The Greatest Books of All Time on Relationships

Click to learn how this list is calculated.

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.

View: List Grid Table
Filter by: Genres Dates Countries

Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
1136 The Black Prince Iris Murdoch 1973 British English
1152 The Wapshot Chronicle John Cheever 1957 American English
1165 The Horse's Mouth Joyce Cary 1944 British English
1166 Lanark Alasdair Gray 1981 Scottish English
1167 Gentlemen Prefer Blondes Anita Loos 1925 American English
1168 The Diaries Franz Kafka 1948 Czech German
1174 As A Man Grows Older Italo Svevo 1898 Italian Italian
1175 The Demons Heimito von Doderer 1956 Austrian German
1179 Living Henry Green 1929 British English
1184 In A Lonely Place Dorothy B. Hughes 1947 American English
1189 A Writer's Diary Virginia Woolf 1953 British English
1200 Mating Norman Rush 1991 American English
1207 How to Win Friends and Influence People Dale Carnegie 1936 American English
1208 Love in a Cold Climate Nancy Mitford 1949 British English
1211 Normal People Sally Rooney 2018 Irish English
1213 The Floating Opera John Barth 1956 American English
1216 Billy Liar Keith Waterhouse 1959 British English
1220 The Return of the Soldier Rebecca West 1918 British English
1219 The Time of Indifference Alberto Moravia 1929 Italian Italian
1231 Patience And Sarah Isabel Miller 1969 American English
1235 Cheri Colette 1920 French French
1261 The Blind Assassin Margaret Atwood 2000 Canadian English
1263 The Summer Book Tove Jansson 1972 Finnish Swedish
1285 Selected Stories of Alice Munro Alice Munro 1996 Canadian English
1292 Two Serious Ladies Jane Bowles 1943 American English
1300 The Guide R. K. Narayan 1958 Indian English
1312 The Stories of Raymond Carver Raymond Carver 1981 American English
1313 The Optimist's Daughter Eudora Welty 1972 American English
1325 A Far Cry From Kensington Muriel Spark 1988 British English
1341 The Graduate Charles Webb 1963 American English
1354 Olive Kitteridge Elizabeth Strout 2008 American English
1369 Veronica Mary Gaitskill 2005 American English
1381 Station Eleven Emily St John Mandel 2014 Canadian English
1385 The Bell Iris Murdoch 1958 British English
1396 Pierre et Jean Guy de Maupassant 1888 French French
1402 The Seagull Anton Chekhov 1896 Russian Russian
1409 No Exit Jean Paul Sartre 1944 French French
1427 Vile Bodies Evelyn Waugh 1930 British English
1433 Random Family Adrian Nicole LeBlanc 2003 American English
1437 Bébo's Girl Carlo Cassola 1960 Italian Italian
1460 Never Mind Edward St Aubyn 1992 British English
1463 Camera Obscura Nicolaas Beets 1839 Dutch Dutch
1471 Aurélien Louis Aragon 1944 French French
1473 What We Talk About When We Talk About Love Raymond Carver 1981 American English
1484 Independence Day Richard Ford 1995 American English
1516 The Alberta Trilogy Cora Sandel 1926 Norwegian Norwegian
1520 The Slaves of Solitude Patrick Hamilton 1947 British English
1532 Arturo's Island Elsa Morante 1957 Italian Italian
1536 Rubyfruit Jungle Rita Mae Brown 1973 American English
1552 Waterland Graham Swift 1983 British English
1553 Beauty and Sadness Yasunari Kawabata 1964 Japanese Japanese
1563 Runaway Alice Munro 2004 Canadian English
1564 G. John Berger 1972 British English
1574 Nightmare Abbey Thomas Love Peacock 1818 British English
1584 A Severed Head Iris Murdoch 1961 British English
1604 Phineas Finn Anthony Trollope 1869 British English
1607 Pan Knut Hamsun 1894 Norwegian Norwegian
1610 The Hours Michael Cunningham 1998 American English
