The Greatest Books of All Time on Oppression

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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
21 The Trial Franz Kafka 1925 Czech German
55 Animal Farm George Orwell 1945 British English
107 Native Son Richard Wright 1940 American English
132 The Handmaid's Tale Margaret Atwood 1985 Canadian English
140 The Second Sex Simone de Beauvoir 1949 French French
148 One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 1962 Russian Russian
206 The Gulag Archipelago Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 1973 Russian Russian
273 The Betrothed Alessandro Manzoni 1827 Italian Italian
375 Kolyma Stories Varlam Shalamov 1954 Russian Russian
396 The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Junot Diaz 2007 Dominican English
427 Cloud Atlas David Mitchell 2004 British English
430 The Bridge on the Drina Ivo Andrić 1945 Bosnian Serbo-croatian
471 Waiting for the Barbarians J. M. Coetzee 1980 South African English
610 Requiem Anna Akhmatova 1963 Russian Russian
616 The Rebel Albert Camus 1951 French French
640 Black Boy Richard Wright 1945 American English
670 Persepolis Marjane Satrapi 2000 French French
701 The Feast of the Goat Mario Vargas Llosa 2000 Peruvian Spanish
725 The Kingdom of This World Alejo Carpentier 1949 Cuban Spanish
745 Memed, My Hawk Yashar Kemal 1955 Turkish Turkish
746 Nervous Conditions Tsitsi Dangarembga 1988 Zimbabwean English
749 The Fire Next Time James Baldwin 1963 American English
764 Mother Maxim Gorky 1906 Russian Russian
770 The Underground Railroad Colson Whitehead 2016 American English
771 God's Bits of Wood Ousmane Sembène 1960 Senegalese French
856 Conversation in the Cathedral Mario Vargas Llosa 1969 Peruvian Spanish
873 Call to Arms Lu Xun 1922 Chinese Chinese
903 Wild Swans Jung Chang 1991 Chinese English
1003 A Dry White Season Andre Brink 1979 South African Afrikaans
1012 Invitation To A Beheading Vladimir Nabokov 1935 American Russian
1093 The Book of Laughter and Forgetting Milan Kundera 1979 Czech Czech
1117 The Fifth Season N. K. Jemisin 2015 American English
1121 Fantasia Assia Djebar 1985 French French
1199 This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen Tadeusz Borowski 1947 Polish Polish
1225 Untouchable Mulk Raj Anand 1935 Indian English
1233 Children of Gebelawi Naguib Mahfouz 1959 Egyptian Arabic
1234 Woman at Point Zero Nawal El Saadawi 1975 Egyptian Arabic
1237 Jacob the Liar Jurek Becker 1969 German German
1254 Death and the Dervish Meša Selimović 1966 Bosnian Serbo-croatian
1260 The President Miguel Angel Asturias 1946 Guatemalan Spanish
1304 The Seventh Cross Anna Seghers 1942 German German
1333 Barefoot Zaharia Stancu 1948 Romanian Romanian
1353 William Tell Friedrich Schiller 1804 German German
1451 The Children of Men P. D. James 1992 British English
1535 The Sound Of His Horn Sarban 1952 British English
1541 The Confessions of Nat Turner William Styron 1967 American English
1616 Under the Yoke Ivan Vazov 1888 Bulgarian Bulgarian
1620 Sister Outsider Audre Lorde 1984 American English
1635 The Autumn of the Patriarch Gabriel García Márquez 1975 Colombian Spanish
1666 Zami Audre Lorde 1982 American English
1700 The Hunger Angel Herta Müller 2009 German German
1712 Woyzeck Georg Buchner 1879 German German
1743 Life & Times of Michael K J. M. Coetzee 1983 South African English
1748 The Fox Was Ever The Hunter Herta Müller 1992 German German
1787 Sexual Politics Kate Millett 1970 American English
1802 Kallocain Karin Boye 1940 Swedish Swedish
1814 Christ Recrucified Nikos Kazantzakis 1948 Greek Greek
1820 Fontamara Ignazio Silone 1933 Italian Italian
1849 Z Vassilis Vassilikos 1967 Greek Greek
1860 Notebook Of A Return To The Native Land Aimé Césaire 1939 French French
