The Greatest Realistic Fiction 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
4 The Catcher in the Rye J. D. Salinger 1951 American English
102 Charlotte's Web E. B. White 1952 American English
118 The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter Carson McCullers 1940 American English
174 Rabbit, Run John Updike 1960 American English
255 Disgrace J. M. Coetzee 1999 South African English
267 Pippi Longstocking Astrid Lindgren 1945 Swedish Swedish
281 The Good Earth Pearl S. Buck 1931 American English
308 The Bluest Eye Toni Morrison 1970 American English
311 Winesburg, Ohio Sherwood Anderson 1919 American English
332 Housekeeping Marilynne Robinson 1980 American English
336 The Garden of the Finzi-Continis Giorgio Bassani 1962 Italian Italian
358 The Mayor of Casterbridge Thomas Hardy 1886 British English
466 A Death in the Family James Agee 1957 American English
475 Gilead Marilynne Robinson 2004 American English
477 Fateless or Fatelessness Imre Kertész 1975 Hungarian Hungarian
490 Ethan Frome Edith Wharton 1911 American English
500 Everything That Rises Must Converge Flannery O'Connor 1965 American English
508 Black Beauty Anna Sewell 1877 British English
539 So Long, See You Tomorrow William Maxwell 1980 American English
549 A Fine Balance Rohinton Mistry 1995 Indian English
551 Pilgrim's Progress John Bunyan 1678 British English
552 The Red Badge of Courage Stephen Crane 1895 American English
571 And Quiet Flows The Don Mikhail Sholokhov 1928 Russian Russian
573 Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret Judy Blume 1970 American English
587 The Man with the Golden Arm Nelson Algren 1949 American English
600 Nine Stories J. D. Salinger 1953 American English
605 Claudine Colette 1900 French French
611 Revolutionary Road Richard Yates 1961 American English
632 Dom Casmurro Machado de Assis 1899 Brazilian Portuguese
640 Black Boy Richard Wright 1945 American English
643 Silas Marner George Eliot 1861 British English
655 Stories of Ernest Hemingway Ernest Hemingway 1987 American English
656 The Time Of The Doves Merce Rodoreda 1962 Spanish Catalan
680 The Stories of John Cheever John Cheever 1978 American English
685 Them Joyce Carol Oates 1969 American English
690 Anton Reiser Karl Philipp Moritz 1785 German German
693 Little House on the Prairie Laura Ingalls Wilder 1935 American English
700 Tales of the City Armistead Maupin 1978 American English
711 Flowers for Algernon Daniel Keyes 1959 American English
717 A Sport and a Pastime James Salter 1967 American English
719 Thousand Cranes Yasunari Kawabata 1952 Japanese Japanese
729 Thérèse Desqueyroux François Mauriac 1927 French French
732 A Bend in the River V. S. Naipaul 1979 Trinidadian English
738 The Joy Luck Club Amy Tan 1989 American English
739 The Return of the Native Thomas Hardy 1878 British English
755 The Well of Loneliness Radclyffe Hall 1928 British English
762 Ballet Shoes Noel Streatfeild 1936 British English
766 Adolphe Benjamin Constant 1816 Swiss French
767 The Tree of Man Patrick White 1955 Australian English
772 The Group Mary McCarthy 1963 American English
779 The Outsiders S. E. Hinton 1967 American English
784 Rabbit at Rest John Updike 1990 American English
785 The Stechlin Theodor Fontane 1898 German German
792 A Kestrel for a Knave Barry Hines 1968 British English
798 The Life Of Arseniev Ivan Bunin 1930 Russian Russian
814 The Secret Garden Frances Hodgson Burnett 1911 British English
817 Rickshaw Boy Lao She 1936 Chinese Chinese
823 The Snowy Day Ezra Jack Keats 1962 American English
857 Midaq Alley Naguib Mahfouz 1947 Egyptian Arabic
867 Heidi Johanna Spyri 1881 Swiss German
