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
14327 Where You Come From Saša Stanišić 2019 German German
14331 Europa Tim Parks 1997 British English
14370 Aus Der Zuckerfabrik Dorothee Elmiger 2020 Swiss German
14370 Allegro Pastell Leif Randt 2020 German German
14389 Rivers and Mountains John Ashbery 1966 American English
14404 Die Inkommensurablen Raphaela Edelbauer 2021 Austrian German
14410 The Anti Death League Kingsley Amis 1966 British English
14428 1979 Christian Kracht 2001 German German
14431 American Innovations Rivka Galchen 2014 American English
14434 Lost In The Funhouse John Barth 1968 American English
14457 Nog Rudy Wurlitzer 1969 American English
14457 The Image Men J. B. Priestley 1968 British English
14457 Cocksure Mordecai Richler 1968 Canadian English
14481 Glanz Und Gloria Henning Ahrens 2003 German German
14498 Fiction and the Figures of Life William H. Gass 1970 American English
14584 Lai Suo Huang Fan 1987 Chinese Chinese
14598 The Pleasure of the Text Roland Barthes 1973 French French
14616 Chess King Shi-Kuo Chang 1988 Chinese Chinese
14645 Fin De Siècle Splendor Chu Tʽien-wen 1990 Chinese Chinese
14649 Superfiction Joe David Bellamy 1975 American English
14649 Tadanori Yokoo Daido Moriyama 2006 Japanese Japanese
14697 Falstaff Robert Nye 1976 British English
14730 I, etcetera Susan Sontag 1978 American English
14730 The World Within the Word William H. Gass 1978 American English
14778 Monsieur Teste Paul Valéry 1896 French French
14886 Black Spring Henry Miller 1936 American English
14923 Johann Holtrop Rainald Goetz 2012 German German
14935 Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said Philip K. Dick 1974 American English
14945 Double Or Nothing Raymond Federman 1971 American English
14984 Going Native Stephen Wright 1994 American English
14984 Let's Talk About Love Carl Wilson 2007 Canadian English
14984 Poor Things Alasdair Gray 1992 Scottish English
14984 The Public Burning Robert Coover 1977 American English
14977 The Soft Machine William S. Burroughs 1961 American English
14984 Nova Express William S. Burroughs 1964 American English
14984 Wild at Heart Barry Gifford 1990 American English
14984 The Dancing Wu Li Masters Gary Zukav 1979 American English
14984 The Infatuations Javier Marias 2011 Spanish Spanish
14984 Call Me Zebra Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi 2018 American English
14984 Galapagos Kurt Vonnegut 1985 American English
14984 Engine Summer John Crowley 1979 American English
14984 Within The Context Of No Context George W. S. Trow 1980 American English
14984 Natasha And Other Stories David Bezmozgis 2004 Canadian English
14984 No One Belongs Here More Than You Miranda July 2007 American English
14984 Chinaman Shehan Karunatilaka 2010 Sri Lankan English
14984 In The Night Room Peter Straub 2004 American English
14984 A Dark Matter Peter Straub 2010 American English
14984 The Complete Cosmicomics Italo Calvino 1965 Italian Italian
14984 The Empusium Olga Tokarczuk 2024 Polish English
14984 The Dead Cat Tail Assassins P. Djèlí Clark 2024 American English
14984 The Third Realm Karl Ove Knausgård 2024 Norwegian Norwegian
14968 End Zone Don DeLillo 1972 American English
14984 The Crisis Of Narration Byung-Chul Han 2023 German German
14984 Faces In The Crowd Valeria Luiselli 2011 Mexican Spanish
14984 Old Masters Thomas Bernhard 1985 Austrian German
14984 The New Confessions William Boyd 1987 British English
14984 Harold Steven Wright 2023 Unknown English
14984 Treacle Walker Alan Garner 2023 British English
14984 The Most Secret Memory Of Men Mohamed Mbougar Sarr 2023 Senegalese French
14984 Evening Edged In Gold Arno Schmidt 1975 German German
15561 Music For Wartime Rebecca Makkai 2015 American English
15722 Slaughterhouse Five, Or The Children's Crusade Ryan North 1969 Unknown English
15732 Deliver Us From Love Suzanne Brogger 1976 Danish Danish
15750 Mother Night Kurt Vonnegut 1961 American English
15872 Tomb For 500,000 Soldiers Pierre Guyotat 1967 French French
15898 Funnyhouse Of A Negro Adrienne Kennedy 1964 American English
15898 The Flagellants Carlene Hatcher Polite 1966 American English
15898 Cronopios And Famas Julio Cortazar 1962 Cuban Spanish
15898 The Great American Novel William Carlos Williams 1923 American English
15898 Seven Types Of Ambiguity William Empson 1930 British English
15877 Americana Don DeLillo 1971 American English
15898 De Perfil José Agustín 1966 Mexican Spanish
16592 Casa De Campo José Donoso 1978 Chilean Spanish
16675 De L'inconvénient D'être Né Emil Cioran 1973 French
16712 Guignol's Band I et II Louis-Ferdinand Céline 1944 French French
16632 The Water Method Man John Irving 1972 American English
16656 Factotum Charles Bukowski 1975 American English
16605 100 Selected Poems E. E. Cummings 1954 American English
16638 Slaughter House Five Ryan North 1969 Unknown Unknown
17120 The Raw and the Cooked Claude Lévi-Strauss 1964 French French
17120 The PowerBook Jeanette Winterson 2000 British English
17120 The Ticket That Exploded William S. Burroughs 1962 American English
17120 Take It Or Leave It Raymond Federman 1976 American English
17120 Entering Fire Rikki Ducornet 1986 American English
17120 Genoa Paul C. Metcalf 1965 American English
17120 The Age of Wire and String Ben Marcus 1995 American English
17120 Up Ronald Sukenick 1968 American English
17120 You Bright and Risen Angels William T. Vollmann 1987 American English
17120 Mulligan Stew Gilbert Sorrentino 1979 American English
17120 In Memoriam to Identity Kathy Acker 1990 American English
17120 Ray Barry Hannah 1980 American English
17120 The Invented Part Rodrigo Fresán 2014 Argentinian Spanish
17120 Broken Glass Alain Mabanckou 2005 Congolese French
17120 Metaphor and Memory Cynthia Ozick 1989 American English
17120 The New Animals Pip Adam 2017 New Zealander English
17120 Stonedogs Craig Marriner 2002 New Zealander English
17120 Harlequin Rex Owen Marshall 1999 New Zealander English
17120 Zoology Sheridan Keith​ 1995 New Zealand Unknown
17120 The Impressionist Hari Kunzru 2002 British English
17120 Such Christine Brooke-Rose 1966 British English
17120 Night Letters Robert Dessaix 1996 Australian English
17120 The Fifth Head Of Cerberus Gene Wolfe 1972 American English
17120 Butterfly Valley Inger Christensen 1991 Danish Danish
17066 Terminal Innocence Klaus Rifbjerg 1958 Danish Unknown
17120 Social Satire And The Modern Novel Paul Rich 1984 Unknown Unknown
17120 Against Method Paul Feyerabend 1975 German English
17120 Spurs Jacques Derrida 1976 French French
17120 The World As I Found It Bruce Duffy 1987 American English
17120 Medieval In La Jim Paul 1996 American English
17120 Holy Land D. J. Waldie 1996 American English
17120 The Dictionary Of Fashionable Nonsense Ophelia Benson, Jeremy Stangroom 2004 British English
17120 Eunoia Christian Bök 2001 Canadian English