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
14043 Die Stunde Zwischen Frau Und Gitarre Clemens J. Setz 2015 Austrian German
14063 Silent Close No. 6 Monika Maron 1991 German German
14075 The Eyre Affair Jasper Fforde 2001 British English
14093 Leviathan Robert Shea, Robert Anton Wilson 1981 American English
14164 Am Weltenrand Sitzen Die Menschen Und Lachen Philipp Weiss 2018 Austrian German
14232 Pattern Recognition William Gibson 2003 American English
14232 Noises Off Michael Frayn 1982 British English
14232 Your Utopia Bora Chung 2024 Unknown Unknown
14328 Where You Come From Saša Stanišić 2019 German German
14332 Europa Tim Parks 1997 British English
14371 Aus Der Zuckerfabrik Dorothee Elmiger 2020 Swiss German
14371 Allegro Pastell Leif Randt 2020 German German
14390 Rivers and Mountains John Ashbery 1966 American English
14405 Die Inkommensurablen Raphaela Edelbauer 2021 Austrian German
14411 The Anti Death League Kingsley Amis 1966 British English
14429 1979 Christian Kracht 2001 German German
14432 American Innovations Rivka Galchen 2014 American English
14435 Lost In The Funhouse John Barth 1968 American English
14458 Nog Rudy Wurlitzer 1969 American English
14458 The Image Men J. B. Priestley 1968 British English
14458 Cocksure Mordecai Richler 1968 Canadian English
14482 Glanz Und Gloria Henning Ahrens 2003 German German
14499 Fiction and the Figures of Life William H. Gass 1970 American English
14585 Lai Suo Huang Fan 1987 Chinese Chinese
14599 The Pleasure of the Text Roland Barthes 1973 French French
14617 Chess King Shi-Kuo Chang 1988 Chinese Chinese
14646 Fin De Siècle Splendor Chu Tʽien-wen 1990 Chinese Chinese
14650 Superfiction Joe David Bellamy 1975 American English
14650 Tadanori Yokoo Daido Moriyama 2006 Japanese Japanese
14698 Falstaff Robert Nye 1976 British English
14732 I, etcetera Susan Sontag 1978 American English
14732 The World Within the Word William H. Gass 1978 American English
14779 Monsieur Teste Paul Valéry 1896 French French
14887 Black Spring Henry Miller 1936 American English
14925 Johann Holtrop Rainald Goetz 2012 German German
14936 Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said Philip K. Dick 1974 American English
14948 Double Or Nothing Raymond Federman 1971 American English
14985 Going Native Stephen Wright 1994 American English
14985 Let's Talk About Love Carl Wilson 2007 Canadian English
14985 Poor Things Alasdair Gray 1992 Scottish English
14985 The Public Burning Robert Coover 1977 American English
14979 The Soft Machine William S. Burroughs 1961 American English
14985 Nova Express William S. Burroughs 1964 American English
14985 Wild at Heart Barry Gifford 1990 American English
14985 The Dancing Wu Li Masters Gary Zukav 1979 American English
14985 The Infatuations Javier Marias 2011 Spanish Spanish
14985 Call Me Zebra Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi 2018 American English
14985 Galapagos Kurt Vonnegut 1985 American English
14985 Engine Summer John Crowley 1979 American English
14985 Within The Context Of No Context George W. S. Trow 1980 American English
14985 Natasha And Other Stories David Bezmozgis 2004 Canadian English
14985 No One Belongs Here More Than You Miranda July 2007 American English
14985 Chinaman Shehan Karunatilaka 2010 Sri Lankan English
14985 In The Night Room Peter Straub 2004 American English
14985 A Dark Matter Peter Straub 2010 American English
14985 The Complete Cosmicomics Italo Calvino 1965 Italian Italian
14985 The Empusium Olga Tokarczuk 2024 Polish English
14985 The Dead Cat Tail Assassins P. Djèlí Clark 2024 American English
14985 The Third Realm Karl Ove Knausgård 2024 Norwegian Norwegian