1611 Crome Yellow Aldous Huxley 1921 British English
1618 The Pursuit Of Love Nancy Mitford 1945 British English
1622 Fortress Besieged Qian Zhongshu 1947 Chinese Chinese
1629 Point Counter Point Aldous Huxley 1928 British English
1633 In Watermelon Sugar Richard Brautigan 1968 American English
1637 The Sportswriter Richard Ford 1986 American English
1649 Cat's Eye Margaret Atwood 1988 Canadian English
1674 London Fields Martin Amis 1989 British English
1675 The Time Traveler's Wife Audrey Niffenegger 2003 American English
1678 A Time To Be Born Dawn Powell 1942 American English
1703 The Argonauts Maggie Nelson 2015 American English
1720 The Lady In The Lake Raymond Chandler 1943 American English
1723 1Q84 Haruki Murakami 2009 Japanese Japanese
1729 Requiem for a Dream Hubert Selby 1978 American English
1731 Delta of Venus Anaïs Nin 1977 French English
1739 A Fatal Inversion Barbara Vine 1987 British English
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
1760 Desperate Characters Paula Fox 1970 American English
1761 The Serious Game Hjalmar Soderberg 1912 Swedish Swedish
1766 Who Do You Think You Are? Alice Munro 1978 Canadian English
1771 Stone Butch Blues Leslie Feinberg 1993 American English
1778 The Strudlhof Steps Heimito von Doderer 1951 German German
1807 Beware Of Pity Stefan Zweig 1939 Austrian German
1812 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time Mark Haddon 2003 British English
1819 Carry On, Jeeves P. G. Wodehouse 1925 British English
1827 Experience Martin Amis 2000 British English
1830 Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant Anne Tyler 1982 American English
1859 Angel Elizabeth Taylor 1957 British English
1885 Little Disturbances Grace Paley 1959 American English
1895 Me Talk Pretty One Day David Sedaris 2000 American English
1903 Handley Cross R. S. Surtees 1843 British English
1904 The Diviners Margaret Laurence 1974 Canadian English
1909 The Collected Stories Of Lydia Davis Lydia Davis 2009 American English
1912 World's End T. C. Boyle 1987 American English
1918 The Lady Of The Camellias Alexandre Dumas 1848 French French
1934 Corelli's Mandolin Louis de Bernières 1994 British English
1946 A Burnt Child Stig Dagerman 1948 Swedish Swedish
1968 Kama Sutra Vātsyāyana -400 Indian Sanskrit
2000 Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter Mario Vargas Llosa 1977 Peruvian Spanish
2001 The Flamethrowers Rachel Kushner 2013 American English
2010 The Notebook Nicholas Sparks 1996 American English
2028 The Land Of Laughs Jonathan Carroll 1980 American English
2052 The Misanthrope Molière 1666 French French
2062 Girl With Green Eyes Edna O'Brien 1962 Irish English
2068 The Black Dahlia James Ellroy 1987 American English
2083 The Memoirs of a Survivor Doris May Lessing 1974 British English
2108 The Shell Seekers Rosamunde Pilcher 1987 British English
2114 All Souls' Day Cees Nooteboom 1998 Dutch Dutch
2174 Surfacing Margaret Atwood 1972 Canadian English
2177 Old People And The Things That Pass Louis Couperus 1906 Dutch Dutch
2178 The Love Of The Last Tycoon F. Scott Fitzgerald 1941 American English
2185 On Love Alain de Botton 1993 British English
2200 Death Of A Hero Richard Aldington 1929 British English
2201 Arch Of Triumph Erich Maria Remarque 1945 German German
2207 Waiting Ha Jin 1999 Chinese English
2209 Sub Rosa Robert Aickman 1968 British English
2218 The Sense of an Ending Julian Barnes 2011 British English
2227 Exit West Mohsin Hamid 2017 Pakistani English
2242 Milkman Anna Burns 2018 Irish English
2244 The Gathering Anne Enright 2007 Irish English