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
17162 District and Circle Seamus Heaney 2006 Irish English
17162 The Spirit Level Seamus Heaney 1996 Irish English
17162 The Epicure's Lament Kate Christensen 2004 American English
17162 Self-Consciousness John Updike 1989 American English
17162 Ray Barry Hannah 1980 American English
17162 War Dances Sherman Alexie 2009 American English
17162 Human Chain Seamus Heaney 2010 Irish English
17162 Or What You Will Jo Walton 2020 British English
17162 Bug Week & Other Stories Airini Beautrais 2020 New Zealander English
17162 The Devil's Advocate Morris West 1959 Australian English
17162 Doctor Copernicus John Banville 1976 Irish English
17162 Die Wise Stephen Jenkinson 2015 Canadian English
17162 Love! Valour! Compassion! Terrence McNally 1995 American English
17162 Greek Lyrics Richmond Lattimore 1960 Greek English
16958 At The Hawk's Well William Butler Yeats 1916 Irish English
17162 The Undertaking Thomas Lynch 1997 American English
17162 Map Wislawa Szymborska 2016 Polish Polish
17162 The Art Of Shakespeare’s Sonnets Helen Vendler 1997 American English
17162 The Seven Days Of Man Abdel-Hakim Qasim 1984 Egyptian Arabic
17162 Rubaiyyat Bahari Mohamed Gibreel Unknown Unknown
17162 Indignation Philip Roth 2008 American English
17162 Four Thousand Weeks Oliver Burkeman 2021 British English
17162 Life On Mars Tracy K. Smith 2011 American English
17162 The Immortalists Chloe Benjamin 2018 American English
17162 A Breath Of Life Clarice Lispector 1978 Brazilian Portuguese
17162 What Is All This? Stephen Dixon 2010 American English
17162 My Bright Abyss Christian Wiman 2013 American English
17162 Elegy On Toy Piano Dean Young 2005 American English
17162 Anam Cara John O'Donohue 1997 Irish English
17162 For One More Day Mitch Albom 2006 American English
17162 The Glitter Dome Joseph Wambaugh 1981 American English
17162 Mayakovsky's Revolver Matthew Dickman 2012 American English
17162 Angry Candy Harlan Ellison 1988 American English
17162 I Am, I Am, I Am Maggie O'Farrell 2017 British English
17162 Pulp Charles Bukowski 1994 American English
17162 Don't Call Us Dead Danez Smith 2017 American English
17162 In The Checklist Of Life Lynn McPhelimy 1997 Unknown English
17162 The Bright Book Of Life Harold Bloom 2020 American English
17162 In My Time Of Dying Sebastian Junger Unknown Unknown
16849 Sette Piani Dino Buzzati 1954 Italian Italian
17162 The Sculptor Scott McCloud 2015 American English
17054 Bambi Felix Salten 1923 Austrian German
17162 A Little Larger Than The Entire Universe Fernando Pessoa 1998 Portuguese Portuguese
17162 Autobiography Of A Corpse Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky 2013 Russian Russian
17162 Day Michael Cunningham American Unknown
17162 A Shining Jon Fosse Unknown Norwegian
17162 I Want To Eat Your Pancreas Yoru Sumino 2015 Japanese Japanese
17162 If Cats Disappeared From The World Genki Kawamura 2012 Japanese Japanese
16804 The Complete Works Of Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe 1902 American English
17162 The Oxford Book Of American Short Stories Joyce Carol Oates 1992 American English
17162 Here Goes Nothing Steve Toltz 2022 Australian English
17162 Night Etel Adnan 2016 Unknown English
17162 White Egrets Derek Walcott 2010 Saint Lucian English
17162 The Collected Stories Lorrie Moore 2008 American English
17162 The Humans Matt Haig 2013 British English
17162 The Immortals Of Tehran Ali Araghi 2020 Unknown English
17144 Heaven Has No Favorites Erich Maria Remarque 1961 German German
17162 The Man With Night Sweats Thom Gunn 1992 British English
17162 On Bullfighting AL Kennedy 1999 British English
17055 Tujec / Kuga Albert Camus 1942 French French
17162 Death Of The Fox George Garrett 1972 American English
17162 The Three Days Don Robertson 1959 American English
17162 A Good Way To Die Del Barton Unknown Unknown
17162 A Shining Jon Fosse 2023 Norwegian Unknown
17162 The Vulnerables Sigrid Nunez 2023 American Unknown
17162 The Body Of The Soul Lyudmila Ulitskaya 2023 Russian Russian
17162 The Pole J. M. Coetzee 2023 South African English
17162 The Suicide Museum Ariel Dorfman 2023 Chilean English
17162 Some Unfinished Chaos Arthur Krystal 2023 Unknown Unknown
17162 A Word Or Two Before I Go Arthur Krystal 2023 American English
17162 All Souls Saskia Hamilton 2023 Unknown English
17162 The Plague Jacqueline Rose 2023 Unknown Unknown
17162 My Stupid Intentions Bernardo Zannoni 2023 Italian Italian
17162 Gravity And Center Henri Cole 2023 American English
17162 Spring Rain Marc Hamer 2023 British English
17162 Skeletons Deborah Landau 2023 Unknown English
17162 All Souls Saskia Hamilton 2023 Unknown English
17162 1999 Emily Dickinson Unknown Unknown
17162 Truth In Advertising John Kenney 2013 American English
17162 The Best Of Me David Sedaris 2020 American English
17162 Man In The Empty Suit Sean Ferrell 2013 American English
17162 Alive At The End Of The World Saeed Jones 2022 American English
17162 Homage To The Lame Wolf Vasko Popa 1979 Serbian Serbo-croatian
17162 Open Heart Elie Wiesel 2012 American French
17162 The Cat's Pajamas Ray Bradbury 2004 American English
16932 The King And The Corpse Heinrich Zimmer 1948 German English
16972 Antes Do Baile Verde Lygia Fagundes tellles 1970 Brazilian Portuguese
17006 Von Der Kürze Des Lebens · Vom Glücklichen Leben Seneca -49 Roman Latin
17162 Deaths Of Despair And The Future Of Capitalism Anne Case 2020 American English
17162 All Star Superman, Vol. 2 Grant Morrison 2009 British English
17162 So Sad Today Melissa Broder 2016 American English
17162 Dying Cory Taylor 2016 Australian English
17162 The Last Voyage Of Somebody The Sailor John Barth 1991 American English
17162 Of Consolation To Helvia Seneca 2042 Roman English
17162 A Closer Look At "The Lord Of The Rings" Mark Allen Smith American English
17162 L'écroulement De La Baliverna Dino Buzzati Italian Italian
17162 Perlmann's Silence Pascal Mercier Swiss German
17162 The Final Voicemails Max Ritvo American English
17162 Watermark Joseph Brodsky 1989 Unknown English
17088 Mémoires D'hadrien, Carnets De Notes De Mémoires D'hadrien Marguerite Yourcenar 1951 French French
17162 All That Man Is Szalay, David 2016 British English
17162 The Book Of Job Harold S. Kushner 2012 American English
17162 Giant Bones Peter S. Beagle 1997 American English