The Greatest Books of All Time on Resilience

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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
47 David Copperfield Charles Dickens 1849 British English
54 The Old Man and the Sea Ernest Hemingway 1952 American English
58 Gone With the Wind Margaret Mitchell 1936 American English
76 The Plague Albert Camus 1947 French French
126 If This Is a Man Primo Levi 1947 Italian Italian
148 One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 1962 Russian Russian
157 The Color Purple Alice Walker 1982 American English
160 My Antonia Willa Cather 1918 American English
244 A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Betty Smith 1943 American English
281 The Good Earth Pearl S. Buck 1931 American English
288 Independent People Halldor Laxness 1934 Icelandic Icelandic
375 Kolyma Stories Varlam Shalamov 1954 Russian Russian
379 The Second World War Winston Churchill 1948 British English
451 Hiroshima John Hersey 1946 American English
488 The Shipping News Annie Proulx 1993 Canadian English
521 I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Maya Angelou 1969 American English
582 Man's Search for Meaning Viktor Frankl 1946 Austrian German
626 Promise at Dawn Romain Gary 1960 French French
658 Angle of Repose Wallace Stegner 1971 American English
722 Bastard Out of Carolina Dorothy Allison 1992 American English
788 Roots Alex Haley 1976 American English
879 A Town Like Alice Nevil Shute 1950 British English
937 The Sea Wall Marguerite Duras 1950 French French
1206 Pachinko Min Jin Lee 2017 American English
1234 Woman at Point Zero Nawal El Saadawi 1975 Egyptian Arabic
1241 The Life Before Us Romain Gary 1975 French French
1315 Voices from Chernobyl Svetlana Alexievich 1997 Belarusian Russian
1333 Barefoot Zaharia Stancu 1948 Romanian Romanian
1365 Nectar in a Sieve Kamala Markandaya 1954 Indian English
1368 Salvage the Bones Jesmyn Ward 2011 American English
1435 Life After Life Kate Atkinson 2013 British English
1444 James and the Giant Peach Roald Dahl 1961 British English
1504 Sometimes a Great Notion Ken Kesey 1964 American English
1513 The Women of Brewster Place Gloria Naylor 1982 American English
1514 Pelle The Conqueror Martin Andersen Nexø 1906 Danish Danish
1520 The Slaves of Solitude Patrick Hamilton 1947 British English
1569 Empire of the Sun J. G. Ballard 1984 British English
1575 Borstal Boy Brendan Behan 1958 Irish English
1643 Angela's Ashes Frank McCourt 1996 American English
1662 Down Second Avenue Es'kia Mphahlele 1959 South African English
1733 My Childhood Maxim Gorky 1913 Russian Russian
1743 Life & Times of Michael K J. M. Coetzee 1983 South African English
1752 Men We Reaped Jesmyn Ward 2013 American English
1764 A Little Life Hanya Yanagihara 2015 American English
1771 Stone Butch Blues Leslie Feinberg 1993 American English
1776 Flowering Nettle Harry Martinson 1935 Swedish Swedish
1861 Citizen Claudia Rankine 2014 American English
1890 Obasan Joy Kogawa 1981 Canadian English
1977 House with the Blind Glass Windows Herbjørg Wassmo 1981 Norwegian Norwegian
1996 A Childhood Harry Crews 1978 American English
2022 The Color of Water James McBride 1995 American English
2058 A Thousand Splendid Suns Khaled Hosseini 2007 Afghan English
2067 How Late It Was, How Late James Kelman 1994 Scottish English
2080 A Little Princess Frances Hodgson Burnett 1905 British English
2094 Derborence Charles Ferdinand Ramuz 1934 Swiss French
2097 The Bean Trees Barbara Kingsolver 1988 American English
2107 Demon Copperhead Barbara Kingsolver 2022 American English
2182 Far From the Tree Andrew Solomon 2012 American English
2283 Goodnight Mister Tom Michelle Magorian 1981 British English
