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
2599 The Witness Juan José Saer 1983 Argentinian Spanish
2610 Whatever Michel Houellebecq 1994 French French
2617 The Beautiful Mrs. Seidenman Andrzej Szczypiorski 1986 Polish Polish
2634 Tripmaster Monkey Maxine Hong Kingston 1989 American English
2649 Gemini Michel Tournier 1975 French French
2653 Sleepless Nights Elizabeth Hardwick 1979 American English
2680 Generation X Douglas Coupland 1991 Canadian English
2681 El Día Del Watusi Francisco Casavella 2002 Spanish Spanish
2688 Blinding Mircea Cărtărescu 1996 Romanian Romanian
2706 Lost Children Archive Valeria Luiselli 2019 Mexican English
2716 Something Happened Joseph Heller 1974 American English
2725 The Book Of Questions Edmond Jabès 1963 French French
2736 Severance Ling Ma 2018 American English
2770 Unkempt Thoughts Stanislaw Jerzy Lec 1950 Polish Polish
2792 The Island Of Second Sight Albert Vigoleis Thelen 1953 German English
2793 Dog Years Günter Grass 1963 German German
2825 The Leg Willem Elsschot 1946 Belgian Dutch
2840 Kassandra And The Wolf Margarita Karapanou 1974 Greek Greek
2845 10:04 Ben Lerner 2014 American English
2848 Things Georges Perec 1965 French French
2849 The Museum of Unconditional Surrender Dubravka Ugrešić 1997 Croatian Croatian
2852 Bad News Edward St Aubyn 1992 British English
2853 Dictionary of the Khazars Milorad Pavic 1984 Serbian Serbian
2855 The Counterlife Philip Roth 1986 American English
2857 The Dharma Bums Jack Kerouac 1958 American English
2866 Endgame Samuel Beckett 1957 Irish French
2872 The Information Martin Amis 1995 British English
2877 River of Fire Qurratulain Hyder 1959 Indian Urdu
2878 Palace of the Peacock Wilson Harris 1960 Guyanese English
2885 The Busconductor Hines James Kelman 1984 British English
2887 Everything Is Illuminated Jonathan Safran Foer 2002 American English
2893 The Caretaker Harold Pinter 1960 British English
2894 Seven Days In New Crete Robert Graves 1949 British English
2932 Martian Time Slip Philip K. Dick 1964 American English
2935 Dolly City Orly Castel-Bloom 1992 Israeli Hebrew
2949 Eva Trout Elizabeth Bowen 1968 Irish English
2965 The Erasers Alain Robbe-Grillet 1953 French French
2975 The Female Man Joanna Russ 1975 American English
2993 A Book Of Memories Péter Nádas 1986 Hungarian Hungarian
3011 Wittgenstein's Mistress David Markson 1988 American English
3012 By Night in Chile Roberto Bolaño 2000 Chilean Spanish
3018 The Old Men At The Zoo Angus Wilson 1961 British English
3055 The Sinful Ones Fritz Leiber 1953 American English
3060 Trust Hernan Díaz 2022 Argentinian English
3062 The Fortress of Solitude Jonathan Lethem 2003 American English
3064 The Language Instinct Steven Pinker 1994 American English
3073 The Armies of the Night Norman Mailer 1968 American English
3087 Summer in Baden-Baden Leonid Tsypkin 1980 Russian Russian
3088 The Marriage Of Cadmus And Harmony Roberto Calasso 1988 Italian Italian
3096 Dogeaters Jessica Hagedorn 1990 American English
3108 Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency Douglas Adams 1987 British English
3111 Anagrams Lorrie Moore 1986 American English
3121 The Possibility Of An Island Michel Houellebecq 2005 French French
3145 Dhalgren Samuel R. Delany 1975 American English
3160 Who Made Stevie Crye? Michael Bishop 1984 American English
3162 Natural Novel Georgi Gospodinov 1999 Bulgarian Bulgarian
3164 Dept. of Speculation Jenny Offill 2014 American English
3174 Oblivion David Foster Wallace 2004 American English
3175 The Thirtieth Year Ingeborg Bachmann 1961 Austrian German
3182 Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead Tom Stoppard 1966 British English
3184 Flicker Theodore Roszak 1991 American English
