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 748 '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
908 The Warmth Of Other Suns Isabel Wilkerson 2010 American English
1244 Danube Claudio Magris 1986 Italian Italian
1796 Texaco Patrick Chamoiseau 1992 Martinican French
2173 In a Free State V. S. Naipaul 1971 Trinidadian English
2216 Exit West Mohsin Hamid 2017 Pakistani English
2559 Segu Maryse Condé 1984 French French
2703 Lost Children Archive Valeria Luiselli 2019 Mexican English
2738 Jerusalem Selma Lagerlöf 1901 Swedish Swedish
3043 Centennial James A. Michener 1974 American English
3063 Caramelo Sandra Cisneros 2002 American English
3082 Factory Girls Leslie T. Chang 2008 American English
3090 Open City Teju Cole 2011 American English
3174 Flight Behavior Barbara Kingsolver 2012 American English
3280 Three Strong Women Marie NDiaye 2009 French French
3395 Great Plains Ian Frazier 1989 American English
3530 Girl, Woman, Other Bernardine Evaristo 2019 British English
3914 Staying Power Peter Fryer 1984 British English
3948 Στου Χατζηφράγκου Kosmas Politis 1929 Greek Greek
4562 No Great Mischief Alistair MacLeod 1999 Canadian English
4792 Home to Harlem Claude McKay 1928 American English
4840 Women's Diaries of the Westward Journey Lillian Schiessel 1982 American English
5031 Life is a Carawanserai Has Two Doors I Went in One I Came out the Other Emine Sevgi Özdamar 1992 Turkish German
5802 Men In The Sun Ghassan Kanafani 1962 Palestinian Arabic
5947 The Long Journey of Poppie Nongena Elsa Joubert 1978 South African Afrikaans
5975 Maximum City Suketu Mehta 2004 American English
6180 Kein Schöner Land Silvio Blatter 1984 Swiss German
6285 Oracle Bones Peter Hessler 2006 American English
6360 All Aunt Hagar’s Children Edward P. Jones 2006 American English
6412 Astradeni Eugenia Fakinou 1991 Greek Greek
6445 The Arrivants Kamau Brathwaite 1973 Barbadian English
6611 Disappearance David Dabydeen 1993 Guyanese English
6641 The Beast Óscar Martínez 2013 Salvadoran Spanish
6699 The Old Drift Namwali Serpell 2019 Zambian English
6965 The Good Life Elsewhere Vladimir Lorchenkov 2008 Russian Russian
7075 A Short Border Handbook Gazmend Kapllani 2009 Greek Albanian
7201 Pather Panchali Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay 1929 Indian Bengali
8089 Northern Girls Sheng Keyi 2004 Chinese Chinese
8091 Call Home The Heart Olive Tilford Dargan 1932 American English
8214 Solito Javier Zamora 2022 Unknown English
8218 The Promised Land Nicholas Lemann 1991 American English
8248 Rosie Carpe & Hilda Marie NDiaye 2001 French French
8337 The Farming of Bones Edwidge Danticat 1998 Haitian English
8360 The Seed Is Mine Charles Van Onselen 1996 South African English
8427 Panorama Dušan Šarotar 2016 Slovenian Slovene
8602 Sidewalks Valeria Luiselli 2013 Mexican Spanish
8638 The Dollmaker Harriette Arnow 1954 American English
8756 Inland Téa Obreht 2019 American English
8784 The Valley Of The Moon Jack London 1913 American English
9046 The Tribe Michael Mohammed Ahmad 2014 Australian English
9158 China's Second Continent Howard W. French 2014 American English
9166 By The Sea Abdulrazak Gurnah 2001 British English
9322 Rails Under My Back Jeffery Renard Allen 2000 American English
9352 The African Shore Rodrigo Rey Rosa 1999 Guatemalan Spanish
9495 Joe Turner's Come And Gone August Wilson 1984 American English
9750 Un Attieké Pour Elgass Tierno Monenembo 2021 French French
9792 The Childhood Of Jesus J. M. Coetzee 2013 South African English
9815 Sea of Poppies Amitav Ghosh 2008 Indian English
9876 Bad Land Jonathan Raban 1996 British English
9928 An Apartment On Uranus Paul B. Preciado 2019 Spanish French
10002 Nine Continents Xiaolu Guo 2017 Chinese English
