The Greatest Books of All Time on Race

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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
9 The Sound and the Fury William Faulkner 1929 American English
68 Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neale Hurston 1937 American English
158 Wide Sargasso Sea Jean Rhys 1966 British English
221 White Teeth Zadie Smith 2000 British English
255 Disgrace J. M. Coetzee 1999 South African English
296 The Lover Marguerite Duras 1984 French French
420 The Human Stain Philip Roth 2000 American English
437 Passing Nella Larsen 1929 American English
443 Americanah Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 2013 Nigerian English
475 Gilead Marilynne Robinson 2004 American English
502 Another Country James Baldwin 1962 American English
560 Sula Toni Morrison 1973 American English
574 The Known World Edward P. Jones 2003 American English
854 Cane Jean Toomer 1923 American English
1050 The Buddha of Suburbia Hanif Kureishi 1990 British English
1109 Othello William Shakespeare 1603 British English
1155 Three Lives Gertrude Stein 1909 American English
1262 Maud Martha Gwendolyn Brooks 1953 American English
1272 Erasure Percival Everett 2001 American English
1281 Mumbo Jumbo Ishmael Reed 1972 American English
1309 The Member Of The Wedding Carson McCullers 1946 American English
1368 Salvage the Bones Jesmyn Ward 2011 American English
1582 Quicksand Nella Larsen 1928 American English
1666 Zami Audre Lorde 1982 American English
1702 Oreo Fran Ross 1974 American English
1715 Go Down, Moses William Faulkner 1942 American English
1751 NW Zadie Smith 2012 British English
1817 The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks Rebecca Skloot 2010 American English
2023 The Color of Water James McBride 1995 American English
2207 Dreams from My Father Barack Obama 1995 American English
2469 On Beauty Zadie Smith 2005 British English
2538 Jazz Toni Morrison 1992 American English
2605 The Conservationist Nadine Gordimer 1974 South African English
2608 Heavy Kiese Laymon 2018 American English
2634 Tripmaster Monkey Maxine Hong Kingston 1989 American English
2752 Dust Tracks on a Road Zora Neale Hurston 1942 American English
2807 James Percival Everett 2024 American English
3015 Friday Night Lights H. G. Bissinger 1990 American English
3062 The Fortress of Solitude Jonathan Lethem 2003 American English
3097 Open City Teju Cole 2011 American English
3155 Notes of a Native Son James Baldwin 1955 American English
3268 Sóngoro cosongo Nicolás Guillén 1931 Cuban Spanish
3293 The Subterraneans Jack Kerouac 1958 American English
3532 Girl, Woman, Other Bernardine Evaristo 2019 British English
3568 Little Fires Everywhere Celeste Ng 2017 American English
3573 Notes from No Man's Land Eula Biss 2009 American English
3594 Thick Tressie McMillan Cottom 2019 American English
3613 The Vanishing Half Brit Bennett 2020 American English
3630 Really The Blues Bernard Wolfe, Milton Mezz Mezzrow 1946 American English
3859 Ethiopia Unbound J. E. Casely Hayford 1911 Ghanaian English
3917 Fences August Wilson 1985 American English
3951 Clotel William Wells Brown 1853 American English
4151 Oxherding Tale Charles R. Johnson 1982 American English
4163 The Good Lord Bird James McBride 2013 American English
4296 The Emperor's Babe Bernardine Evaristo 2001 British English
4309 Vril Edward Bulwer-Lytton 1871 British English
4458 The Truly Disadvantaged William Julius Wilson 1987 American English
4490 Voyage In The Dark Jean Rhys 1934 British English
4581 The Autobiography Of A Runaway Slave Miguel Barnet 1966 Cuban Spanish
4675 The Time of Our Singing Richard Powers 2003 American English
