 American English
8947 Time Without Keys Ida Vitale 2019 Uruguayan Spanish
8971 Mantra Rodrigo Fresán 2001 Argentinian Spanish
8986 Tinkers Paul Harding 2009 American English
9005 That Voice Robert Pinget 1967 French French
9018 Dark Back Of Time Javier Marias 1998 Spanish Spanish
9018 Memories Of My Father Watching Tv Curtis White 1998 American English
9028 The Storyteller Mario Vargas Llosa 1987 Peruvian Spanish
9032 From A To X John Berger 2008 British English
9042 L'amour, La Mer Pascal Quignard 2002 French French
9053 In The Darkroom Susan Faludi 2016 American English
9069 Autumn Ali Smith 2016 British English
9068 Stone Upon Stone Wiesław Myśliwski 1984 Polish Polish