The Greatest Books of All Time on Relationships

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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
2247 The Bald Soprano Eugène Ionesco 1950 French French
2256 Busman’s Honeymoon Dorothy L. Sayers 1937 British English
2267 Pricksongs and Descants Robert Coover 1969 American English
2270 The Virgin in the Garden A. S. Byatt 1978 British English
2274 The Accidental Tourist Anne Tyler 1985 American English
2295 Family Life Akhil Sharma 2014 Indian English
2304 Machine Dreams Jayne Anne Phillips 1984 American English
2307 The Old Forest Peter Taylor 1985 American English
2315 Ship Of Fools Katherine Anne Porter 1962 American English
2322 Rituals Cees Nooteboom 1980 Dutch Dutch
2342 Jimmy Corrigan, the Smartest Kid on Earth Chris Ware 2000 American English
2348 A Summons to Memphis Peter Taylor 1986 American English
2368 Brooklyn Colm Toibin 2009 Irish English
2372 Happiness, as Such Natalia Ginzburg 1973 Italian Italian
2374 The Vagabond Colette 1910 French French
2374 Roxana Daniel Defoe 1724 British English
2389 Breathing Lessons Anne Tyler 1988 American English
2397 Maurice Guest Henry Handel Richardson 1908 Australian English
2410 That They May Face the Rising Sun John McGahern 2002 Irish English
2418 Bright Lights, Big City Jay McInerney 1984 American English
2426 Platform Michel Houellebecq 2001 French French
2439 The Crow Road Iain Banks 1992 British English
2447 The Map And The Territory Michel Houellebecq 2010 French French
2468 Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage Alice Munro 2001 Canadian English
2469 On Beauty Zadie Smith 2005 British English
2506 Pastoralia George Saunders 2000 American English
2513 On the Black Hill Bruce Chatwin 1982 British English
2539 Clear Light of Day Anita Desai 1980 Indian English
2542 Pilgrimage Dorothy Richardson 1915 British English
2543 The Artamonov Business Maxim Gorky 1925 Russian Russian
2545 Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day Winifred Watson 1938 British English
2549 The Thinking Reed Rebecca West 1936 British English
2559 Death Sentence Maurice Blanchot 1948 French French
2572 Childhood Nathalie Sarraute 1983 French French
2577 The Diary of Anais Nin, 1931-1934 Anaïs Nin 1966 French English
2583 Good Behaviour Molly Keane 1981 Irish English
2588 Red Shift Alan Garner 1973 British English
2591 The Trick Is to Keep Breathing Janice Galloway 1989 British English
2636 An American Marriage Tayari Jones 2018 American English
2637 The Lament Of The Linnet Anna Maria Ortese 1997 Italian Italian
2649 Gemini Michel Tournier 1975 French French
2653 Sleepless Nights Elizabeth Hardwick 1979 American English
2663 Early Autumn Robert B. Parker 1980 American English
2676 Deep Water Patricia Highsmith 1957 American English
2680 Generation X Douglas Coupland 1991 Canadian English
2684 Calamity Town Ellery Queen 1942 American English
2691 Childhood Tove Ditlevsen 1967 Danish Danish
2694 Waiting to Exhale Terry McMillan 1992 American English
2696 Dalva Jim Harrison 1988 American English
2752 Castle Gripsholm Kurt Tucholsky 1931 German German
2800 Goodbye, Columbus Philip Roth 1959 American English
2801 Delta Wedding Eudora Welty 1946 American English
2806 Fates and Furies Lauren Groff 2015 American English
2809 Summertime J. M. Coetzee 2009 South African English
2816 The Golden Apples Eudora Welty 1949 American English
2828 A Manual For Cleaning Women Lucia Berlin 2015 American English
2839 The Bottle Factory Outing Beryl Bainbridge 1974 British English
