The Greatest Books of All Time on Mortality

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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
9353 Spring Shade Robert Fitzgerald 1971 American English
9353 Poems Of Howard Moss Howard Moss 1971 American English
9372 In The Midst Of Life Ambrose Bierce 1891 American English
9512 C John Diamond 1998 British English
9545 Collected Poems A. R. Ammons 1972 American English
9557 Continuous Tony Harrison 1981 British English
9644 Poems Of Donald Davie David Donald 1973 British Unknown
9644 Selected Poems Czesław Miłosz 1973 Polish Polish
9644 Living Together Edgar Bowers 1973 American English
9656 Sebastian Dreaming Georg Trakl Austrian German
9751 Darkness Spoken Ingeborg Bachmann 2006 Austrian German
9752 The Denial of Death Ernest Becker 1973 American English
9773 The Collected Poems of William Carlos Williams William Carlos Williams 1986 American English
9825 Tristano Dies Antonio Tabucchi 2004 Italian Italian
9886 The Hour Of Our Death Philippe Ariès 1981 French French
9985 Ravel Jean Echenoz 2006 French French
10047 A Shropshire Lad A. E. Housman 1896 British English
10054 Collected Shorter Plays Samuel Beckett 1984 Irish English
10093 écrits 2003 2014 Angélica Liddell 2015 Spanish Spanish
10135 Dinner Along The Amazon Timothy Findley 1984 Canadian English
10184 Winter Journal Paul Auster 2012 American English
10214 V. Tony Harrison 1985 British English
10217 Great Granny Webster Caroline Blackwood 1977 English English
10406 Selected Longer Poems A. R. Ammons 1980 American English
10448 Nothing to be Frightened Of Julian Barnes 2008 British English
10530 Mediaeval Latin Lyrics Helen Waddell 1929 Unknown English
10552 Peniel And Other Poems Kevin Hart 1981 Australian English
10552 The Early Motion James Dickey 1981 American Unknown
10557 Thief Of Time Terry Pratchett 2001 British English
10620 The Dog That Saw God Dino Buzzati Italian Italian
10745 The Collected Poems 1931 1987 Czesław Miłosz 1988 Polish Polish
10762 Collected Poems D. J. Enright 1987 British English
10837 The End Of Days Jenny Erpenbeck 2012 German German
10835 The Story Of The Night Colm Toibin 1996 Irish English
10849 The Central Motion James Dickey 1983 American English
10896 Les Amours Pierre Ronsard 1552 French French
10905 The Last Novel David Markson 2007 American English
10920 Stirrings Still Samuel Beckett 1988 Irish English
10942 Selected Poems Philip Levine 1984 American English
10998 Shifting The Silence Etel Adnan 2020 Unknown English
11022 Poems Of Charles Simic Charles Simic 1985 American English
11079 Insomniac City Bill Hayes 2017 American English
11106 The Complete Poetry and Essential Prose of John Milton John Milton 2007 British English
11134 The Undying Anne Boyer 2019 American English
11161 Poems Of Paul Muldoon Paul Muldoon 1986 Irish English
11161 Selected Poetry Jaroslav Seifert 1986 Czech Czech
11236 Nuptials Albert Camus 1938 Algerian French
11271 In The Storm Of Roses Ingeborg Bachmann 1987 Austrian German
11305 The Simple Truth Philip Levine 1994 American English
11348 The Anthropocene Reviewed John Green 2021 American English
11360 My Love Ishikawa Takuboku Japanese Japanese
11360 The Watch Nikos Kavvadias Greek Greek
11387 River Writing James Applewhite 1988 American English
11505 The Coming Bad Days Sarah Bernstein 2021 Canadian English
11544 The Poems Of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1845 American English
11602 One Hundred Poems By Cavafy Cavafy Greek Greek
11627 Everyman Philip Roth 2006 American English
11650 Collected Earlier Poems Anthony Hecht 1990 American English
11650 The World Of The Ten Thousand Things Charles Wright 1990 American English
11660 The Moons Of Jupiter Alice Munro 1982 Canadian English
