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
7965 Magical Realist Fiction David Young 1984 Unknown Unknown
7966 Balthazar Lawrence Durrell 1958 British English
7976 Trust Exercise Susan Choi 2019 American English
8000 Fragmentos De Un Libro Futuro José Ángel Valente 2000 Spanish Spanish
8029 Falling Man Don DeLillo 2007 American English
8053 The Urth Of The New Sun Gene Wolfe 1987 American English
8061 Santo Oficio De La Memoria Mempo Giardinelli 1991 Argentinian Spanish
8071 Taipei Tao Lin 2013 American English
8073 Chronic City Jonathan Lethem 2009 American English
8074 Coming And Going Men Paul Fleischman 1985 American English
8089 Approaching The End Gerard Reve 1993 Dutch Dutch
8104 O Miki Liukkonen 2017 Finnish Finnish
8142 Jerusalem Commands Michael Moorcock 1992 British English
8142 Vor Uns Die Sintflut Urs Widmer 1998 Swiss German
8174 Saints And Strangers Angela Carter 1985 British English
8175 Cuando Ya No Importe Juan Carlos Onetti 1993 Uruguayan Spanish
8176 Three Novels Samuel Beckett 1955 Irish French
8190 Temblor Rosa Montero 1990 Spanish Spanish
8193 Ghosts César Aira 1990 Argentinian Spanish
8195 Against The Inquisition Marco Aguinis 1991 Argentine Spanish
8201 The Day I Wasn't There Hélène Cixous 2000 French French
8213 Stories In An Almost Classical Mode Harold Brodkey 1989 American English
8217 Rok Perel Zuzana Brabcová 2000 Czech Czech
8259 The Poetry Of Thought George Steiner 2011 British English
8283 Nowhere Man Aleksandar Hemon 2002 Bosnian English
8278 The Wind Claude Simon 1957 French French
8286 The Interpretation Of Cultures Clifford Geertz 1973 American English
8290 Crónica De Un Iniciado Abelardo Castillo 1991 Argentinian Spanish
8291 Die Gesellschaft Der Gesellschaft Niklas Luhmann 1999 German German
8295 Alec: The Years Have Pants Eddie Campbell 2008 British English
8299 Lizard Tails Juan Marsé 2004 Spanish Spanish
8312 Vigilia Del Almirante Augusto Roa Bastos 1992 Paraguayan Spanish
8334 The Grass Claude Simon 1958 French French
8357 The Literary Conference César Aira 1997 Argentinian Spanish
8384 Ella Cantaba Boleros Guillermo Cabrera Infante 1992 Cuban Spanish
8409 Lost In A Good Book Jasper Fforde 2002 British English
8443 Identity Milan Kundera 1998 Czech French
8443 The Natashas Yelena Moskovich 2016 Russian English
8443 The Harvest Of Chronos Mojca Kumerdej 2016 Slovenian Slovenian
8443 The Interim Wolfgang Hilbig 2000 German German
8458 Been Down So Long it Looks Like Up to Me Richard Fariña 1966 American English
8459 Headshot Rita Bullwinkel 2024 Unknown English
8471 Three Novels Witold Gombrowicz 1960 Polish Polish
8471 The Patrick Melrose Novels Edward St Aubyn 1992 British English
8471 Textermination Christine Brooke-Rose 1992 British English
8495 Transcritique Kojin Karatani 2003 Japanese Japanese
8512 Bones Of The Moon Jonathan Carroll 1987 American English
8532 L'amour, Roman Camille Laurens 2003 French French
8551 Igur Neblí Miquel de Palol 1994 Spanish Unknown
8552 Our Evenings Alan Hollinghurst 2024 Unknown English
8554 Word And Object Willard Van Orman Quine 1960 American English
8604 Fact, Fiction, And Forecast Nelson Goodman 1955 American English
8629 Vanishing Point David Markson 2004 American English
8636 Somersault Kenzaburō Ōe 1999 Japanese Japanese
8650 Three Days With My Mother François Weyergans 2005 Belgian French
8672 Hallucinated City Mario de Andrade 1922 Brazilian Portuguese
8673 Marabou Stork Nightmares Irvine Welsh 1995 British English
8683 Miss Peabody’s Inheritance Elizabeth Jolley 1983 Australian English
8684 The Poetic Fantastic Patrick D. Murphy 1989 American English
8687 The One Before Juan José Saer 2015 Argentinian Spanish
