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
8009 Fire And Hemlock Diana Wynne Jones 1985 British English
8009 Still Life A. S. Byatt 1985 British English
8019 Mirrors Eduardo Galeano 2008 Uruguayan Spanish
8026 The Dew Breaker Edwidge Danticat 2004 American English
8030 Falling Man Don DeLillo 2007 American English
8058 Palestine Hubert Haddad 1989 French French
8062 Santo Oficio De La Memoria Mempo Giardinelli 1991 Argentinian Spanish
8068 All That She Carried Tiya Miles 2021 American English
8069 Minor Angels Antoine Volodine 1999 French French
8076 Selected Poems Ferenc Juhasz 1954 Hungarian Hungarian
8076 Poems Of Léonie Adams Léonie Adams 1954 American English
8076 Clea Lawrence Durrell 1960 British English
8091 Paris Nocturne Patrick Modiano 2003 French French
8096 Molly Fox’s Birthday Deirdre Madden 2008 Irish English
8099 Day A. L. Kennedy 2007 British English
8100 Selected Poems Tomas Tranströmer 1981 Swedish Swedish
8107 Memorias De Mama Blanca Teresa de la Parra 1929 Venezuelan Spanish
8107 My Mother's House And Sido Colette 1922 French French
8107 New Islands And Other Stories María Luisa Bombal 1939 Chilean Spanish
8144 Simple Stories Ingo Schulze 1998 German German
8144 Vor Uns Die Sintflut Urs Widmer 1998 Swiss German
8167 In A State Of Memory Tununa Mercado 1990 Argentinian Spanish
8168 Returning To Reims Didier Eribon 2009 French French
8177 Cuando Ya No Importe Juan Carlos Onetti 1993 Uruguayan Spanish
8178 Three Novels Samuel Beckett 1955 Irish French
8193 The Order Of Time Carlo Rovelli 2017 Italian Italian
8203 Insomnia Drawings Louise Bourgeois 2000 Unknown English
8203 The Day I Wasn't There Hélène Cixous 2000 French French
8208 89 Poems Zbigniew Herbert 1956 Polish Polish
8215 Stories In An Almost Classical Mode Harold Brodkey 1989 American English
8218 Bells In Winter Czesław Miłosz 1978 Polish Polish
8240 How The Dead Live Will Self 2000 British English
8243 19 Knives Mark Anthony Jarman 1997 Canadian English
8247 Old Times On The Mississippi Mark Twain 1876 American English
8277 Love And Summer William Trevor 2009 Irish English
8285 Nowhere Man Aleksandar Hemon 2002 Bosnian English
8280 The Wind Claude Simon 1957 French French
8280 Selected Poems Hilda Doolittle 1957 American English
8293 The Author Of Himself Marcel Reich-Ranicki 1999 German German
8301 Lizard Tails Juan Marsé 2004 Spanish Spanish
8336 The Grass Claude Simon 1958 French French
8336 Fable Robert Pinget 1958 French French
8352 The Farming of Bones Edwidge Danticat 1998 Haitian English
8386 Ella Cantaba Boleros Guillermo Cabrera Infante 1992 Cuban Spanish
8389 Poems Of Edmond Jabès Edmond Jabès 1959 French French
8389 In The Labyrinth Alain Robbe-Grillet 1959 French French
8404 The Art Of Losing Alice Zeniter 2017 French French
8442 Faithful Place Tana French 2010 Irish English
8441 Heaven And Hell Jón Kalman Stefánsson 2007 Icelandic Icelandic
8445 The Natashas Yelena Moskovich 2016 Russian English
8445 Panorama Dušan Šarotar 2016 Slovenian Slovene
8445 The Interim Wolfgang Hilbig 2000 German German
8445 Der Geliebte Der Mutter Urs Widmer 2000 Swiss German
8459 The Light of the World Elizabeth Alexander 2015 American English
8473 Selected Writings Salvatore Quasimodo 1960 Italian Italian
8473 La Pell De Brau Salvador Espríu 1960 Catalan Catalan
8473 Collected Poems Edwin Muir 1960 Scottish English
8473 The Guyana Quartet Wilson Harris 1960 British English
8473 Poems Of Anne Hébert Anne Hébert 1960 Canadian French
8473 Collected Poems Weldon Kees 1960 American English
8473 Ceremony In Lone Tree Wright Morris 1960 American English
