The Greatest Postmodern Books of All Time

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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
1 Ulysses James Joyce 1922 Irish English
2 In Search of Lost Time Marcel Proust 1913 French French
14 Lolita Vladimir Nabokov 1955 American English
33 Catch-22 Joseph Heller 1961 American English
34 The Master and Margarita Mikhail Bulgakov 1967 Russian Russian
45 Fictions Jorge Luis Borges 1944 Argentinian Spanish
51 The Life And Opinions Of Tristram Shandy Laurence Sterne 1759 British English
61 The Golden Notebook Doris May Lessing 1962 British English
63 Under the Volcano Malcolm Lowry 1947 British English
64 Midnight's Children Salman Rushdie 1981 Indian English
66 The Metamorphosis Franz Kafka 1915 Czech German
72 Pale Fire Vladimir Nabokov 1962 American English
79 As I Lay Dying William Faulkner 1930 American English
81 The Castle Franz Kafka 1926 Czech German
82 The Man Without Qualities Robert Musil 1930 Austrian German
84 Slaughterhouse-Five Kurt Vonnegut 1969 American English
91 The Tin Drum Günter Grass 1959 German German
95 Orlando Virginia Woolf 1928 British English
99 The Unbearable Lightness of Being Milan Kundera 1984 Czech Czech
101 Waiting for Godot Samuel Beckett 1953 Irish French
114 The Name of the Rose Umberto Eco 1980 Italian Italian
145 Gargantua and Pantagruel Francois Rabelais 1532 French French
147 Confessions of Zeno Italo Svevo 1923 Italian Italian
151 Molloy Samuel Beckett 1951 Irish French
153 A Clockwork Orange Anthony Burgess 1962 British English
171 Steppenwolf Hermann Hesse 1927 German German
182 The Moviegoer Walker Percy 1961 American English
185 U.S.A. Trilogy John Dos Passos 1930 American English
190 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Douglas Adams 1979 British English
200 The Book of Disquiet Fernando Pessoa 1982 Portuguese Portuguese
202 Invisible Cities Italo Calvino 1972 Italian Italian
203 A Confederacy of Dunces John Kennedy Toole 1980 American English
213 The Counterfeiters André Gide 1925 French French
222 Thus Spake Zarathustra Friedrich Nietzsche 1883 German German
226 The Alexandria Quartet Lawrence Durrell 1957 British English
232 2666 Roberto Bolaño 2004 Chilean Spanish
239 Tropic of Cancer Henry Miller 1934 American English
254 Gravity's Rainbow Thomas Pynchon 1973 American English
257 Finnegans Wake James Joyce 1939 Irish English
259 Naked Lunch William S. Burroughs 1959 American English
262 Austerlitz W. G. Sebald 2001 German German
270 Malone Dies Samuel Beckett 1951 Irish French
276 Life, a User's Manual Georges Perec 1978 French French
298 Herzog Saul Bellow 1964 American English
312 Labyrinths Jorge Luis Borges 1962 Argentinian Spanish
314 The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay Michael Chabon 2000 American English
318 If on a Winter's Night a Traveller Italo Calvino 1979 Italian Italian
325 A Dance to the Music of Time Anthony Powell 1951 British English
326 The Unnamable Samuel Beckett 1953 Irish French
327 Solaris Stanislaw Lem 1961 Polish Polish
333 Infinite Jest David Foster Wallace 1996 American English
348 The Glass Bead Game Hermann Hesse 1943 German German
354 Hopscotch Julio Cortazar 1963 Argentinian Spanish
355 The Savage Detectives Roberto Bolaño 1998 Chilean Spanish
357 At Swim Two-Birds Flann O'Brien 1939 Irish English
360 Ada or Ardor Vladimir Nabokov 1969 American English
364 White Noise Don DeLillo 1985 American English
368 Stranger in a Strange Land Robert A. Heinlein 1961 American English
384 Ferdydurke Witold Gombrowicz 1937 Polish Polish
394 Nadja André Breton 1928 French French
