The Greatest Books of All Time on Migration

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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
26 The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck 1939 American English
534 Satanic Verses Salman Rushdie 1988 British English
577 Anniversaries Uwe Johnson 1970 German German
909 The Warmth Of Other Suns Isabel Wilkerson 2010 American English
1246 Danube Claudio Magris 1986 Italian Italian
1797 Texaco Patrick Chamoiseau 1992 Martinican French
2185 In a Free State V. S. Naipaul 1971 Trinidadian English
2228 Exit West Mohsin Hamid 2017 Pakistani English
2562 Segu Maryse Condé 1984 French French
2706 Lost Children Archive Valeria Luiselli 2019 Mexican English
2742 Jerusalem Selma Lagerlöf 1901 Swedish Swedish
3050 Centennial James A. Michener 1974 American English
3069 Caramelo Sandra Cisneros 2002 American English
3089 Factory Girls Leslie T. Chang 2008 American English
3096 Open City Teju Cole 2011 American English
3179 Flight Behavior Barbara Kingsolver 2012 American English
3285 Three Strong Women Marie NDiaye 2009 French French
3399 Great Plains Ian Frazier 1989 American English
3532 Girl, Woman, Other Bernardine Evaristo 2019 British English
3919 Staying Power Peter Fryer 1984 British English
3954 Στου Χατζηφράγκου Kosmas Politis 1929 Greek Greek
4568 No Great Mischief Alistair MacLeod 1999 Canadian English
4801 Home to Harlem Claude McKay 1928 American English
4849 Women's Diaries of the Westward Journey Lillian Schiessel 1982 American English
5042 Life is a Carawanserai Has Two Doors I Went in One I Came out the Other Emine Sevgi Özdamar 1992 Turkish German
5814 Men In The Sun Ghassan Kanafani 1962 Palestinian Arabic
5958 The Long Journey of Poppie Nongena Elsa Joubert 1978 South African Afrikaans
5986 Maximum City Suketu Mehta 2004 American English
6190 Kein Schöner Land Silvio Blatter 1984 Swiss German
6295 Oracle Bones Peter Hessler 2006 American English
6370 All Aunt Hagar’s Children Edward P. Jones 2006 American English
6422 Astradeni Eugenia Fakinou 1991 Greek Greek
6455 The Arrivants Kamau Brathwaite 1973 Barbadian English
6623 Disappearance David Dabydeen 1993 Guyanese English
6653 The Beast Óscar Martínez 2013 Salvadoran Spanish
6710 The Old Drift Namwali Serpell 2019 Zambian English
6974 The Good Life Elsewhere Vladimir Lorchenkov 2008 Russian Russian
7086 A Short Border Handbook Gazmend Kapllani 2009 Greek Albanian
7216 Pather Panchali Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay 1929 Indian Bengali
8105 Northern Girls Sheng Keyi 2004 Chinese Chinese
8107 Call Home The Heart Olive Tilford Dargan 1932 American English
8231 Solito Javier Zamora 2022 Unknown English
8235 The Promised Land Nicholas Lemann 1991 American English
8265 Rosie Carpe & Hilda Marie NDiaye 2001 French French
8353 The Farming of Bones Edwidge Danticat 1998 Haitian English
8377 The Seed Is Mine Charles Van Onselen 1996 South African English
8446 Panorama Dušan Šarotar 2016 Slovenian Slovene
8620 Sidewalks Valeria Luiselli 2013 Mexican Spanish
8657 The Dollmaker Harriette Arnow 1954 American English
8775 Inland Téa Obreht 2019 American English
8803 The Valley Of The Moon Jack London 1913 American English
9068 The Tribe Michael Mohammed Ahmad 2014 Australian English
9179 China's Second Continent Howard W. French 2014 American English
9187 By The Sea Abdulrazak Gurnah 2001 British English
9343 Rails Under My Back Jeffery Renard Allen 2000 American English
9374 The African Shore Rodrigo Rey Rosa 1999 Guatemalan Spanish
9517 Joe Turner's Come And Gone August Wilson 1984 American English
9770 Un Attieké Pour Elgass Tierno Monenembo 2021 French French
9811 The Childhood Of Jesus J. M. Coetzee 2013 South African English
9834 Sea of Poppies Amitav Ghosh 2008 Indian English
9897 Bad Land Jonathan Raban 1996 British English