8694 It's Me, Eddie Eduard Limonov 1978 Russian Russian
8699 Millennium People J. G. Ballard 2003 British English
8703 The Last Books of Hector Viel Temperley Hector Viel Temperley
 2011 Argentinian Spanish
8715 La Cuadratura Del Círculo Álvaro Pombo 1995 Spanish Spanish
8725 The Living End Stanley Elkin 1979 American English
8726 The History of Silence Pedro Zarraluki 1995 Spanish Spanish
8736 The Dalkey Archive Flann O'Brien 1964 Irish English
8736 Second Skin John Hawkes 1964 American English
8752 Breakfast At Midnight Louis Armand 2012 Unknown English
8758 Rats And Gargoyles Mary Gentle 1990 British English
8786 The Diaries Of Emilio Renzi Ricardo Piglia 2015 Argentinian Spanish
8824 The Baphomet Pierre Klossowski 1965 French French
8824 All The Names José Saramago 1997 Portuguese Portuguese
8846 Philosophy of the Tourist Hiroki Azuma 2017 Japanese Unknown
8850 The Emperor's New Mind Roger Penrose 1989 British English
8851 I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home Lorrie Moore 2023 American English
8878 Philosophy And The Mirror Of Nature Richard Rorty 1979 American English
8887 Cendrillon Éric Reinhardt 2007 French French
8898 The Art Of Flight Sergio Pitol 1997 Mexican Spanish
8895 Yoga For People Who Can’t Be Bothered To Do It Geoff Dyer 2003 British English
8945 Os Cavalinhos De Platiplanto José J. Veiga 1959 Brazilian Portuguese
8960 A Frolic of His Own William Gaddis 1994 American English
8970 The Society Of The Spectacle Guy Debord 1967 French French
8973 Mantra Rodrigo Fresán 2001 Argentinian Spanish
8993 Delirious Damien Wilkins 2012 New Zealand English
9007 T Zero Italo Calvino 1967 Italian Italian
9007 A Change Of Skin Carlos Fuentes 1967 Mexican Spanish
9020 Dark Back Of Time Javier Marias 1998 Spanish Spanish
9020 Memories Of My Father Watching Tv Curtis White 1998 American English
9034 Yama Loka Terminus Léo Henry, Jacques Mucchielli 2008 French French
9038 Everyone Who Is Gone Is Here Jonathan Blitzer 2024 Unknown English
9072 Autumn Ali Smith 2016 British English
9077 Event Factory Renee Gladman 2010 American English
9110 Cosmopolis Don DeLillo 2003 American English
9126 Génie Divin Guillaume Dustan 2001 French French
9137 The Consequences Niña Weijers 2014 Dutch Dutch
9146 Knowledge And Human Interests Jürgen Habermas 1968 German German
9170 Memories Of The Body Lisa Tuttle 1992 American English
9170 MetaHorror Dennis Etchison 1992 American English
9181 Red Clocks Leni Zumas 2018 American English
9221 The Rachel Papers Martin Amis 1973 British English
9223 The Passenger Cormac McCarthy 2022 American English
9224 Burning Your Boats Angela Carter 1995 British English
9225 Han Hinkon Makoto Yuasa 2008 Japanese Unknown
9226 Poems Jorge Luis Borges 2010 Argentinian Spanish
9261 The Candy House Jennifer Egan 2022 American English
9285 Even Cowgirls Get The Blues Tom Robbins 1976 American English
9292 Project For A Revolution In New York Alain Robbe-Grillet 1970 French French
9292 The Double Dream Of Spring John Ashbery 1970 American English
9314 Hamlet On The Holodeck Janet H. Murray 1997 American English
9346 Ellipse Of Uncertainty Lance Olsen 1993 American English
9587 The Newcomes William Makepeace Thackeray 1855 British English
9589 Blue Lard Vladimir Sorokin 1999 Russian Russian
9595 The Naked Eye Yoko Tawada 2004 Multiple German
9604 Meteor In The Madhouse Leon Forrest 2001 American English
9610 Galáxias Haroldo De Campos 1984 Brazilian Portuguese
9618 The Carnival Of Destruction Brian Stableford 1994 British English
9640 Tram 83 Fiston Mwanza Mujila 2014 Congolese French
9713 Eros Is More Juan Antonio González Iglesias 2018 Spanish Spanish
9720 Someone You Can Build A Nest In John Wiswell 2024 Unknown English