The Greatest Philosophical Books Since 1990

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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
262 Austerlitz W. G. Sebald 2001 German German
473 The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle Haruki Murakami 1994 Japanese Japanese
657 The Elementary Particles Michel Houellebecq 1998 French French
697 The Rings of Saturn W. G. Sebald 1995 German German
874 The Last Samurai Helen DeWitt 2000 American English
971 The Discovery of Heaven Harry Mulisch 1992 Dutch Dutch
1060 Fun Home Alison Bechdel 2006 American English
1101 Outline Rachel Cusk 2014 British English
1110 The Overstory Richard Powers 2018 American English
1194 Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead Olga Tokarczuk 2009 Polish Polish
1200 Mating Norman Rush 1991 American English
1201 Kafka On The Shore Haruki Murakami 2002 Japanese Japanese
1252 Sapiens Yuval Noah Harari 2011 Israeli Hebrew
1384 Guns, Germs, and Steel Jared Diamond 1997 American English
1451 The Children of Men P. D. James 1992 British English
1538 Snow Orhan Pamuk 2002 Turkish Turkish
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
1723 1Q84 Haruki Murakami 2009 Japanese Japanese
1827 Experience Martin Amis 2000 British English
1835 Sophie's World Jostein Gaarder 1991 Norwegian Norwegian
1882 Pereira Maintains Antonio Tabucchi 1994 Italian Italian
1907 Consider The Lobster David Foster Wallace 2005 American English
1974 The Emperor of All Maladies Siddhartha Mukherjee 2010 American English
1989 Your Face Tomorrow Javier Marias 2002 Spanish Spanish
2023 Elizabeth Costello J. M. Coetzee 2003 South African English
2076 Thinking, Fast and Slow Daniel Kahneman 2011 Israeli English
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
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
2290 Arcadia Tom Stoppard 1993 British English
2292 Consciousness Explained Daniel Dennett 1991 American English
2311 Solenoid Mircea Cărtărescu 2015 Romanian Romanian
2322 The End And The Beginning Wislawa Szymborska 1993 Polish Polish
2360 Bartleby & Co Enrique Vila-Matas 2000 Spanish Spanish
2364 The Sorrow Of War Bao Ninh 1990 Vietnamese Vietnamese
2425 Platform Michel Houellebecq 2001 French French
2426 Soul Mountain Xingjian Gao 1990 Chinese Chinese
2446 The Map And The Territory Michel Houellebecq 2010 French French
2488 Measuring the World Daniel Kehlmann 2005 German German
2497 Mortals Norman Rush 2003 American English
2597 Possessing the Secret of Joy Alice Walker 1992 American English
2603 Regarding the Pain of Others Susan Sontag 2003 American English
2610 Whatever Michel Houellebecq 1994 French French
2627 Capital in the Twenty-First Century Thomas Piketty 2013 French French
2637 The Lament Of The Linnet Anna Maria Ortese 1997 Italian Italian
2688 Blinding Mircea Cărtărescu 1996 Romanian Romanian
2883 Septology Jon Fosse 2019 Norwegian Norwegian
2904 What I Loved Siri Hustvedt 2003 American English
2936 The Better Angels Of Our Nature Steven Pinker 2011 American English
2957 Fugitive Pieces Anne Michaels 1996 Canadian English
2980 Braiding Sweetgrass Robin Wall Kimmerer 2013 American English
3064 The Language Instinct Steven Pinker 1994 American English
3092 Disturbance Philippe Lançon 2018 French French
3097 Open City Teju Cole 2011 American English
3121 The Possibility Of An Island Michel Houellebecq 2005 French French
3165 Gender Trouble Judith Butler 1990 American English
3171 The Tipping Point Malcolm Gladwell 2000 American English
3184 Flicker Theodore Roszak 1991 American English
3183 Minor Detail Adania Shibli 2017 Palestinian Arabic