3185 Moon Palace Paul Auster 1989 American English
3188 City, Sister, Silver Jáchym Topol 1994 Czech Czech
3199 Mao II Don DeLillo 1991 American English
3205 When We Cease To Understand The World Adrian Nathan West, Benjamin Labatut 2020 Chilean Spanish
3208 Travels With My Aunt Graham Greene 1969 British English
3209 Briefing For A Descent Into Hell Doris May Lessing 1971 British English
3233 The Books Of Jacob Olga Tokarczuk 2014 Polish Polish
3241 Sweet Dreams Michael Frayn 1973 British English
3251 Lost in the Cosmos Walker Percy 1983 American English
3264 Die Reise Bernward Vesper 1977 German German
3272 The Luminaries Eleanor Catton 2013 New Zealand English
3308 Camp Concentration Thomas M. Disch 1968 American English
3315 The Afternoon of Monsieur Andesmas Marguerite Duras 1962 French French
3324 Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus Scriblerus Club 1741 British English
3324 None but the Brave Arthur Schnitzler 1895 Austrian German
3324 Impressions of Africa Raymond Roussel 1910 French French
3324 Tarr Wyndham Lewis 1918 British English
3324 I Thought of Daisy Edmund Wilson 1929 American English
3324 The Apes of God Wyndham Lewis 1930 British English
3324 Monica Saunders Lewis 1930 British Welsh
3324 Insatiability Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz 1930 Polish Polish
3324 Eyeless in Gaza Aldous Huxley 1936 British English
3324 Conversations in Sicily Elio Vittorini 1941 Italian Italian
3324 Arcanum 17 André Breton 1944 French French
3324 L'Abbé C Georges Bataille 1950 French French
3324 The Guiltless Hermann Broch 1950 Austrian German
3324 Asphodel Hilda Doolittle 1921 American English
3375 Juan De Mairena Antonio Machado 1936 Spanish Spanish
3384 The Plague-Sower Gesualdo Bufalino 1981 Italian Italian
3391 Bomarzo Manuel Mujica Lainez 1962 Argentinian Spanish
3396 Cities of the Red Night William S. Burroughs 1981 American English
3404 The Unfortunates B. S. Johnson 1969 British English
3406 The Great Indian Novel Shashi Tharoor 1989 Indian English
3409 The Glass Bees Ernst Jünger 1957 German German
3409 The Manila Rope Veijo Meri 1957 Finnish Finnish
3420 In The Country Of Last Things Paul Auster 1987 American English
3423 The Back Room Carmen Martín Gaite 1978 Spanish Spanish
3428 Count Julian Juan Goytisolo 1970 Spanish Spanish
3432 Betrayed by Rita Hayworth Manuel Puig 1968 Argentinian Spanish
3433 The Meeting At Telgte Günter Grass 1979 German German
3445 The Kandy Kolored Tangerine Flake Streamline Baby Tom Wolfe 1965 American English
3454 Magic for Beginners Kelly Link 2005 American English
3461 The Complete Fiction Of Bruno Schulz Bruno Schulz 1989 Polish Polish
3468 Kudos Rachel Cusk 2018 British English
3483 The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop. Robert Coover 1968 American English
3488 The Great Victorian Collection Brian Moore 1975 Canadian English
3490 Seminario Sulla Gioventù Aldo Busi 1984 Italian Italian
3534 The Birthday Party Harold Pinter 1958 British English
3535 The Obscene Madame D Hilda Hilst 1982 Brazilian Portuguese
3540 C Tom McCarthy 2010 British English
3542 Her Body and Other Parties Carmen Maria Machado 2017 American English
3550 Gloriana Michael Moorcock 1978 British English
3552 The Cloven Viscount Italo Calvino 1952 Italian Italian
3553 Divorcing Susan Taubes 1969 American English
3568 The Return Of The Caravels António Lobo Antunes 1988 Portuguese Portuguese
3571 The Inquisitors' Manual António Lobo Antunes 1996 Portuguese English
3578 Behind the Scenes at the Museum Kate Atkinson 1995 British English
3591 Do Everything in the Dark Gary Indiana 2003 American English
3615 The Eyes Of The Overworld Jack Vance 1966 American English