The Greatest Postmodern Books Since 1950

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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
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
61 The Golden Notebook Doris May Lessing 1962 British English
64 Midnight's Children Salman Rushdie 1981 Indian English
72 Pale Fire Vladimir Nabokov 1962 American English
84 Slaughterhouse-Five Kurt Vonnegut 1969 American English
91 The Tin Drum Günter Grass 1959 German German
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
151 Molloy Samuel Beckett 1951 Irish French
153 A Clockwork Orange Anthony Burgess 1962 British English
182 The Moviegoer Walker Percy 1961 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
226 The Alexandria Quartet Lawrence Durrell 1957 British English
232 2666 Roberto Bolaño 2004 Chilean Spanish
254 Gravity's Rainbow Thomas Pynchon 1973 American 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
354 Hopscotch Julio Cortazar 1963 Argentinian Spanish
355 The Savage Detectives Roberto Bolaño 1998 Chilean Spanish
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
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
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
452 A Heart So White Javier Marias 1992 Spanish Spanish
455 V Thomas Pynchon 1963 American English
465 Collected Poems Wallace Stevens 1954 American English
473 The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle Haruki Murakami 1994 Japanese Japanese
494 The Third Policeman Flann O'Brien 1967 Irish English
501 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
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
607 House of Leaves Mark Z. Danielewski 2000 American English
617 Pnin Vladimir Nabokov 1957 Russian English
628 Nights At The Circus Angela Carter 1984 British English
634 Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Robert M. Pirsig 1974 American English
650 The Flanders Road Claude Simon 1960 French French
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
744 Moscow to the End of the Line Venedikt Yerofeev 1970 Russian Russian
750 Money Martin Amis 1984 British English
793 The Sirens of Titan Kurt Vonnegut 1959 American English
804 The Vegetarian Han Kang 2007 Korean Korean
808 Watchmen Alan Moore 1986 American, British English
812 Collected Poems of T.S. Eliot T. S. Eliot 1963 British English
836 Second Thoughts Michel Butor 1957 French French
838 The Book of Daniel E. L. Doctorow 1971 American English
841 Crash J. G. Ballard 1973 British English
856 Conversation in the Cathedral Mario Vargas Llosa 1969 Peruvian Spanish
858 The Woman in the Dunes Kobo Abé 1962 Japanese Japanese
869 Woodcutters Thomas Bernhard 1984 Austrian German
874 The Last Samurai Helen DeWitt 2000 American English
882 The Hour of the Star Clarice Lispector 1977 Brazilian Portuguese
893 Neuromancer William Gibson 1984 American, Canadian English
895 The Ravishing of Lol Stein Marguerite Duras 1964 French French
904 Breakfast of Champions Kurt Vonnegut 1973 American English
910 The New York Trilogy Paul Auster 1985 American English
915 Malina Ingeborg Bachmann 1971 Austrian German
922 The Sympathizer Viet Thanh Nguyen 2015 American English
936 A Void Georges Perec 1969 French French
959 A Tomb for Boris Davidovich Danilo Kiš 1976 Serbian Serbo-croatian
968 Jesus' Son Denis Johnson 1992 American English
971 The Discovery of Heaven Harry Mulisch 1992 Dutch Dutch
982 Speedboat Renata Adler 1976 American English
988 Flaubert's Parrot Julian Barnes 1984 British English
1020 Slouching Towards Bethlehem Joan Didion 1968 American English
1022 Lincoln in the Bardo George Saunders 2017 American English
1061 The Hothouse Wolfgang Koeppen 1953 German German
1079 The Book of the New Sun Gene Wolfe 1980 American English
1093 The Book of Laughter and Forgetting Milan Kundera 1979 Czech Czech
1095 The Swimming-Pool Library Alan Hollinghurst 1988 British English
1106 The Passion Jeanette Winterson 1987 British English
1136 The Black Prince Iris Murdoch 1973 British English
1154 True History of the Kelly Gang Peter Carey 2000 Australian English
1166 Lanark Alasdair Gray 1981 Scottish English
1173 Little, Big John Crowley 1981 American English
1191 Blow Up And Other Stories Julio Cortazar 1968 Argentinian Spanish
1200 Mating Norman Rush 1991 American English
1201 Kafka On The Shore Haruki Murakami 2002 Japanese Japanese
1210 The Wasp Factory Iain Banks 1984 British English
1213 The Floating Opera John Barth 1956 American English
1217 Foucault's Pendulum Umberto Eco 1988 Italian Italian