The Greatest Books of All Time on Mortality

Click to learn how this list is calculated.

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.

View: List Grid Table
Filter by: Genres Dates Countries

Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
17159 District and Circle Seamus Heaney 2006 Irish English
17159 The Spirit Level Seamus Heaney 1996 Irish English
17159 The Epicure's Lament Kate Christensen 2004 American English
17159 Self-Consciousness John Updike 1989 American English
17159 Ray Barry Hannah 1980 American English
17159 War Dances Sherman Alexie 2009 American English
17159 Human Chain Seamus Heaney 2010 Irish English
17159 Or What You Will Jo Walton 2020 British English
17159 Bug Week & Other Stories Airini Beautrais 2020 New Zealander English
17159 The Devil's Advocate Morris West 1959 Australian English
17159 Doctor Copernicus John Banville 1976 Irish English
17159 Die Wise Stephen Jenkinson 2015 Canadian English
17159 Love! Valour! Compassion! Terrence McNally 1995 American English
17159 Greek Lyrics Richmond Lattimore 1960 Greek English
16958 At The Hawk's Well William Butler Yeats 1916 Irish English
17159 The Undertaking Thomas Lynch 1997 American English
17159 Map Wislawa Szymborska 2016 Polish Polish
17159 The Art Of Shakespeare’s Sonnets Helen Vendler 1997 American English
17159 The Seven Days Of Man Abdel-Hakim Qasim 1984 Egyptian Arabic
17159 Rubaiyyat Bahari Mohamed Gibreel Unknown Unknown
17159 Indignation Philip Roth 2008 American English
17159 Four Thousand Weeks Oliver Burkeman 2021 British English
17159 Life On Mars Tracy K. Smith 2011 American English
17159 The Immortalists Chloe Benjamin 2018 American English
17159 A Breath Of Life Clarice Lispector 1978 Brazilian Portuguese
17159 What Is All This? Stephen Dixon 2010 American English
17159 My Bright Abyss Christian Wiman 2013 American English
17159 Elegy On Toy Piano Dean Young 2005 American English
17159 Anam Cara John O'Donohue 1997 Irish English
17159 For One More Day Mitch Albom 2006 American English
17159 The Glitter Dome Joseph Wambaugh 1981 American English
17159 Mayakovsky's Revolver Matthew Dickman 2012 American English
17159 Angry Candy Harlan Ellison 1988 American English
17159 I Am, I Am, I Am Maggie O'Farrell 2017 British English
17159 Pulp Charles Bukowski 1994 American English
17159 Don't Call Us Dead Danez Smith 2017 American English
17159 In The Checklist Of Life Lynn McPhelimy 1997 Unknown English
17159 The Bright Book Of Life Harold Bloom 2020 American English
17159 In My Time Of Dying Sebastian Junger Unknown Unknown
16844 Sette Piani Dino Buzzati 1954 Italian Italian
17159 The Sculptor Scott McCloud 2015 American English
17077 Bambi Felix Salten 1923 Austrian German
17159 A Little Larger Than The Entire Universe Fernando Pessoa 1998 Portuguese Portuguese
17159 Autobiography Of A Corpse Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky 2013 Russian Russian
17159 Day Michael Cunningham American Unknown
17159 A Shining Jon Fosse Unknown Norwegian
17159 I Want To Eat Your Pancreas Yoru Sumino 2015 Japanese Japanese
17159 If Cats Disappeared From The World Genki Kawamura 2012 Japanese Japanese
17159 The Oxford Book Of American Short Stories Joyce Carol Oates 1992 American English
17159 Here Goes Nothing Steve Toltz 2022 Australian English
17159 Night Etel Adnan 2016 Unknown English
17159 White Egrets Derek Walcott 2010 Saint Lucian English
17159 The Collected Stories Lorrie Moore 2008 American English
17159 The Humans Matt Haig 2013 British English
17159 The Immortals Of Tehran Ali Araghi 2020 Unknown English
17151 Heaven Has No Favorites Erich Maria Remarque 1961 German German
17159 The Man With Night Sweats Thom Gunn 1992 British English
17159 On Bullfighting AL Kennedy 1999 British English
17059 Tujec / Kuga Albert Camus 1942 French French
17159 Death Of The Fox George Garrett 1972 American English
17159 The Three Days Don Robertson 1959 American English
17159 A Good Way To Die Del Barton Unknown Unknown
17159 A Shining Jon Fosse 2023 Norwegian Unknown
17159 The Vulnerables Sigrid Nunez 2023 American Unknown
17159 The Body Of The Soul Lyudmila Ulitskaya 2023 Russian Russian
17159 The Pole J. M. Coetzee 2023 South African English
17159 The Suicide Museum Ariel Dorfman 2023 Chilean English
17159 Some Unfinished Chaos Arthur Krystal 2023 Unknown Unknown
17159 A Word Or Two Before I Go Arthur Krystal 2023 American English
17159 All Souls Saskia Hamilton 2023 Unknown English
17159 The Plague Jacqueline Rose 2023 Unknown Unknown
17159 My Stupid Intentions Bernardo Zannoni 2023 Italian Italian
17159 Gravity And Center Henri Cole 2023 American English
17159 Spring Rain Marc Hamer 2023 British English
17159 Skeletons Deborah Landau 2023 Unknown English
17159 All Souls Saskia Hamilton 2023 Unknown English
17159 1999 Emily Dickinson Unknown Unknown
17159 Truth In Advertising John Kenney 2013 American English
17159 The Best Of Me David Sedaris 2020 American English
17159 Man In The Empty Suit Sean Ferrell 2013 American English
17159 Alive At The End Of The World Saeed Jones 2022 American English
16801 Sun And Steel Yukio Mishima 1968 Japanese Japanese
17159 Homage To The Lame Wolf Vasko Popa 1979 Serbian Serbo-croatian
17159 Open Heart Elie Wiesel 2012 American French
17159 The Cat's Pajamas Ray Bradbury 2004 American English
16952 The King And The Corpse Heinrich Zimmer 1948 German English
16991 Antes Do Baile Verde Lygia Fagundes tellles 1970 Brazilian Portuguese
16985 Von Der Kürze Des Lebens · Vom Glücklichen Leben Seneca -49 Roman Latin
17159 Deaths Of Despair And The Future Of Capitalism Anne Case 2020 American English
17159 All Star Superman, Vol. 2 Grant Morrison 2009 British English
17159 So Sad Today Melissa Broder 2016 American English
17159 Dying Cory Taylor 2016 Australian English
17159 The Last Voyage Of Somebody The Sailor John Barth 1991 American English
17159 Of Consolation To Helvia Seneca 2042 Roman English
17159 A Closer Look At "The Lord Of The Rings" Mark Allen Smith American English
17159 L'écroulement De La Baliverna Dino Buzzati Italian Italian
17159 Perlmann's Silence Pascal Mercier Swiss German
17159 The Final Voicemails Max Ritvo American English
17159 Watermark Joseph Brodsky 1989 Unknown English
17095 Mémoires D'hadrien, Carnets De Notes De Mémoires D'hadrien Marguerite Yourcenar 1951 French French
17159 All That Man Is Szalay, David 2016 British English
17159 The Book Of Job Harold S. Kushner 2012 American English
17159 Giant Bones Peter S. Beagle 1997 American English