3205 When We Cease To Understand The World Adrian Nathan West, Benjamin Labatut 2020 Chilean Spanish
3211 Homo Deus Yuval Noah Harari 2015 Israeli Hebrew
3223 Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder Lawrence Weschler 1995 American English
3234 Freakonomics Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner 2005 American English
3235 When Breath Becomes Air Paul Kalanithi 2016 American English
3238 The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson 2000 American English
3283 The Blank Slate Steven Pinker 2002 American English
3417 The Housekeeper And The Professor Yōko Ogawa 2003 Japanese Japanese
3451 The Elegant Universe Brian Greene 1999 American English
3469 Solar Bones Mike McCormack 2016 Irish English
3576 The Possessed Elif Batuman 2010 Turkish English
3594 Thick Tressie McMillan Cottom 2019 American English
3600 Debt David Graeber 2011 American English
3801 A Imortalidade Milan Kundera 1990 Czech Czech
3936 All The World's Mornings Pascal Quignard 1991 French French
3951 The End of History and the Last Man Francis Fukuyama 1992 American English
4054 Leaving the Atocha Station Ben Lerner 2011 American English
4055 The Tunnel William H. Gass 1995 American English
4124 The Black Book Orhan Pamuk 1990 Turkish Turkish
4135 The Faraway Nearby Rebecca Solnit 2013 American English
4155 Asymmetry Lisa Halliday 2018 American English
4193 The Celestine Prophecy James Redfield 1993 American English
4376 The Diversity of Life E. O. Wilson 1992 American English
4407 The Essential Rumi Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi 1995 Persian Persian
4418 The Swerve Stephen Greenblatt 2011 American English
4507 The Book about Blanche and Marie Per Olov Enquist 2004 Swedish Swedish
4542 Ingenious Pain Andrew Miller 1997 British English
4623 The Abyss Fernando Vallejo 2001 Colombian Spanish
4674 The Time of Our Singing Richard Powers 2003 American English
4750 The Omnivore's Dilemma Michael Pollan 2006 American English
4812 Happy Moscow Andrey Platonov 1991 Russian Russian
4934 Exile And Pride Eli Clare 1999 American English
5108 The Ministry Of Pain Dubravka Ugrešić 2004 Croatian Croatian
5111 The War Of Art Steven Pressfield 2002 American English
5124 Killing The Black Body Dorothy E. Roberts 1997 American English
5236 Deep River Shūsaku Endō 1993 Japanese Japanese
5259 Cockroaches Scholastique Mukasonga 2006 French French
5528 The Rise And Fall Of The Third Chimpanzee Jared Diamond 1991 American English
5589 The Chimera Sebastiano Vassalli 1990 Italian Italian
5611 The Righteous Mind Jonathan Haidt 2012 American English
5614 The Mushroom At The End Of The World Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing 2015 American English
5642 Enlightenment Now Steven Pinker 2018 American English
5707 Kafka Was The Rage Anatole Broyard 1993 American English
5731 In The Presence Of Absence Mahmoud Darwish 2006 Palestinian Arabic
5774 Jurnalul Unui Jurnalist Fără Jurnal Ion D. Sîrbu 1993 Romanian Romanian
5780 Entangled Life Merlin Sheldrake 2020 British English
5927 Hope in the Dark Rebecca Solnit 2004 American English
5931 King Kong Theory Virginie Despentes 2006 French French
5938 Hurramabad Andrei Volos 1998 Russian Russian
5968 Imperial China, 900–1800 F. W. Mote 1999 Chinese English
5996 The Coddling Of The American Mind Jonathan Haidt, Greg Lukianoff 2018 American English
6094 The Secret History Of The World Jonathan Black 2007 British English
6136 Iron John Robert Bly 1990 American English
6162 Arguably Christopher Hitchens 2011 British English
6200 The Elegies Of Oxopetra Odysseas Elytis 1991 Greek Greek