The Greatest Books of All Time on Resistance

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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
132 The Handmaid's Tale Margaret Atwood 1985 Canadian English
159 The Good Soldier Švejk Jaroslav Hašek 1921 Czech Czech
184 Uncle Tom's Cabin Harriet Beecher Stowe 1852 American English
206 The Gulag Archipelago Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 1973 Russian Russian
329 History Elsa Morante 1974 Italian Italian
558 Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee Dee Alexander Brown 1970 American English
670 Persepolis Marjane Satrapi 2000 French French
745 Memed, My Hawk Yashar Kemal 1955 Turkish Turkish
771 God's Bits of Wood Ousmane Sembène 1960 Senegalese French
873 Call to Arms Lu Xun 1922 Chinese Chinese
913 Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass 1845 American English
938 Burger's Daughter Nadine Gordimer 1979 South African English
1003 A Dry White Season Andre Brink 1979 South African Afrikaans
1021 If Not Now, When? Primo Levi 1982 Italian Italian
1120 The Sorrow of Belgium Hugo Claus 1983 Belgian Dutch
1121 Fantasia Assia Djebar 1985 French French
1131 Ashes and Diamonds Jerzy Andrzejewski 1948 Polish Polish
1260 The President Miguel Angel Asturias 1946 Guatemalan Spanish
1298 The Days of His Grace Eyvind Johnson 1960 Swedish Swedish
1303 The Seventh Cross Anna Seghers 1942 German German
1353 William Tell Friedrich Schiller 1804 German German
1401 Silence of the Sea Vercors 1942 French French
1413 All the Light We Cannot See Anthony Doerr 2014 American English
1418 The Path to the Nest of Spiders Italo Calvino 1947 Italian Italian
1437 Bébo's Girl Carlo Cassola 1960 Italian Italian
1457 Deliver Us Luigi Meneghello 1963 Italian Italian
1580 The Struggle for Europe Chester Wilmot 1952 British English
1616 Under the Yoke Ivan Vazov 1888 Bulgarian Bulgarian
1648 Wizard of the Crow Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o 2006 Kenyan English
1682 Asterix the Gaul Rene Goscinny 1959 French French
1694 Cassandra Christa Wolf 1983 German German
1748 The Fox Was Ever The Hunter Herta Müller 1992 German German
1749 First Circle Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 1968 Russian Russian
1797 Texaco Patrick Chamoiseau 1992 Martinican French
1820 Fontamara Ignazio Silone 1933 Italian Italian
1845 Drifting Cities Stratis Tsirkas 1960 Greek Greek
1860 Notebook Of A Return To The Native Land Aimé Césaire 1939 French French
1882 Pereira Maintains Antonio Tabucchi 1994 Italian Italian
1906 Red Sorghum Yan Mo 1986 Chinese Chinese
1917 In the Time of the Butterflies Julia Alvarez 1994 Dominican English
1934 Corelli's Mandolin Louis de Bernières 1994 British English
1979 Furor and Mystery René Char 1948 French French
1985 Black Elk Speaks John G. Neihardt 1932 American English
2003 Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Harriet Jacobs 1861 American English
2009 The War Marguerite Duras 1985 French French
2050 Momo Michael Ende 1973 German German
2053 Spain, Take This Chalice from Me César Vallejo 1939 Peruvian Spanish
2075 The Memory of Fire Trilogy Eduardo Galeano 1982 Uruguayan Spanish
2132 The Man in the High Castle Philip K. Dick 1962 American English
2134 Farewell To Matyora Valentin Rasputin 1976 Russian Russian
2167 Bread And Wine Ignazio Silone 1936 Italian Italian
2267 A Grain Of Wheat Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o 1967 Kenyan English
2347 Poems Of Louis Aragon Louis Aragon 1920 French French
2419 The Melancholy of Resistance László Krasznahorkai 1989 Hungarian Hungarian
2465 La Grande Maison Mohammed Dib 1952 Algerian French
2471 Roll, Jordan, Roll Eugene Genovese 1974 American English
2585 A People's History of the United States Howard Zinn 1980 American English
2596 Possessing the Secret of Joy Alice Walker 1992 American English
2616 The Beautiful Mrs. Seidenman Andrzej Szczypiorski 1986 Polish Polish
