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
9329 René’S Flesh Virgilio Piñera 1988 Cuban Spanish
9358 Spring Shade Robert Fitzgerald 1971 American English
9358 Poems Of Howard Moss Howard Moss 1971 American English
9377 In The Midst Of Life Ambrose Bierce 1891 American English
9517 C John Diamond 1998 British English
9550 Collected Poems A. R. Ammons 1972 American English
9562 Continuous Tony Harrison 1981 British English
9647 Poems Of Donald Davie David Donald 1973 British Unknown
9647 Selected Poems Czesław Miłosz 1973 Polish Polish
9647 Living Together Edgar Bowers 1973 American English
9659 Sebastian Dreaming Georg Trakl Austrian German
9754 Darkness Spoken Ingeborg Bachmann 2006 Austrian German
9755 The Denial of Death Ernest Becker 1973 American English
9776 The Collected Poems of William Carlos Williams William Carlos Williams 1986 American English
9828 Tristano Dies Antonio Tabucchi 2004 Italian Italian
9889 The Hour Of Our Death Philippe Ariès 1981 French French
9989 Ravel Jean Echenoz 2006 French French
10052 A Shropshire Lad A. E. Housman 1896 British English
10059 Collected Shorter Plays Samuel Beckett 1984 Irish English
10098 écrits 2003 2014 Angélica Liddell 2015 Spanish Spanish
10139 Dinner Along The Amazon Timothy Findley 1984 Canadian English
10189 Winter Journal Paul Auster 2012 American English
10220 V. Tony Harrison 1985 British English
10223 Great Granny Webster Caroline Blackwood 1977 English English
10411 Selected Longer Poems A. R. Ammons 1980 American English
10536 Mediaeval Latin Lyrics Helen Waddell 1929 Unknown English
10558 Peniel And Other Poems Kevin Hart 1981 Australian English
10558 The Early Motion James Dickey 1981 American Unknown
10563 Thief Of Time Terry Pratchett 2001 British English
10626 The Dog That Saw God Dino Buzzati Italian Italian
10751 The Collected Poems 1931 1987 Czesław Miłosz 1988 Polish Polish
10768 Collected Poems D. J. Enright 1987 British English
10843 The End Of Days Jenny Erpenbeck 2012 German German
10841 The Story Of The Night Colm Toibin 1996 Irish English
10855 The Central Motion James Dickey 1983 American English
10902 Les Amours Pierre Ronsard 1552 French French
10911 The Last Novel David Markson 2007 American English
10926 Stirrings Still Samuel Beckett 1988 Irish English
10948 Selected Poems Philip Levine 1984 American English
11004 Shifting The Silence Etel Adnan 2020 Unknown English
11028 Poems Of Charles Simic Charles Simic 1985 American English
11085 Insomniac City Bill Hayes 2017 American English
11112 The Complete Poetry and Essential Prose of John Milton John Milton 2007 British English
11140 The Undying Anne Boyer 2019 American English
11167 Poems Of Paul Muldoon Paul Muldoon 1986 Irish English
11167 Selected Poetry Jaroslav Seifert 1986 Czech Czech
11242 Nuptials Albert Camus 1938 Algerian French
11277 In The Storm Of Roses Ingeborg Bachmann 1987 Austrian German
11311 The Simple Truth Philip Levine 1994 American English
11354 The Anthropocene Reviewed John Green 2021 American English
11365 My Love Ishikawa Takuboku Japanese Japanese
11365 The Watch Nikos Kavvadias Greek Greek
11392 River Writing James Applewhite 1988 American English
11507 The Coming Bad Days Sarah Bernstein 2021 Canadian English
11546 The Poems Of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1845 American English
11604 One Hundred Poems By Cavafy Cavafy Greek Greek
11629 Everyman Philip Roth 2006 American English
11652 Collected Earlier Poems Anthony Hecht 1990 American English
11652 The World Of The Ten Thousand Things Charles Wright 1990 American English
11662 The Moons Of Jupiter Alice Munro 1982 Canadian English
11855 You Left On A May Day Yannis Ritsos Greek Greek
12179 The Centaur John Updike 1963 American English