8473 Textermination Christine Brooke-Rose 1992 British English
8491 The Book Of My Lives Aleksandar Hemon 2013 American English
8494 Paula Isabel Allende 1994 Chilean Spanish
8501 Shadows Osvaldo Soriano 1993 Argentine Unknown
8503 Collected Poems Jane Kenyon 2005 American English
8518 Shanghai Nights Juan Marsé 1993 Spanish Unknown
8578 The Sorrow Of War Dương Thu Hương 1990 Vietnamese Vietnamese
8582 Cartas Cruzadas Darío Jaramillo 1995 Colombian Spanish
8587 The Postcard Anne Berest 2021 French French
8593 Sonnenschein Daša Drndić 2007 Croatian Croatian
8607 Poems Of Roy Fuller Roy Fuller 1962 British English
8607 Shadow Lands Johannes Bobrowski 1962 German German
8607 The Palace Of Shattered Vessels David Shahar 1962 Israeli Hebrew
8607 Poems Of Robert Hayden Robert Hayden 1962 American English
8618 Sidewalks Valeria Luiselli 2013 Mexican Spanish
8624 The Storm And Other Things Eugenio Montale 1978 Italian Italian
8631 Vanishing Point David Markson 2004 American English
8652 Jane Maggie Nelson 2005 American English
8652 Pedigree Patrick Modiano 2005 French French
8652 Three Days With My Mother François Weyergans 2005 Belgian French
8675 Collected Poems Wilfred Owen 1963 British English
8688 Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close Jonathan Safran Foer 2005 American English
8689 The One Before Juan José Saer 2015 Argentinian Spanish
8712 Sweet Talk Stephanie Vaughn 1990 American English
8722 Dancing With Cuba Alma Guillermoprieto 2004 Mexican Spanish
8725 Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Dog Dylan Thomas 1940 British English
8729 The History of Silence Pedro Zarraluki 1995 Spanish Spanish
8739 Poems Of Sophia De Mello Breyner Sophia de Mello Breyner 1964 Portuguese Portuguese
8739 Second Skin John Hawkes 1964 American English
8739 Poems Of Alvin Feinman Alvin Feinman 1964 American English
8775 See Under: Love David Grossman 1986 Israeli Hebrew
8789 The Diaries Of Emilio Renzi Ricardo Piglia 2015 Argentinian Spanish
8793 What Work Is Philip Levine 1991 American English
8801 Time Regained Marcel Proust 1927 French French
8820 China In Ten Words Yu Hua 2011 Chinese Chinese
8827 Photographs Eudora Welty 1971 American English
8832 Hiroshima Notes Kenzaburō Ōe 1965 Japanese Japanese
8844 Negative Space Luljeta Lleshanaku 2018 Albanian Albanian
8853 I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home Lorrie Moore 2023 American English
8854 How German Is It Walter Abish 1980 American English
8856 The Water Dancer Ta-Nehisi Coates 2019 American English
8869 For the Union Dead Robert Lowell 1964 American English
8900 The Art Of Flight Sergio Pitol 1997 Mexican Spanish
8911 The Night Guest Fiona McFarlane 2013 Australian English
8918 As Metamorfoses Murilo Mendes 1938 Brazilian Portuguese
8923 Poems Of Louis Mac Neice Louis MacNeice 1966 Irish English
8923 At The Stone Of Losses T. Carmi 1966 Israeli Hebrew
8939 Memorial Drive Natasha Trethewey 2020 American English
8951 Time Without Keys Ida Vitale 2019 Uruguayan Spanish
8975 Mantra Rodrigo Fresán 2001 Argentinian Spanish
8990 Tinkers Paul Harding 2009 American English
9009 That Voice Robert Pinget 1967 French French
9022 Dark Back Of Time Javier Marias 1998 Spanish Spanish
9022 Memories Of My Father Watching Tv Curtis White 1998 American English
9032 The Storyteller Mario Vargas Llosa 1987 Peruvian Spanish
9036 From A To X John Berger 2008 British English
9046 L'amour, La Mer Pascal Quignard 2002 French French
9058 In The Darkroom Susan Faludi 2016 American English
9074 Autumn Ali Smith 2016 British English