2702 The Nightingale Kristin Hannah 2015 American English
2750 Satyagraha in South Africa Gandhi 1928 Indian Gujarati
2811 Matigari Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o 1987 Kenyan Gikuyu
2898 A Private Affair Beppe Fenoglio 1963 Italian Italian
2958 A Poem Without A Hero Anna Akhmatova 1960 Russian Russian
3087 I, Rigoberta Menchú Rigoberta Menchú Tum 1983 Guatemalan Spanish
3101 Reading Lolita in Tehran Azar Nafisi 2003 Iranian English
3136 The Keep F. Paul Wilson 1981 American English
3192 The Aesthetics Of Resistance Peter Weiss 1975 German German
3230 This Bridge Called My Back Cherríe Moraga, Gloria Anzaldúa 1981 American English
3236 The Man Died Wole Soyinka 1972 Nigerian English
3279 Before Night Falls Reinaldo Arenas 1992 Cuban Spanish
3324 Conversations in Sicily Elio Vittorini 1941 Italian Italian
3402 Shadow Over Mars Leigh Brackett 1944 American English
3479 The Use Of Man Aleksandar Tišma 1976 Serbian Serbo-croatian
3515 Rhinoceros and Other Plays Eugène Ionesco 1959 Romanian French
3557 The Black Jacobins C. L. R. James 1938 British English
3571 The Inquisitors' Manual António Lobo Antunes 1996 Portuguese English
3638 Memoirs Of A Revolutionist Vera Figner 1920 Russian Russian
3638 Exile Lion Feuchtwanger 1940 German German
3638 On The Marble Cliffs Ernst Jünger 1939 German German
3842 All Our Yesterdays Natalia Ginzburg 1952 Italian Italian
3861 Native Life In South Africa Sol Plaatje 1916 South African English
3870 Sansibar Or The Last Reason Alfred Andersch 1957 German German
3881 The River Between Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o 1965 Kenyan English
3920 Staying Power Peter Fryer 1984 British English
3932 Mean Spirit Linda Hogan 1990 American English
3951 Clotel William Wells Brown 1853 American English
3953 Η κάθοδος των εννιά Thanassis Valtinos 1963 Greek Greek
3953 Το φως που καίει Kostas Varnalis 1922 Greek Greek
3953 Κατά Σαδδουκαίων Michalis Katsaros 1953 Greek Greek
3953 Η Χαμένη Άνοιξη Stratis Tsirkas 1946 Greek Greek
3953 The End Of Our Small Town Dimitris Hatzis 1963 Greek Greek
4094 The Flaw Antonis Samarakis 1965 Greek Greek
4098 Le Mauvais Sang Feu De Brousse à Trisse Coeur Tchicaya U. Tam'si 1955 Tchadian French
4099 Четвёртая проза Osip Mandelstam 1930 Russian Russian
4120 Life's Good, Brother Nâzim Hikmet 1962 Turkish Turkish
4140 Le Vieux Nègre Et La Médaille Ferdinand Oyono 1956 French French
4153 Like A Tear In The Ocean Manès Sperber 1961 Unknown German
4195 The Oppermanns Lion Feuchtwanger 1933 German German
4205 The Colonizer and the Colonized Albert Memmi 1957 French French
4309 Fair Stood The Wind For France H. E. Bates 1944 British English
4371 Irrlicht Und Feuer Max von der Grün 1963 German German
4371 The Long Voyage Jorge Semprún 1963 French French
4442 Oblivion Héctor Abad Faciolince 2006 Colombian Spanish
4452 Zurita Raul Zurita 1979 Chilean Spanish
4509 Out Of The Fire Ales Adamovich, Yanka Bryl, Vladimir Kolesnik 1981 Belarusian Russian
4580 The Autobiography Of A Runaway Slave Miguel Barnet 1966 Cuban Spanish
4661 The Swan Book Alexis Wright 2013 Australian English
4672 Time Of Parting Anton Donchev 1964 Bulgarian Bulgarian
4684 Extracts From Notes On The Bulgarian Uprisings Zahari Stoyanov 1884 Bulgarian Bulgarian
4722 The Negro Caravan Sterling Allen Brown, Arthur Paul Davis, Ulysses Lee 1941 American English
4722 Mission Box Aris Alexandrou 1974 Greek Greek
4756 The Faculty of Useless Knowledge Yuri Dombrovsky 1976 Russian Russian
4802 Dictee Theresa Hak Kyung Cha 1982 American English
4811 Slave Old Man Patrick Chamoiseau 1997 French French
4828 Cataract Mykhaylo Osadchy 1976 Ukrainian Ukrainian
4991 Utenzi Wa Vita Vya Uhuru Robert Bin Shabaan 1967 Tanzanian Swahili
4993 Tigana Guy Gavriel Kay 1990 Canadian English
5110 The War Of Art Steven Pressfield 2002 American English
5145 Dawn Elie Wiesel 1961 Romanian French