899 Stoner John Williams 1965 American English
914 The Yearling Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings 1938 American English
924 Where I'm Calling From Raymond Carver 1988 American English
931 The House by the Medlar Tree Giovanni Verga 1881 Italian Italian
935 Martin Eden Jack London 1909 American English
937 The Sea Wall Marguerite Duras 1950 French French
947 Bel Canto Ann Patchett 2001 American English
989 The Lonely Londoners Sam Selvon 1956 Trinidadian English
1006 Saturday Night and Sunday Morning Alan Sillitoe 1958 British English
1009 Love Story Eric Segal 1970 American English
1014 The Tale of Peter Rabbit Beatrix Potter 1902 British English
1036 The Fortunes Of Richard Mahony Henry Handel Richardson 1917 Australian English
1042 Franny and Zooey J. D. Salinger 1961 American English
1043 Danny The Champion Of The World Roald Dahl 1975 British English
1055 Story of Ferdinand Munro Leaf 1936 American English
1061 First Love Ivan Turgenev 1860 Russian Russian
1067 A Boy's Own Story Edmund White 1982 American English
1077 Cider with Rosie Laurie Lee 1959 British English
1089 Suttree Cormac McCarthy 1979 American English
1097 My Name Is Aram William Saroyan 1940 American English
1101 Outline Rachel Cusk 2014 British English
1115 The Cairo Trilogy Naguib Mahfouz 1956 Egyptian Arabic
1119 The Street Ann Petry 1946 American English
1128 The Price Of Salt Patricia Highsmith 1952 American English
1144 A Month In The Country J. L. Carr 1980 British English
1158 Half of a Yellow Sun Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 2006 Nigerian English
1161 Norwegian Wood Haruki Murakami 1987 Japanese Japanese
1174 As A Man Grows Older Italo Svevo 1898 Italian Italian
1197 Light Years James Salter 1975 American English
1206 Pachinko Min Jin Lee 2017 American English
1211 Normal People Sally Rooney 2018 Irish English
1222 Studs Lonigan James T. Farrell 1932 American English
1225 Untouchable Mulk Raj Anand 1935 Indian English
1255 Jonathan Livingston Seagull Richard Bach 1970 American English
1262 Maud Martha Gwendolyn Brooks 1953 American English
1263 The Summer Book Tove Jansson 1972 Finnish Swedish
1269 The Unknown Soldier Väinö Linna 1954 Finnish Finnish
1278 So Long a Letter Mariama Bâ 1980 Senegalese French
1285 Selected Stories of Alice Munro Alice Munro 1996 Canadian English
1294 Peyton Place Grace Metalious 1956 American English
1300 The Guide R. K. Narayan 1958 Indian English
1302 The Stories of Raymond Carver Raymond Carver 1981 American English
1306 Long Day's Journey Into Night Eugene O'Neill 1956 American English
1309 The Member Of The Wedding Carson McCullers 1946 American English
1316 The Fountain Overflows Rebecca West 1956 British English
1333 Barefoot Zaharia Stancu 1948 Romanian Romanian
1354 Olive Kitteridge Elizabeth Strout 2008 American English
1359 The Makioka Sisters Junichiro Tanizaki 1948 Japanese Japanese
1365 Nectar in a Sieve Kamala Markandaya 1954 Indian English
1368 Salvage the Bones Jesmyn Ward 2011 American English
1369 Veronica Mary Gaitskill 2005 American English
1379 The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty Eudora Welty 1980 American English
1391 A Separate Peace John Knowles 1959 American English
1408 Amongst Women John McGahern 1990 Irish English
1413 All the Light We Cannot See Anthony Doerr 2014 American English
1428 The Country of the Pointed Firs Sarah Orne Jewett 1896 American English
1432 A Woman's Life Guy de Maupassant 1883 French French
1435 Life After Life Kate Atkinson 2013 British English
1437 Bébo's Girl Carlo Cassola 1960 Italian Italian
1442 Little House In The Big Woods Laura Ingalls Wilder 1932 American English