The Greatest Books of All Time Set in Southern Us

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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
16 To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee 1960 American English
68 Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neale Hurston 1937 American English
118 The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter Carson McCullers 1940 American English
122 Decameron Giovanni Boccaccio 1353 Italian Italian
149 All the King's Men Robert Penn Warren 1946 American English
157 The Color Purple Alice Walker 1982 American English
184 Uncle Tom's Cabin Harriet Beecher Stowe 1852 American English
208 A Good Man Is Hard to Find Flannery O'Connor 1953 American English
243 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Mark Twain 1876 American English
350 The Complete Stories of Flannery O'Connor Flannery O'Connor 1971 American English
456 Let Us Now Praise Famous Men James Agee 1941 American English
500 Everything That Rises Must Converge Flannery O'Connor 1965 American English
513 Kindred Octavia E. Butler 1979 American English
560 Sula Toni Morrison 1973 American English
599 A Streetcar Named Desire Tennessee Williams 1947 American English
640 Black Boy Richard Wright 1945 American English
704 Breakfast at Tiffany's Truman Capote 1958 American English
788 Roots Alex Haley 1976 American English
854 Cane Jean Toomer 1923 American English
1308 Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry Mildred D. Taylor 1976 American English
1313 The Optimist's Daughter Eudora Welty 1972 American English
1368 Salvage the Bones Jesmyn Ward 2011 American English
1379 The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty Eudora Welty 1980 American English
1468 The Collected Stories of William Faulkner William Faulkner 1950 American English
2307 The Old Forest Peter Taylor 1985 American English
2752 Dust Tracks on a Road Zora Neale Hurston 1942 American English
2816 The Golden Apples Eudora Welty 1949 American English
3167 Paris Trout Pete Dexter 1988 American English
3513 Mary Chesnut's Civil War Mary Boykin Chesnut 1981 American English
4177 The Mind of the South W. J. Cash 1941 American English
4299 Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe Fannie Flagg 1987 American English
4447 Ellen Foster Kaye Gibbons 1987 American English
4504 Killers of the Dream Lillian Smith 1949 American English
4659 Lanterns on the Levee William Alexander Percy 1941 American English
4719 I'll Take My Stand Twelve Southerners 1930 American English
4753 Origins of the New South C. Vann Woodward 1951 American English
4808 The Burden of Southern History C. Vann Woodward 1960 American English
5119 North Toward Home Willie Morris 1967 American English
5124 Cold Sassy Tree Olive Ann Burns 1984 American English
5251 The Strange Career of Jim Crow C. Vann Woodward 1955 American English
5275 Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Tennessee Williams 1955 American English
5411 The Prince of Tides Pat Conroy 1986 American English
6003 Kate Vaiden Reynolds Price 1986 American English
6487 The Keepers of the House Shirley Ann Grau 1964 American English
6929 Jayber Crow Wendell Berry 2000 American English
8458 March John Lewis 2013 American English
8792 The Reivers William Faulkner 1962 American English
8856 The Water Dancer Ta-Nehisi Coates 2019 American English
9660 F Letter Galina Rymbu, Eugene Ostashevsky, Ainsley Morse 2021 Russian Russian
11085 Praying for Sheetrock Melissa Fay Greene 1991 American English
11455 Scarlet Sister Mary Julia Peterkin 1928 American English
11455 Lamb in His Bosom Caroline Miller 1933 American English
11455 In This Our Life Ellen Glasgow 1941 American English
11481 Victory Over Japan Ellen Gilchrist 1984 American English
14458 Collected Stories of Peter Taylor Peter Taylor 1969 American English
14985 A Nation under Our Feet Steven Hahn 2003 American English
17163 Been in the Storm So Long Leon F. Litwack 1979 American English
17163 The Water Is Wide Pat Conroy 1972 American English
17163 Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood Rebecca Wells 1996 American English