4733 The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation M. T. Anderson 2006 American English
4736 Shadow and ACT Ralph Ellison 1964 American English
4812 Slave Old Man Patrick Chamoiseau 1997 French French
4856 Best of Simple Langston Hughes 1961 American English
4942 Ghettoside Jill Leovy 2015 American English
4944 Mama Day Gloria Naylor 1988 American English
5005 Feel Free Zadie Smith 2018 British English
5169 Bad Feminist Roxane Gay 2014 American English
5344 White Girls Hilton Als 2013 American English
5350 A Street In Bronzeville Gwendolyn Brooks 1945 American English
5461 The Yellow House Sarah M. Broom 2019 American English
5569 Everything I Never Told You Celeste Ng 2014 American English
5600 Changing My Mind Zadie Smith 2009 British English
5972 Wonderful Adventures of Mrs. Seacole in Many Lands Mary Seacole 1857 Jamaican English
6130 Negroland Margo Jefferson 2015 American English
6189 Guerrillas V. S. Naipaul 1975 Trinidadian English
6236 Tar Baby Toni Morrison 1981 American English
6290 I Have A Dream Martin Luther King 1973 American English
6370 All Aunt Hagar’s Children Edward P. Jones 2006 American English
6460 A Gate at the Stairs Lorrie Moore 2009 American English
6493 A Voice From The South Anna Julia Cooper 1892 American English
6541 Hold Still Sally Mann 2015 American English
6604 I Wonder As I Wander Langston Hughes 1956 American English
6710 The Old Drift Namwali Serpell 2019 Zambian English
6763 Citizen And Subject Mahmood Mamdani 1996 Ugandan English
6787 Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments Saidiya Hartman 2019 American English
6903 Ain't No Makin' It Jay MacLeod 1987 American English
6957 There Will Be No Miracles Here Casey Gerald 2018 American English
7020 Albert Murray Albert Murray 2016 American Unknown
7050 The Changeling Victor LaValle 2017 American English
7216 Lonely Crusade Chester Himes 1947 American English
7566 There's Always This Year Hanif Abdurraqib 2024 American English
7680 Master Slave Husband Wife Ilyon Woo 2023 Unknown English
7786 The Wig Charles Wright 1966 American English
7796 In My Father's House Anthony Appiah 1992 Ghanaian English
7802 Another Brooklyn Jacqueline Woodson 2016 American English
7896 King David Levering Lewis 1970 Unknown English
7957 The House Gun Nadine Gordimer 1997 South African English
8066 The Price Of A Ticket James Baldwin 1985 American English
8189 A Hero Ain’t Nothin’ But A Sandwich Alice Childress 1973 American English
8234 The Promised Land Nicholas Lemann 1991 American English
8234 Beyond The Mask, Race, Gender And Identity Amina Mama 1995 British English
8321 The Living Is Easy Dorothy West 1948 American English
8326 Lush Life Richard Price 2008 American English
8345 The Man Who Fell In Love With The Moon Tom Spanbauer 1991 American English
8346 Swing Time Zadie Smith 2016 British English
8374 Beyond A Boundary C. L. R. James 1963 British English
8419 One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This Omar El Akkad 2025 Unknown English
8548 Monster Walter Dean Myers 1999 American English
8574 Let The Trumpet Sound Stephen B. Oates 1982 American English
8603 A Fever In The Heartland Timothy Egan 2023 American English
8607 Poems Of Robert Hayden Robert Hayden 1962 American English
8642 The Fraud Zadie Smith 2023 British English
8736 Tangata Whenua Atholl Anderson, Judith Binney, Aroha Harris 2014 New Zealand English
8792 The Reivers William Faulkner 1962 American English
8818 Man Gone Down Michael Thomas 2007 American English
8842 Desertion Abdulrazak Gurnah 2005 Tanzanian English
8980 Crook Manifesto Colson Whitehead 2023 American English
9001 The Emperor Of Ocean Park Stephen L. Carter 2002 American English
9019 The Message Ta-Nehisi Coates 2024 Unknown Unknown