12326 The Journals Of John Cheever John Cheever 1991 American English
12385 Dark Harbor Mark Strand 1993 American English
12412 Populate And Perish George Haddad Unknown English
12567 Shattered Hanif Kureishi 2024 British English
12657 Poems Of R. S. Thomas R. S. Thomas 2003 British English
12657 Collected Poems Geoffrey Hill 2013 British English
12657 Earthly Measures Edward Hirsch 1994 American English
12753 Border Districts Gerald Murnane 2017 Australian English
13066 Evensong Stewart O'Nan 2025 American English
13103 Art Work Sally Mann 2025 American English
13152 The Book Of Jonah Luke Kennard 2025 British English
13259 The Great Escape Angus Deaton 2013 British English
13279 The Adversary Michael Crummey 2024 Canadian English
13772 Necessity Jo Walton 2016 Canadian English
13793 Vampires In The Lemon Grove Karen Russell 2013 American English
13818 Inseparabili Alessandro Piperno 2012 Italian Italian
13933 The Body William Sansom 1949 British English
14011 Emperor Of The Air Ethan Canin 1988 American English
14411 Greek Tragedies 1 David Grene 1955 Unknown English
14554 Reading Shakespeare's Sonnets Don Paterson 2010 British English
14680 Epic Measures Jeremy N. Smith 2015 American English
14724 Apocolocyntosis Seneca 54 Roman Latin
14784 The Collected Poems Of Rupert Brooke Rupert Brooke 1918 British English
14787 The Beast in the Jungle Henry James 1903 American English
14832 Everything Happens For A Reason Kate Bowler 2018 American English
14948 The Coming Of Age Simone de Beauvoir 1970 French French
14985 How We Die Sherwin B. Nuland 1994 American English
14985 Tales from Ovid Ted Hughes 1997 British English
14985 Borrowed Time Paul Monette 1988 American English
14976 The Complete Poetry of César Vallejo César Vallejo 1968 Peruvian Spanish
14981 The Complete Poems Of Carl Sandburg Carl Sandburg 1970 American English
14985 Shelley Richard Holmes 1974 British English
14985 A Touch Of Darkness Scarlett St. Clair 2019 Unknown English
14985 Old Masters Thomas Bernhard 1985 Austrian German
15567 The Last Trial Scott Turow 2020 American English
15604 A Few Figs From Thistles Edna St. Vincent Millay 1920 American English
15667 The Nick Adams Stories Ernest Hemingway 1972 American English
15743 The Iliad / The Odyssey Homer -762 Greek Ancient greek
15805 Collected Poems Of T. S. Eliot 1909 1935 T. S. Eliot 1936 American English
15808 Collected Poems Edna St. Vincent Millay 1956 American English
15872 Lord Of The Rings J. R. R. Tolkien 1954 British English
15914 Thoughts for the Times on War and Death Sigmund Freud 1915 Austrian German
15914 The Works Of Sir Thomas Browne Sir Thomas Browne 1686 British English
15914 The Journal Of A Disappointed Man W. N. P. Barbellion 1919 British English
15914 Letters Of John Keats John Keats 1848 British English
15914 The Greek Myths Robert Graves 1955 British English
16505 Sun & Steel Yukio Mishima 1968 Japanese Japanese
15914 Amiel's Journal Henri-Frédéric Amiel 1883 Swiss French
15914 Journal Of Katherine Mansfield Katherine Mansfield 1927 New Zealand English
16596 The Complete Works Of Shakespeare William Shakespeare 1623 British English
16590 Iliad & Odyssey Homer -749 Greek Ancient greek (homeric greek)
16638 100 Selected Poems E. E. Cummings 1954 American English
16769 The Collected Tales Of Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe 1908 American English
16730 The Peregrine J. A. Baker 1967 British English
16791 The Complete Works Of Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe 1902 American English
16677 The Iliad Of Homer Richmond Lattimore -762 Greek Ancient greek
16676 The Iliad/The Odyssey/The Aeneid Homer -800 Greek Ancient greek
16884 War Music Christopher Logue 1959 British English