The Greatest Postmodern Books Since 1967

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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
34 The Master and Margarita Mikhail Bulgakov 1967 Russian Russian
64 Midnight's Children Salman Rushdie 1981 Indian English
84 Slaughterhouse-Five Kurt Vonnegut 1969 American English
99 The Unbearable Lightness of Being Milan Kundera 1984 Czech Czech
114 The Name of the Rose Umberto Eco 1980 Italian Italian
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
232 2666 Roberto Bolaño 2004 Chilean Spanish
254 Gravity's Rainbow Thomas Pynchon 1973 American English
262 Austerlitz W. G. Sebald 2001 German German
276 Life, a User's Manual Georges Perec 1978 French French
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
333 Infinite Jest David Foster Wallace 1996 American English
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
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
452 A Heart So White Javier Marias 1992 Spanish Spanish
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
534 Satanic Verses Salman Rushdie 1988 British English
545 The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie Agota Kristof 1986 Hungarian French
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
628 Nights At The Circus Angela Carter 1984 British English
634 Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Robert M. Pirsig 1974 American English
657 The Elementary Particles Michel Houellebecq 1998 French French
666 Humboldt's Gift Saul Bellow 1975 American English
683 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Hunter S. Thompson 1971 American English
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
804 The Vegetarian Han Kang 2007 Korean Korean
808 Watchmen Alan Moore 1986 American, British English
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
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
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
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
1217 Foucault's Pendulum Umberto Eco 1988 Italian Italian
1242 The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis José Saramago 1984 Portuguese Portuguese
1261 The Blind Assassin Margaret Atwood 2000 Canadian English
1271 Extinction Thomas Bernhard 1986 Austrian German
1272 Erasure Percival Everett 2001 American English
1281 Mumbo Jumbo Ishmael Reed 1972 American English
1325 A Far Cry From Kensington Muriel Spark 1988 British English
1335 Kiss of the Spider Woman Manuel Puig 1976 Argentinian Spanish
1348 Sandman Neil Gaiman 1989 British English
1373 Winter's Tale Mark Helprin 1983 American English
1374 Earthly Powers Anthony Burgess 1980 British English
1387 Gödel, Escher, Bach Douglas Hofstadter 1979 American English
1394 Soldiers of Salamis Javier Cercas 2001 Spanish Spanish
1411 Concrete Thomas Bernhard 1982 Austrian German
1421 Ubik Philip K. Dick 1969 American English
1443 Mason & Dixon Thomas Pynchon 1997 American English
1454 Pushkin House Andrey Bitov 1978 Russian Russian
1456 Flights Olga Tokarczuk 2007 Polish Polish
1472 The Beauty Of The Husband Anne Carson 2001 Canadian English
1530 Myra Breckinridge Gore Vidal 1968 American English
1551 Hawksmoor Peter Ackroyd 1985 British English
1552 Waterland Graham Swift 1983 British English
1554 The Unconsoled Kazuo Ishiguro 1995 British English
1564 G. John Berger 1972 British English
1565 A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again David Foster Wallace 1997 American English
1587 Past Continuous Yaakov Shabtai 1977 Israeli Hebrew
1597 Snow Crash Neal Stephenson 1992 American English
1619 Nostalgia Mircea Cărtărescu 1989 Romanian Romanian
1674 London Fields Martin Amis 1989 British English
1685 Burr Gore Vidal 1973 American English
1687 The Hearing Trumpet Leonora Carrington 1974 British English
1704 Celestial Harmonies Peter Esterhazy 2000 Hungarian Hungarian
1709 The Club Dumas Arturo Pérez-Reverte 1993 Spanish Spanish
1715 The Clay Machine-gun Victor Pelevin 1996 Russian Russian
1722 The Joke Milan Kundera 1967 Czech Czech
1723 1Q84 Haruki Murakami 2009 Japanese Japanese
1745 Couples, Passersby Botho Strauß 1981 German German
1754 Changing Places David Lodge 1975 British English
1758 Sabbath's Theater Philip Roth 1995 American English
1783 A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius Dave Eggers 2000 American English
1797 Texaco Patrick Chamoiseau 1992 Martinican French
1800 The Deptford Trilogy Robertson Davies 1970 Canadian English