9950 An Apartment On Uranus Paul B. Preciado 2019 Spanish French
10023 Nine Continents Xiaolu Guo 2017 Chinese English
10159 The Way West A. B. Guthrie 1949 American English
10443 Rain Of Scorpions And Other Stories Estela Portillo Trambley 1975 American English
10506 Signs Preceding the End of the World Yuri Herrera 2009 Mexican Spanish
10696 The Faraway World Patricia Engel 2023 American English
10803 Kin Miljenko Jergović 2013 Croatian Croatian
10838 Border Kapka Kassabova 2017 Bulgarian English
10878 The Floating World Cynthia Kadohata 1989 American English
11346 Rituals Of Survival Nicholasa Mohr 1984 American English
11358 The House Of Youssef Yumna Kassab 2019 Australian English
11500 The Thirty Names Of Night Zeyn Joukhadar 2020 Unknown English
11582 Getting Home Alive Aurora Levins Morales, Rosario Morales 1986 American English
11613 The Next Christendom Philip Jenkins 2002 American English
11653 Westward Amy Clampitt 1990 American English
11880 Sololand Hassan Blasim 2021 Iraqi Arabic
11884 Root And Branch Eda Gunaydin 2022 Unknown English
11901 Coming Home And Other Stories Farida Karodia 1988 South African English
11901 Sans Souci And Other Stories Dionne Brand 1988 Canadian English
12123 Songs For The Dead And The Living Sara M. Saleh 2023 Unknown English
12131 The Glass Palace Amitav Ghosh 2000 Indian English
12326 A Way In The World V. S. Naipaul 1994 American English
12419 Desert J. M. G. Le Clezio 1980 French French
12412 Growing Up In Australia Various authors Unknown Unknown
12795 The Red Star Anthoninthasan Jesuthasan Unknown Unknown
13102 The Autobiography Of H. Lan Thao Lam Lana Lin 2025 American English
13153 The New Carthaginians Nick Makoha 2025 Ugandan English
13289 Seltsame Sterne Starren Zur Erde Emine Sevgi Özdamar 2003 German German
13340 River Of Smoke Amitav Ghosh 2011 Indian English
13513 The Norton Anthology Of Latino Literature Ilan Stavans 2005 Multiple English
13600 En France Marius-Ary Leblond 1909 French French
13772 Flood Of Fire Amitav Ghosh 2015 Indian English
13818 La Miglior Vita Fulvio Tomizza 1977 Italian Italian
13818 The Mussolini Canal Antonio Pennacchi 2010 Italian Italian
13818 Spatriati Mario Desiati 2021 Italian Italian
13971 What We Owe Golnaz Hashemzadeh Bonde 2017 Swedish English
14335 Beyond Smoke And Mirrors Douglas S. Massey 2002 American English
14493 A History Of Burning Janika Oza 2023 Unknown English
14899 Great River Paul Horgan 1954 American English
14986 Breath, Eyes, Memory Edwidge Danticat 1994 Haitian English
14986 Tales From Firozsha Baag Rohinton Mistry 1987 Indian English
14986 Crossing The River Caryl Phillips 1993 British English
14986 Salt Earl Lovelace 1996 Trinidadian English
14986 The Great Partition Yasmin Khan 2007 British English
14986 The Four Winds Kristin Hannah 2021 American English
14986 Faces In The Crowd Valeria Luiselli 2011 Mexican Spanish
15570 Good Economics For Hard Times Abhijit V. Banerjee, Esther Duflo 2019 American English
15655 The Covered Wagon Emerson Hough 1922 American English
16511 Coolie Mulk Raj Anand 1936 Indian English
15920 The Exodus Konrad Bercovici 1920 Unknown English
16556 Torregreca Ann Cornelisen 1969 Torregreca English
16556 The Nez Perce Indians And The Opening Of The Northwest Jr., Alvin Josephy 1965 American English
17172 Postcards Annie Proulx 1992 American English
17172 The Worst Hard Time Timothy Egan 2006 American English
17172 The Founding of New England James Truslow Adams 1921 American English
17172 History of the American Frontier Frederic L. Paxson 1924 American English
17172 The Colonial Period of American History Charles McLean Andrews 1934 American English
17172 The Atlantic Migration Marcus Lee Hansen 1940 American English
17172 The Old Northwest, Pioneer Period 1815-1840 R. Carlyle Buley 1950 American English