The Greatest Philosophical Books Since 1967

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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
34 The Master and Margarita Mikhail Bulgakov 1967 Russian Russian
99 The Unbearable Lightness of Being Milan Kundera 1984 Czech Czech
114 The Name of the Rose Umberto Eco 1980 Italian Italian
198 Blood Meridian Cormac McCarthy 1985 American English
200 The Book of Disquiet Fernando Pessoa 1982 Portuguese Portuguese
202 Invisible Cities Italo Calvino 1972 Italian Italian
206 The Gulag Archipelago Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 1973 Russian Russian
214 Life and Fate Vasily Grossman 1980 Russian Russian
262 Austerlitz W. G. Sebald 2001 German German
295 Franz Kafka Franz Kafka 1971 Czech Unknown
363 The Left Hand Of Darkness Ursula K. Le Guin 1969 American English
389 The Alchemist Paulo Coelho 1988 Brazilian Portuguese
473 The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle Haruki Murakami 1994 Japanese Japanese
494 The Third Policeman Flann O'Brien 1967 Irish English
504 Her Lover Albert Cohen 1968 Swiss French
528 Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Philip K. Dick 1968 American English
534 Satanic Verses Salman Rushdie 1988 British English
553 The Dispossessed Ursula K. Le Guin 1974 American English
634 Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Robert M. Pirsig 1974 American English
657 The Elementary Particles Michel Houellebecq 1998 French French
666 Humboldt's Gift Saul Bellow 1975 American English
697 The Rings of Saturn W. G. Sebald 1995 German German
732 A Bend in the River V. S. Naipaul 1979 Trinidadian English
744 Moscow to the End of the Line Venedikt Yerofeev 1970 Russian Russian
874 The Last Samurai Helen DeWitt 2000 American English
941 Collected Essays of George Orwell George Orwell 1968 British English
958 The Periodic Table Primo Levi 1975 Italian Italian
959 A Tomb for Boris Davidovich Danilo Kiš 1976 Serbian Serbo-croatian
971 The Discovery of Heaven Harry Mulisch 1992 Dutch Dutch
988 Flaubert's Parrot Julian Barnes 1984 British English
1004 2001 Arthur C. Clarke 1968 British English
1038 Cosmos Carl Sagan 1980 American English
1060 Fun Home Alison Bechdel 2006 American English
1079 The Book of the New Sun Gene Wolfe 1980 American English
1081 The War of the End of the World Mario Vargas Llosa 1981 Peruvian Spanish
1093 The Book of Laughter and Forgetting Milan Kundera 1979 Czech Czech
1101 Outline Rachel Cusk 2014 British English
1110 The Overstory Richard Powers 2018 American English
1122 A Brief History of Time Stephen Hawking 1988 British English
1136 The Black Prince Iris Murdoch 1973 British English
1166 Lanark Alasdair Gray 1981 Scottish English
1194 Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead Olga Tokarczuk 2009 Polish Polish
1197 Light Years James Salter 1975 American English
1200 Mating Norman Rush 1991 American English
1201 Kafka On The Shore Haruki Murakami 2002 Japanese Japanese
1217 Foucault's Pendulum Umberto Eco 1988 Italian Italian
1242 The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis José Saramago 1984 Portuguese Portuguese
1246 Danube Claudio Magris 1986 Italian Italian
1252 Sapiens Yuval Noah Harari 2011 Israeli Hebrew
1255 Jonathan Livingston Seagull Richard Bach 1970 American English
1259 The Female Eunuch Germaine Greer 1970 Australian English
1271 Extinction Thomas Bernhard 1986 Austrian German
1321 A Question of Power Bessie Head 1973 Botswanan English
1345 The Naked Ape Desmond Morris 1967 British English
1374 Earthly Powers Anthony Burgess 1980 British English
1384 Guns, Germs, and Steel Jared Diamond 1997 American English
1387 Gödel, Escher, Bach Douglas Hofstadter 1979 American English
1426 Mars Fritz Zorn 1977 Swiss German