11854 You Left On A May Day Yannis Ritsos Greek Greek
12178 The Centaur John Updike 1963 American English
12324 The Journals Of John Cheever John Cheever 1991 American English
12383 Dark Harbor Mark Strand 1993 American English
12410 Populate And Perish George Haddad Unknown English
12565 Shattered Hanif Kureishi 2024 British English
12655 Poems Of R. S. Thomas R. S. Thomas 2003 British English
12655 Collected Poems Geoffrey Hill 2013 British English
12655 Earthly Measures Edward Hirsch 1994 American English
12751 Border Districts Gerald Murnane 2017 Australian English
13063 Evensong Stewart O'Nan 2025 American English
13100 Art Work Sally Mann 2025 American English
13149 The Book Of Jonah Luke Kennard 2025 British English
13256 The Great Escape Angus Deaton 2013 British English
13276 The Adversary Michael Crummey 2024 Canadian English
13771 Necessity Jo Walton 2016 Canadian English
13792 Vampires In The Lemon Grove Karen Russell 2013 American English
13817 Inseparabili Alessandro Piperno 2012 Italian Italian
13933 The Body William Sansom 1949 British English
14011 Emperor Of The Air Ethan Canin 1988 American English
14410 Greek Tragedies 1 David Grene 1955 Unknown English
14553 Reading Shakespeare's Sonnets Don Paterson 2010 British English
14679 Epic Measures Jeremy N. Smith 2015 American English
14723 Apocolocyntosis Seneca 54 Roman Latin
14782 The Collected Poems Of Rupert Brooke Rupert Brooke 1918 British English
14786 The Beast in the Jungle Henry James 1903 American English
14830 Everything Happens For A Reason Kate Bowler 2018 American English
14946 The Coming Of Age Simone de Beauvoir 1970 French French
14983 How We Die Sherwin B. Nuland 1994 American English
14983 Tales from Ovid Ted Hughes 1997 British English
14983 Borrowed Time Paul Monette 1988 American English
14974 The Complete Poetry of César Vallejo César Vallejo 1968 Peruvian Spanish
14979 The Complete Poems Of Carl Sandburg Carl Sandburg 1970 American English
14983 Shelley Richard Holmes 1974 British English
14983 A Touch Of Darkness Scarlett St. Clair 2019 Unknown English
14983 Old Masters Thomas Bernhard 1985 Austrian German
15559 The Last Trial Scott Turow 2020 American English
15596 A Few Figs From Thistles Edna St. Vincent Millay 1920 American English
15659 The Nick Adams Stories Ernest Hemingway 1972 American English
15735 The Iliad / The Odyssey Homer -762 Greek Ancient greek
15790 Collected Poems Of T. S. Eliot 1909 1935 T. S. Eliot 1936 American English
15793 Collected Poems Edna St. Vincent Millay 1956 American English
15897 Thoughts for the Times on War and Death Sigmund Freud 1915 Austrian German
15897 The Works Of Sir Thomas Browne Sir Thomas Browne 1686 British English
15897 The Journal Of A Disappointed Man W. N. P. Barbellion 1919 British English
15897 Letters Of John Keats John Keats 1848 British English
15897 The Greek Myths Robert Graves 1955 British English
16489 Sun & Steel Yukio Mishima 1968 Japanese Japanese
15897 Amiel's Journal Henri-Frédéric Amiel 1883 Swiss French
15897 Journal Of Katherine Mansfield Katherine Mansfield 1927 New Zealand English
15875 Lord Of The Rings J. R. R. Tolkien 1954 British English
16607 100 Selected Poems E. E. Cummings 1954 American English
16728 The Collected Tales Of Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe 1908 American English
16699 The Peregrine J. A. Baker 1967 British English
16794 Sun And Steel Yukio Mishima 1968 Japanese Japanese
16645 The Iliad Of Homer Richmond Lattimore -762 Greek Ancient greek
16847 War Music Christopher Logue 1959 British English
17117 District and Circle Seamus Heaney 2006 Irish English
17117 The Spirit Level Seamus Heaney 1996 Irish English
17117 The Epicure's Lament Kate Christensen 2004 American English