2294 Family Life Akhil Sharma 2014 Indian English
2318 The Sacred Night Tahar Ben Jelloun 1987 Moroccan French
2330 Sunset Song Lewis Grassic Gibbon 1932 Scottish English
2369 The Power of One Bryce Courtenay 1989 Australian English
2393 The Glass Castle Jeannette Walls 2005 American English
2401 The Charwoman's Daughter James Stephens 1912 Irish English
2414 Educated Tara Westover 2018 American English
2423 Into Thin Air Jon Krakauer 1997 American English
2436 The Railway Children Edith Nesbit 1906 British English
2463 The Silent Duchess Dacia Maraini 1990 Italian Italian
2478 Artemisia Anna Banti 1947 Italian Italian
2497 Room Emma Donoghue 2010 Irish English
2502 Homegoing Yaa Gyasi 2016 Ghanaian English
2595 Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? Jeanette Winterson 2011 British English
2607 Heavy Kiese Laymon 2018 American English
2619 To Live Yu Hua 1993 Chinese Chinese
2650 The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian Sherman Alexie 2007 American English
2657 The Daughter Pavlos Matesis 1990 Greek Greek
2697 All Over But The Shoutin' Rick Bragg 1997 American English
2808 Jacob Have I Loved Katherine Paterson 1980 American English
2835 How to Cook a Wolf M. F. K. Fisher 1942 American English
2847 What Is the What Dave Eggers 2006 American English
2928 The Waiting Years Fumiko Enchi 1957 Japanese Japanese
3077 Paradise of the Blind Dương Thu Hương 1988 Vietnamese Vietnamese
3091 Disturbance Philippe Lançon 2018 French French
3150 A Series of Unfortunate Events #1 Lemony Snicket 1999 American English
3180 Women And Appletrees Moa Martinson 1933 Swedish Swedish
3264 The Days Of Abandonment Elena Ferrante 2002 Italian Italian
3277 Up in the Old Hotel Joseph Mitchell 1992 American English
3285 Three Strong Women Marie NDiaye 2009 French French
3311 Growing Up Russell Baker 1982 American English
3400 Great Plains Ian Frazier 1989 American English
3415 Hanna's Daughters Marianne Fredriksson 1994 Swedish Swedish
3501 Family Matters Rohinton Mistry 2002 Canadian English
3823 The Edge of the Sword Charles De Gaulle 1959 French French
3828 Cloudstreet Tim Winton 1991 Australian English
3834 Повесть о жизни Konstantin Paustovsky 1956 Russian Russian
3834 The Doctor Of Stalingrad Heinz G. Konsalik 1956 German German
3885 Mother London Michael Moorcock 1988 British English
3924 The Coldest Winter Ever Sister Souljah 1999 American English
4061 The Ice Wall Yasushi Inoue 1959 Japanese Japanese
4075 Travels With Lizbeth Lars Eighner 1993 American English
4101 Life And Death In Shanghai Nien Cheng 1986 Chinese English
4105 Lange Schatten Marie Luise Kaschnitz 1960 German German
4139 The Liars' Club Mary Karr 1995 American English
4207 Here's to You, Jesusa! Elena Poniatowska 1969 Mexican Spanish
4384 Flowers in the Attic V. C. Andrews 1979 American English
4446 Ellen Foster Kaye Gibbons 1987 American English
4566 No Great Mischief Alistair MacLeod 1999 Canadian English
4572 The Moomins And The Great Flood Tove Jansson 1945 Finnish Swedish
4588 The Nickel Boys Colson Whitehead 2019 American English
4595 Nora Webster Colm Toibin 2014 Irish English
4855 Best of Simple Langston Hughes 1961 American English
4855 The Gift Horse Hildegard Knef 1970 German German
4865 The Love Songs Of W.E.B. Dubois Honorée Fanonne Jeffers 2021 American English
4986 Territory Of Light Yuko Tsushima 1979 Japanese Japanese
4994 Persepolis Two Marjane Satrapi 2004 Iranian French
5001 Be Faithful Unto Death Zsigmond Móricz 1921 Hungarian Hungarian
5080 Autobiography Of A Face Lucy Grealy 1994 American English
5082 Nowhere In Africa Stefanie Zweig 1995 German German
5129 All But My Life Gerda Weissmann Klein 1957 American English