The Greatest Philosophical Books Since 2000

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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
874 The Last Samurai Helen DeWitt 2000 American English
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
1201 Kafka On The Shore Haruki Murakami 2002 Japanese Japanese
1252 Sapiens Yuval Noah Harari 2011 Israeli Hebrew
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
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
2202 The Kindly Ones Jonathan Littell 2006 French French
2218 The Sense of an Ending Julian Barnes 2011 British English
2311 Solenoid Mircea Cărtărescu 2015 Romanian Romanian
2359 Bartleby & Co Enrique Vila-Matas 2000 Spanish Spanish
2424 Platform Michel Houellebecq 2001 French French
2445 The Map And The Territory Michel Houellebecq 2010 French French
2487 Measuring the World Daniel Kehlmann 2005 German German
2496 Mortals Norman Rush 2003 American English
2602 Regarding the Pain of Others Susan Sontag 2003 American English
2626 Capital in the Twenty-First Century Thomas Piketty 2013 French French
2881 Septology Jon Fosse 2019 Norwegian Norwegian
2902 What I Loved Siri Hustvedt 2003 American English
2934 The Better Angels Of Our Nature Steven Pinker 2011 American English
2978 Braiding Sweetgrass Robin Wall Kimmerer 2013 American English
3091 Disturbance Philippe Lançon 2018 French French
3096 Open City Teju Cole 2011 American English
3120 The Possibility Of An Island Michel Houellebecq 2005 French French
3170 The Tipping Point Malcolm Gladwell 2000 American English
3182 Minor Detail Adania Shibli 2017 Palestinian Arabic
3204 When We Cease To Understand The World Adrian Nathan West, Benjamin Labatut 2020 Chilean Spanish
3210 Homo Deus Yuval Noah Harari 2015 Israeli Hebrew
3233 Freakonomics Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner 2005 American English
3234 When Breath Becomes Air Paul Kalanithi 2016 American English
3237 The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson 2000 American English
3282 The Blank Slate Steven Pinker 2002 American English
3417 The Housekeeper And The Professor Yōko Ogawa 2003 Japanese Japanese
3470 Solar Bones Mike McCormack 2016 Irish English
3577 The Possessed Elif Batuman 2010 Turkish English
3595 Thick Tressie McMillan Cottom 2019 American English
3601 Debt David Graeber 2011 American English
4055 Leaving the Atocha Station Ben Lerner 2011 American English
4136 The Faraway Nearby Rebecca Solnit 2013 American English
4156 Asymmetry Lisa Halliday 2018 American English
4419 The Swerve Stephen Greenblatt 2011 American English
4507 The Book about Blanche and Marie Per Olov Enquist 2004 Swedish Swedish
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
5107 The Ministry Of Pain Dubravka Ugrešić 2004 Croatian Croatian
5110 The War Of Art Steven Pressfield 2002 American English
5258 Cockroaches Scholastique Mukasonga 2006 French French
5609 The Righteous Mind Jonathan Haidt 2012 American English
5612 The Mushroom At The End Of The World Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing 2015 American English
5640 Enlightenment Now Steven Pinker 2018 American English
5729 In The Presence Of Absence Mahmoud Darwish 2006 Palestinian Arabic
5778 Entangled Life Merlin Sheldrake 2020 British English
5925 Hope in the Dark Rebecca Solnit 2004 American English
5929 King Kong Theory Virginie Despentes 2006 French French
5993 The Coddling Of The American Mind Jonathan Haidt, Greg Lukianoff 2018 American English
6092 The Secret History Of The World Jonathan Black 2007 British English
6160 Arguably Christopher Hitchens 2011 British English
6219 Justice Michael J. Sandel 2007 American English
6251 The Craftsman Richard Sennett 2008 American English
6259 At The Existentialist Café Sarah Bakewell 2016 British English
6281 Sur La Scène Intérieure Marcel Cohen 2013 French French
6350 The Shallows Nicolas Carr 2010 American English
6375 Asterios Polyp David Mazzucchelli 2009 American English
6408 Bluets Maggie Nelson 2009 American English
6526 The Painter Of Battles Arturo Pérez-Reverte 2006 Spanish Spanish
6540 F Dumitru Radu Popescu 2000 Romanian Unknown
6546 Heirs To The Great Sinner Sheikh San’on Erkin A’zam 2004 Unknown Unknown
6621 A General Theory Of Love Thomas Lewis 2000 American English
6630 Confessions Jaume Cabré 2011 Spanish Catalan
6659 Mendeleyev's Dream Paul Strathern 2000 British English
6679 A Fraction Of The Whole Steve Toltz 2008 Australian English
6715 How To Change Your Mind Michael Pollan 2018 American English
6830 Genius Harold Bloom 2002 American English
6842 Timpul Trăirii, Timpul Mărturisirii. Jurnal Parizian Eugen Simion 2003 Romanian Romanian
6873 Povedal Mi Veštec Tiziano Terzani 2002 Italian Italian
6899 Exhalation Ted Chiang 2019 American English
6922 Necropolitics Achille Mbembe 2003 French French
6929 Jayber Crow Wendell Berry 2000 American English
6931 Duck, Death And The Tulip Wolf Erlbruch 2007 German German
6943 La Poupée Russe Gheorghe Crăciun 2004 Romanian Unknown
7025 Precarious Life Judith Butler 2004 American English
7025 The Fabric Of The Cosmos Brian Greene 2004 American English
7071 E=Mc2 David Bodanis 2000 British English
7081 Hermina Sami Tchak 2003 French French
7134 Slow Man J. M. Coetzee 2005 South African English
7160 The Poems Of Manolis Anagnostakis Manolis Anagnostakis 2001 Greek Greek
7205 Voroshilovgrad Serhiy Zhadan 2010 Ukrainian Ukrainian
7602 The Beginning Of Infinity David Deutsch 2011 British English
7625 Caietul Albastru Nicolae Balotă 2007 Romanian Romanian
7645 All About Love bell hooks 2000 American English
7666 The Age Of Wonder Richard Holmes 2008 British English
7749 Critical Mass Philip Ball 2004 British English
7750 The Age of Surveillance Capitalism Shoshana Zuboff 2019 American English
7811 The Elegance of the Hedgehog Muriel Barbery 2006 French French
7811 The Marriage Plot Jeffrey Eugenides 2011 American English
7836 The Midnight Library Matt Haig 2020 British English
7876 Baumgartner Paul Auster 2023 American English
7899 The Gentrification of the Mind Sarah Schulman 2012 American English
7914 The Devil and Miss Prym Paulo Coelho 2000 Brazilian Portuguese
7998 The Great Transformation Karen Armstrong 2006 British English
8018 Mirrors Eduardo Galeano 2008 Uruguayan Spanish
8063 A Paradise Built In Hell Rebecca Solnit 2009 American English
8075 The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead David Shields 2008 American English
8142 Down Girl Kate Manne 2017 American English
8191 The Order Of Time Carlo Rovelli 2017 Italian Italian
8198 Acasă, pe Cîmpia Armaghedonului Marta Petreu 2011 Romanian Romanian