14968 End Zone Don DeLillo 1972 American English
14985 The Crisis Of Narration Byung-Chul Han 2023 German German
14985 Faces In The Crowd Valeria Luiselli 2011 Mexican Spanish
14985 Old Masters Thomas Bernhard 1985 Austrian German
14985 The New Confessions William Boyd 1987 British English
14985 Harold Steven Wright 2023 Unknown English
14985 Treacle Walker Alan Garner 2023 British English
14985 The Most Secret Memory Of Men Mohamed Mbougar Sarr 2023 Senegalese French
14985 Evening Edged In Gold Arno Schmidt 1975 German German
15567 Music For Wartime Rebecca Makkai 2015 American English
15728 Slaughterhouse Five, Or The Children's Crusade Ryan North 1969 Unknown English
15740 Deliver Us From Love Suzanne Brogger 1976 Danish Danish
15757 Mother Night Kurt Vonnegut 1961 American English
15885 Tomb For 500,000 Soldiers Pierre Guyotat 1967 French French
15916 Funnyhouse Of A Negro Adrienne Kennedy 1964 American English
15916 The Flagellants Carlene Hatcher Polite 1966 American English
15916 Cronopios And Famas Julio Cortazar 1962 Cuban Spanish
15916 The Great American Novel William Carlos Williams 1923 American English
15916 Seven Types Of Ambiguity William Empson 1930 British English
15890 Americana Don DeLillo 1971 American English
15916 De Perfil José Agustín 1966 Mexican Spanish
16624 Casa De Campo José Donoso 1978 Chilean Spanish
16700 De L'inconvénient D'être Né Emil Cioran 1973 French
16736 Guignol's Band I et II Louis-Ferdinand Céline 1944 French French
16640 The Water Method Man John Irving 1972 American English
16696 Factotum Charles Bukowski 1975 American English
16639 100 Selected Poems E. E. Cummings 1954 American English
16674 Slaughter House Five Ryan North 1969 Unknown Unknown
17165 The Raw and the Cooked Claude Lévi-Strauss 1964 French French
17165 The PowerBook Jeanette Winterson 2000 British English
17165 The Ticket That Exploded William S. Burroughs 1962 American English
17165 Take It Or Leave It Raymond Federman 1976 American English
17165 Entering Fire Rikki Ducornet 1986 American English
17165 Genoa Paul C. Metcalf 1965 American English
17165 The Age of Wire and String Ben Marcus 1995 American English
17165 Up Ronald Sukenick 1968 American English
17165 You Bright and Risen Angels William T. Vollmann 1987 American English
17165 Mulligan Stew Gilbert Sorrentino 1979 American English
17165 In Memoriam to Identity Kathy Acker 1990 American English
17165 Ray Barry Hannah 1980 American English
17165 The Invented Part Rodrigo Fresán 2014 Argentinian Spanish
17165 Broken Glass Alain Mabanckou 2005 Congolese French
17165 Metaphor and Memory Cynthia Ozick 1989 American English
17165 The New Animals Pip Adam 2017 New Zealander English
17165 Stonedogs Craig Marriner 2002 New Zealander English
17165 Harlequin Rex Owen Marshall 1999 New Zealander English
17165 Zoology Sheridan Keith​ 1995 New Zealand Unknown
17165 The Impressionist Hari Kunzru 2002 British English
17165 Such Christine Brooke-Rose 1966 British English
17165 Night Letters Robert Dessaix 1996 Australian English
17165 The Fifth Head Of Cerberus Gene Wolfe 1972 American English
17165 Butterfly Valley Inger Christensen 1991 Danish Danish
17110 Terminal Innocence Klaus Rifbjerg 1958 Danish Unknown
17165 Social Satire And The Modern Novel Paul Rich 1984 Unknown Unknown
17165 Against Method Paul Feyerabend 1975 German English
17165 Spurs Jacques Derrida 1976 French French
17165 The World As I Found It Bruce Duffy 1987 American English
17165 Medieval In La Jim Paul 1996 American English
17165 Holy Land D. J. Waldie 1996 American English
17165 The Dictionary Of Fashionable Nonsense Ophelia Benson, Jeremy Stangroom 2004 British English
17165 Eunoia Christian Bök 2001 Canadian English