1866 The Lion of Flanders Hendrik Conscience 1838 Belgian Dutch
1917 In the Time of the Butterflies Julia Alvarez 1994 Dominican English
2005 Baltasar and Blimunda José Saramago 1982 Portuguese Portuguese
2047 The Brothers Lionheart Astrid Lindgren 1973 Swedish Swedish
2059 A Thousand Splendid Suns Khaled Hosseini 2007 Afghan English
2076 The Memory of Fire Trilogy Eduardo Galeano 1982 Uruguayan Spanish
2134 I Will Bear Witness Victor Klemperer 1995 German German
2169 Bread And Wine Ignazio Silone 1936 Italian Italian
2221 Against Our Will Susan Brownmiller 1975 American English
2243 Milkman Anna Burns 2018 Irish English
2271 The Nun Denis Diderot 1796 French French
2273 The Wretched of the Earth Frantz Fanon 1961 Algerian French
2319 The Sacred Night Tahar Ben Jelloun 1987 Moroccan French
2339 The Pearl John Steinbeck 1947 American English
2398 The Drowned and the Saved Primo Levi 1986 Italian Italian
2421 The Melancholy of Resistance László Krasznahorkai 1989 Hungarian Hungarian
2465 The Silent Duchess Dacia Maraini 1990 Italian Italian
2467 La Grande Maison Mohammed Dib 1952 Algerian French
2483 Blood and Guts in High School Kathy Acker 1978 American English
2512 Life With A Star Jiří Weil 1949 Czech Czech
2547 Martín Fierro José Hernández 1872 Argentinian Spanish
2586 A People's History of the United States Howard Zinn 1980 American English
2682 The Czar's Madman Jaan Kross 1978 Estonian Estonian
2790 The Weavers Gerhart Hauptmann 1892 German German
2814 Matigari Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o 1987 Kenyan Gikuyu
3066 Three Guineas Virginia Woolf 1938 British English
3079 Paradise of the Blind Dương Thu Hương 1988 Vietnamese Vietnamese
3089 I, Rigoberta Menchú Rigoberta Menchú Tum 1983 Guatemalan Spanish
3102 Reading Lolita in Tehran Azar Nafisi 2003 Iranian English
3107 The Adventures Of Cipollino Gianni Rodari 1951 Italian Italian
3183 Minor Detail Adania Shibli 2017 Palestinian Arabic
3193 The Aesthetics Of Resistance Peter Weiss 1975 German German
3224 Forever Flowing Vasily Grossman 1970 Russian Russian
3231 This Bridge Called My Back Cherríe Moraga, Gloria Anzaldúa 1981 American English
3237 The Man Died Wole Soyinka 1972 Nigerian English
3280 Before Night Falls Reinaldo Arenas 1992 Cuban Spanish
3301 The Red Record Ida B. Wells 1895 American English
3324 Broad and Alien is the World Ciro Alegría 1941 Peruvian Spanish
3324 Conversations in Sicily Elio Vittorini 1941 Italian Italian
3402 Shadow Over Mars Leigh Brackett 1944 American English
3436 On Wings Of Song Thomas M. Disch 1979 American English
3437 The Broken Earth Trilogy N. K. Jemisin 2015 American English
3451 Mistborn Brandon Sanderson 2006 American English
3480 The Bookseller of Kabul Asne Seierstad 2002 Norwegian Norwegian
3557 The Black Jacobins C. L. R. James 1938 British English
3571 The Inquisitors' Manual António Lobo Antunes 1996 Portuguese English
3638 Memoirs Of A Revolutionist Vera Figner 1920 Russian Russian
3852 Of Woman Born Adrienne Rich 1976 American English
3887 The Moon is a Harsh Mistress Robert A. Heinlein 1966 American English
3915 Zayni Barakat Jamal al- Ghitani 1974 Egyptian Arabic
3948 Le Passé Simple Driss Chraibi 1954 Moroccan French
3952 Clotel William Wells Brown 1853 American English
3954 Το φως που καίει Kostas Varnalis 1922 Greek Greek
3954 Freedom Or Death Nikos Kazantzakis 1953 Greek Greek
3954 Odes Andreas Kalvos 1824 Greek Greek
3954 Κατά Σαδδουκαίων Michalis Katsaros 1953 Greek Greek
3954 Η Γυναίκα της Ζακύνθου Dionysios Solomos 1829 Greek Greek
4079 Children Of Blood And Bone Tomi Adeyemi 2018 Nigerian English
4094 Los Santos Inocentes Miguel Delibes 1981 Spanish Spanish
4099 Le Mauvais Sang Feu De Brousse à Trisse Coeur Tchicaya U. Tam'si 1955 Tchadian French