10138 The Way West A. B. Guthrie 1949 American English
10415 Rain Of Scorpions And Other Stories Estela Portillo Trambley 1975 American English
10477 Signs Preceding the End of the World Yuri Herrera 2009 Mexican Spanish
10667 The Faraway World Patricia Engel 2023 American English
10773 Kin Miljenko Jergović 2013 Croatian Croatian
10807 Border Kapka Kassabova 2017 Bulgarian English
10846 The Floating World Cynthia Kadohata 1989 American English
11313 Rituals Of Survival Nicholasa Mohr 1984 American English
11325 The House Of Youssef Yumna Kassab 2019 Australian English
11472 The Thirty Names Of Night Zeyn Joukhadar 2020 Unknown English
11555 Getting Home Alive Aurora Levins Morales, Rosario Morales 1986 American English
11586 The Next Christendom Philip Jenkins 2002 American English
11626 Westward Amy Clampitt 1990 American English
11853 Sololand Hassan Blasim 2021 Iraqi Arabic
11856 Root And Branch Eda Gunaydin 2022 Unknown English
11873 Coming Home And Other Stories Farida Karodia 1988 South African English
11873 Sans Souci And Other Stories Dionne Brand 1988 Canadian English
12097 Songs For The Dead And The Living Sara M. Saleh 2023 Unknown English
12105 The Glass Palace Amitav Ghosh 2000 Indian English
12296 A Way In The World V. S. Naipaul 1994 American English
12388 Desert J. M. G. Le Clezio 1980 French French
12381 Growing Up In Australia Various authors Unknown Unknown
12763 The Red Star Anthoninthasan Jesuthasan Unknown Unknown
13069 The Autobiography Of H. Lan Thao Lam Lana Lin 2025 American English
13120 The New Carthaginians Nick Makoha 2025 Ugandan English
13255 Seltsame Sterne Starren Zur Erde Emine Sevgi Özdamar 2003 German German
13305 River Of Smoke Amitav Ghosh 2011 Indian English
13469 The Norton Anthology Of Latino Literature Ilan Stavans 2005 Multiple English
13553 En France Marius-Ary Leblond 1909 French French
13721 Flood Of Fire Amitav Ghosh 2015 Indian English
13767 La Miglior Vita Fulvio Tomizza 1977 Italian Italian
13767 The Mussolini Canal Antonio Pennacchi 2010 Italian Italian
13767 Spatriati Mario Desiati 2021 Italian Italian
What We Owe Golnaz Hashemzadeh Bonde 2017 Swedish English
14267 Beyond Smoke And Mirrors Douglas S. Massey 2002 American English
14418 A History Of Burning Janika Oza 2023 Unknown English
14810 Great River Paul Horgan 1954 American English
14901 Breath, Eyes, Memory Edwidge Danticat 1994 Haitian English
14901 Tales From Firozsha Baag Rohinton Mistry 1987 Indian English
14901 Crossing The River Caryl Phillips 1993 British English
14901 Salt Earl Lovelace 1996 Trinidadian English
14901 The Great Partition Yasmin Khan 2007 British English
14901 The Four Winds Kristin Hannah 2021 American English
14901 Faces In The Crowd Valeria Luiselli 2011 Mexican Spanish
15482 Good Economics For Hard Times Abhijit V. Banerjee, Esther Duflo 2019 American English
15548 The Covered Wagon Emerson Hough 1922 American English
16378 Coolie Mulk Raj Anand 1936 Indian English
15786 The Exodus Konrad Bercovici 1920 Unknown English
16417 Torregreca Ann Cornelisen 1969 Torregreca English
16417 The Nez Perce Indians And The Opening Of The Northwest Jr., Alvin Josephy 1965 American English
17010 Postcards Annie Proulx 1992 American English
17010 The Worst Hard Time Timothy Egan 2006 American English
17010 The Founding of New England James Truslow Adams 1921 American English
17010 History of the American Frontier Frederic L. Paxson 1924 American English
17010 The Colonial Period of American History Charles McLean Andrews 1934 American English
17010 The Atlantic Migration Marcus Lee Hansen 1940 American English
17010 The Old Northwest, Pioneer Period 1815-1840 R. Carlyle Buley 1950 American English