1451 The Children of Men P. D. James 1992 British English
1454 Pushkin House Andrey Bitov 1978 Russian Russian
1474 Chaos James Gleick 1987 American English
1529 Orientalism Edward W. Said 1978 Palestinian English
1538 Snow Orhan Pamuk 2002 Turkish Turkish
1557 Pilgrim at Tinker Creek Annie Dillard 1974 American English
1571 Fifth Business Robertson Davies 1970 Canadian English
1617 Ways Of Seeing John Berger 1972 British English
1620 Sister Outsider Audre Lorde 1984 American English
1677 A Theory of Justice John Rawls 1971 American English
1681 The Teachings Of Don Juan Carlos Castaneda 1968 American English
1694 Cassandra Christa Wolf 1983 German German
1698 Stories of Your Life and Others Ted Chiang 2002 American English
1703 The Argonauts Maggie Nelson 2015 American English
1704 Celestial Harmonies Peter Esterhazy 2000 Hungarian Hungarian
1722 The Joke Milan Kundera 1967 Czech Czech
1723 1Q84 Haruki Murakami 2009 Japanese Japanese
1745 Couples, Passersby Botho Strauß 1981 German German
1749 First Circle Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 1968 Russian Russian
1763 Small Is Beautiful E. F. Schumacher 1973 British English
1781 Poems of Pablo Neruda Pablo Neruda 1970 Chilean Spanish
1787 Sexual Politics Kate Millett 1970 American English
1800 The Deptford Trilogy Robertson Davies 1970 Canadian English
1822 Small Lives Pierre Michon 1984 French French
1827 Experience Martin Amis 2000 British English
1835 Sophie's World Jostein Gaarder 1991 Norwegian Norwegian
1836 Grendel John Gardner 1971 American English
1841 Kafka's Other Trial Elias Canetti 1969 Bulgarian German
1882 Pereira Maintains Antonio Tabucchi 1994 Italian Italian
1883 Chariots Of The Gods Erich Von Däniken 1968 German German
1887 The Uses of Enchantment Bruno Bettelheim 1976 Austrian English
1907 Consider The Lobster David Foster Wallace 2005 American English
1959 Discipline and Punish Michel Foucault 1975 French French
1974 The Emperor of All Maladies Siddhartha Mukherjee 2010 American English
1987 The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat Oliver Sacks 1985 British English
1989 Your Face Tomorrow Javier Marias 2002 Spanish Spanish
2005 Baltasar and Blimunda José Saramago 1982 Portuguese Portuguese
2023 Elizabeth Costello J. M. Coetzee 2003 South African English
2048 Amusing Ourselves To Death Neil Postman 1985 American English
2059 The Passion Of New Eve Angela Carter 1977 British English
2066 The Infernal Desire Machines Of Doctor Hoffman Angela Carter 1972 British English
2076 Thinking, Fast and Slow Daniel Kahneman 2011 Israeli English
2112 House On The Embankment Yuri Trifonov 1976 Russian Russian
2113 The Luminous Novel Mario Levrero 2005 Uruguayan Spanish
2114 All Souls' Day Cees Nooteboom 1998 Dutch Dutch
2159 Soul and Other Stories Andrey Platonov 1999 Russian Russian
2168 Terra Nostra Carlos Fuentes 1975 Mexican Spanish
2185 On Love Alain de Botton 1993 British English
2197 Veronika Decides to Die Paulo Coelho 1998 Brazilian Portuguese
2202 The Kindly Ones Jonathan Littell 2006 French French
2218 The Sense of an Ending Julian Barnes 2011 British English
2256 Correction Thomas Bernhard 1975 Austrian German
2269 The Virgin in the Garden A. S. Byatt 1978 British English
2290 Arcadia Tom Stoppard 1993 British English
2292 Consciousness Explained Daniel Dennett 1991 American English
2296 The Limits To Growth Donella H. Meadows 1972 American English
2307 The Selfish Gene Richard Dawkins 1976 British English
2309 Chance And Necessity Jacques Monod 1970 French French
2311 Solenoid Mircea Cărtărescu 2015 Romanian Romanian
2320 Rituals Cees Nooteboom 1980 Dutch Dutch
2321 The End And The Beginning Wislawa Szymborska 1993 Polish Polish
2352 Contact Carl Sagan 1985 American English