2841 The Stone Angel Margaret Laurence 1964 Canadian English
2848 Things Georges Perec 1965 French French
2852 Bad News Edward St Aubyn 1992 British English
2855 The Counterlife Philip Roth 1986 American English
2859 The Dog Of The South Charles Portis 1979 American English
2870 Dead Zone Stephen King 1979 American English
2883 Septology Jon Fosse 2019 Norwegian Norwegian
2902 Cremation Rafael Chirbes 2007 Spanish Spanish
2904 What I Loved Siri Hustvedt 2003 American English
2909 A Taste For Death P. D. James 1986 British English
2921 Maigret And The Headless Corpse Georges Simenon 1955 Belgian French
2923 The Progress of Love Alice Munro 1986 Canadian English
2929 Unless Carol Shields 2002 Canadian English
2949 Eva Trout Elizabeth Bowen 1968 Irish English
2959 The Lower Depths Maxim Gorky 1902 Russian Russian
2964 The History Man Malcolm Bradbury 1975 British English
2969 A Dream Play August Strindberg 1902 Swedish Swedish
2987 Tipping The Velvet Sarah Waters 1998 British English
2994 Clayhanger Arnold Bennett 1910 British English
3000 Poor Folk Fyodor Dostoevsky 1846 Russian Russian
3007 Hideous Kinky Esther Freud 1992 British English
3016 The American Henry James 1877 American English
3020 Before Lunch Angela Thirkell 1939 British English
3022 The Echoing Grove Rosamond Lehmann 1953 British English
3022 The Tortoise And The Hare Elizabeth Jenkins 1936 British English
3022 The Murder At The Vicarage Agatha Christie 1930 British English
3022 Pictures From An Institution Randall Jarrell 1954 American English
3036 Less Than Angels Barbara Pym 1955 British English
3042 The Good Companions J. B. Priestley 1929 British English
3042 South Riding Winifred Holtby 1936 British English
3040 Manservant And Maidservant Ivy Compton-Burnett 1947 British English
3070 Caramelo Sandra Cisneros 2002 American English
3075 Patrimony Philip Roth 1991 American English
3082 Flappers And Philosophers F. Scott Fitzgerald 1920 American English
3103 Super Sad True Love Story Gary Shteyngart 2010 American English
3105 Foreign Affairs Alison Lurie 1984 American English
3111 Anagrams Lorrie Moore 1986 American English
3112 Leviathan Paul Auster 1992 American English
3115 Affinity Sarah Waters 1999 British English
3124 Cover Her Face P. D. James 1962 British English
3158 The Flounder Günter Grass 1977 German German
3161 Weights And Measures Joseph Roth 1937 Austrian German
3172 The Bee Sting Paul Murray 2023 Irish English
3174 Oblivion David Foster Wallace 2004 American English
3179 The Quick And The Dead Joy Williams 2000 American English
3180 Flight Behavior Barbara Kingsolver 2012 American English
3208 Travels With My Aunt Graham Greene 1969 British English
3212 Betty Blue Philippe Djian 1985 French French
3228 Ghachar Ghochar Vivek Shanbhag 2015 Indian Kannada
3244 The Thurber Carnival James Thurber 1945 American English
3252 Endless Love Scott Spencer 1979 American English
3277 The Polish Rider Antonio Muñoz Molina 1991 Spanish Spanish
3286 Three Strong Women Marie NDiaye 2009 French French
3290 Candida George Bernard Shaw 1898 Irish English
3293 The Subterraneans Jack Kerouac 1958 American English
3315 The Afternoon of Monsieur Andesmas Marguerite Duras 1962 French French
3317 The Kiss Quotient Helen Hoang 2018 Vietnamese English
3322 Post Office Charles Bukowski 1971 American English
3324 Torrents of Spring Ivan Turgenev 1872 Russian Russian
3324 Hell Henri Barbusse 1908 French French
3324 Tarr Wyndham Lewis 1918 British English
3324 I Thought of Daisy Edmund Wilson 1929 American English
3324 To the North Elizabeth Bowen 1932 British English