396 The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Junot Diaz 2007 Dominican English
406 Ragtime E. L. Doctorow 1975 American English
411 Underworld Don DeLillo 1997 American English
412 Jacques the Fatalist and His Master Denis Diderot 1796 French French
420 The Human Stain Philip Roth 2000 American English
421 A Visit From The Goon Squad Jennifer Egan 2010 American English
427 Cloud Atlas David Mitchell 2004 British English
433 Play It As It Lays Joan Didion 1970 American English
438 Philosophical Investigations Ludwig Wittgenstein 1953 Austrian German
441 The Crying of Lot 49 Thomas Pynchon 1966 American English
442 The Magus John Fowles 1965 British English
445 I'm Not Stiller Max Frisch 1954 Swiss German
449 Les Enfants Terribles Jean Cocteau 1929 French French
452 A Heart So White Javier Marias 1992 Spanish Spanish
455 V Thomas Pynchon 1963 American English
463 The Songs of Maldoror Comte de Lautréamont 1868 French French
465 Collected Poems Wallace Stevens 1954 American English
473 The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle Haruki Murakami 1994 Japanese Japanese
482 Jakob Von Gunten Robert Walser 1909 Swiss German
491 Bouvard et Pécuchet Gustave Flaubert 1881 French French
494 The Third Policeman Flann O'Brien 1967 Irish English
502 W, or the Memory of Childhood Georges Perec 1975 French French
532 The Passion According to G.H. Clarice Lispector 1964 Brazilian Portuguese
534 Satanic Verses Salman Rushdie 1988 British English
538 Zazie in the Metro Raymond Queneau 1959 French French
545 The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie Agota Kristof 1986 Hungarian French
546 Jealousy Alain Robbe-Grillet 1957 French French
554 Satyricon Petronius 65 Roman Latin
561 The Recognitions William Gaddis 1955 American English
567 The French Lieutenant's Woman John Fowles 1969 British English
570 American Psycho Bret Easton Ellis 1991 American English
577 Anniversaries Uwe Johnson 1970 German German
583 Against Nature J. K. Huysmans 1884 French French
592 The Sleepwalkers Hermann Broch 1932 Austrian German
604 The Blind Owl Ṣādiq Hidāyat 1937 Iranian Persian
607 House of Leaves Mark Z. Danielewski 2000 American English
617 Pnin Vladimir Nabokov 1957 Russian English
618 Poems of W. H. Auden W. H. Auden 1930 British English
628 Nights At The Circus Angela Carter 1984 British English
629 Titus Groan Mervyn Peake 1946 British English
634 Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Robert M. Pirsig 1974 American English
638 Being and Nothingness Jean Paul Sartre 1943 French French
650 The Flanders Road Claude Simon 1960 French French
651 Manhattan Transfer John Dos Passos 1925 American English
657 The Elementary Particles Michel Houellebecq 1998 French French
666 Humboldt's Gift Saul Bellow 1975 American English
672 Three Trapped Tigers Guillermo Cabrera Infante 1965 Cuban Spanish
681 Cat's Cradle Kurt Vonnegut 1963 American English
683 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Hunter S. Thompson 1971 American English
695 Boys Alive Pier Paolo Pasolini 1955 Italian Italian
697 The Rings of Saturn W. G. Sebald 1995 German German
718 Possession A. S. Byatt 1990 British English
728 Erewhon Samuel Butler 1872 British English
730 Petersburg Andrei Bely 1913 Russian Russian
744 Moscow to the End of the Line Venedikt Yerofeev 1970 Russian Russian
750 Money Martin Amis 1984 British English
754 If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem William Faulkner 1939 American English
782 Three Men in a Boat Jerome K. Jerome 1889 British English
793 The Sirens of Titan Kurt Vonnegut 1959 American English
797 The Manuscript Found in Saragossa Jan Potocki 1805 Polish French