The Greatest Books of All Time on Storytelling

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
46 One Thousand and One Nights Unknown 800 Multiple Arabic
110 The Canterbury Tales Geoffrey Chaucer 1400 British Middle english
122 Decameron Giovanni Boccaccio 1353 Italian Italian
270 Malone Dies Samuel Beckett 1951 Irish French
357 At Swim Two-Birds Flann O'Brien 1939 Irish English
738 The Joy Luck Club Amy Tan 1989 American English
797 The Manuscript Found in Saragossa Jan Potocki 1805 Polish French
1002 Ceremony Leslie Marmon Silko 1977 American English
1037 The Woman Warrior Maxine Hong Kingston 1976 American English
1101 Outline Rachel Cusk 2014 British English
1134 The Neverending Story Michael Ende 1979 German German
1142 Life of Pi Yann Martel 2001 Canadian English
1261 The Blind Assassin Margaret Atwood 2000 Canadian English
1265 On Writing Stephen King 2000 American English
1299 My Name is Red Orhan Pamuk 1998 Turkish Turkish
1696 Evenings On A Farm Near Dikanka Nikolai Gogol 1831 Russian Russian
1797 Texaco Patrick Chamoiseau 1992 Martinican French
1887 The Uses of Enchantment Bruno Bettelheim 1976 Austrian English
1975 Peace Gene Wolfe 1975 American English
2000 Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter Mario Vargas Llosa 1977 Peruvian Spanish
2050 Momo Michael Ende 1973 German German
2061 The Last World Christoph Ransmayr 1988 Austrian German
2266 Pricksongs and Descants Robert Coover 1969 American English
2336 There There Tommy Orange 2018 American English
2353 Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress Dai Sijie 2000 Chinese French
2425 Soul Mountain Xingjian Gao 1990 Chinese Chinese
2666 The Songlines Bruce Chatwin 1987 British English
2679 Generation X Douglas Coupland 1991 Canadian English
2705 Lost Children Archive Valeria Luiselli 2019 Mexican English
2886 Everything Is Illuminated Jonathan Safran Foer 2002 American English
3004 The Monkey's Wrench Primo Levi 1978 Italian Italian
3040 Baron Munchausen's Narrative Of His Marvelous Travels And Campaigns In Russia Rudolf Erich Raspe 1785 German German
3069 Caramelo Sandra Cisneros 2002 American English
3075 One Writer's Beginnings Eudora Welty 1984 American English
3158 The Flounder Günter Grass 1977 German German
3162 Natural Novel Georgi Gospodinov 1999 Bulgarian Bulgarian
3170 Hitchcock Francois Truffaut 1966 French French
3398 The Name Of The Wind Patrick Rothfuss 2007 American English
3501 Borges Adolfo Bioy Casares 2006 Argentine Spanish
3637 The Tootinameh; Or, Tales of a Parrot India, Iran 1300 Indian Persian
3637 The Adventures Of Baron Munchausen Gottfried Burger 1785 German German
3637 Stopfkuchen Wilhelm Karl Raabe 1891 German German
3860 Tales of Amadou Koumba Birago Diop 1947 Togolese French
3888 Illywhacker Peter Carey 1985 Australian English
3944 In The Dream House Carmen Maria Machado 2019 American English
3952 Ancuța's Inn Mihail Sadoveanu 1928 Romanian Romanian
4135 The Faraway Nearby Rebecca Solnit 2013 American English
4170 Trout Fishing In America Richard Brautigan 1967 American English
4172 Sandro of Chegem Fazil Iskander 1966 Russian Russian
4206 The Castle of Crossed Destinies Italo Calvino 1969 Italian Italian
4286 Gantenbein Max Frisch 1964 Swiss German
4294 Bird By Bird Anne Lamott 1994 American English
4498 Mister Pip Lloyd Jones 2006 New Zealand English
4661 The Swan Book Alexis Wright 2013 Australian English
4744 Indaba, My Children Vusamazulu Credo Mutwa 1964 South African English
5039 Life is a Carawanserai Has Two Doors I Went in One I Came out the Other Emine Sevgi Özdamar 1992 Turkish German
5390 Tom Lake Ann Patchett 2023 American English
5728 My Kind of Place Susan Orlean 2004 American English
6004 The Return Of Münchausen Sigismund Krzyzanowski 1927 Russian Russian
6087 Danse Macabre Stephen King 1981 American English
6124 Obabakoak Bernardo Atxaga 1988 Spanish Basque
6533 A Stranger In Olondria Sofia Samatar 2013 American English
6553 The Quilts Of Gee's Bend William Arnett, Alvia Wardlaw, Jane Livingston, John Beardsley 2002 American English
6555 Alchemy Of The Word Jan Parandowski 1951 Polish Polish
6767 A Treasury Of American Folklore Benjamin A. Botkin 1944 American English
7067 Stories From A Shona Childhood Charles Mungoshi 1989 Zimbabwean English
7136 Chronicler Of The Winds Henning Mankell 1995 Swedish Swedish
7180 Retold African American Folktales David Haynes 1996 American Unknown
7215 The Earthly Paradise William Morris 1868 British English
7215 Puck Of Pook's Hill Rudyard Kipling 1906 British English
7215 Tamarisk Row Gerald Murnane 1974 Australian English
7611 Aunt Julia And The Script Writer Mario Vargas Llosa 1977 Peruvian Spanish
7621 Dropbear Evelyn Araluen 2021 Australian English
7753 Mr. Fox Helen Oyeyemi 2011 British English
8008 Fire And Hemlock Diana Wynne Jones 1985 British English
8068 Minor Angels Antoine Volodine 1999 French French
8106 American Indian Stories Zitkala-Sa 1921 American English
8106 The Moccasin Maker E. Pauline Johnson 1913 Canadian English
8175 Saints And Strangers Angela Carter 1985 British English
8335 Fable Robert Pinget 1958 French French
8444 Panorama Dušan Šarotar 2016 Slovenian Slovene
8705 Strategies Of Fantasy Brian Attebery 1992 American English
8773 See Under: Love David Grossman 1986 Israeli Hebrew
8823 The Sacred Hoop Paula Gunn Allen 1986 American English
8922 In My Father's Court Isaac Bashevis Singer 1966 Polish Yiddish
8995 Inkheart Cornelia Funke 2003 German German
9031 The Storyteller Mario Vargas Llosa 1987 Peruvian Spanish
9097 Of Strangers And Bees Hamid Ismailov 2019 Uzbek Uzbek
9279 Kurangaituku Whiti Hereaka 2022 New Zealander English
9299 My Place Sally Morgan 1987 Australian English
9701 Extra Lives Tom Bissell 2010 American English
9728 Wait Five Minutes Shelley Ingram, Willow G. Mullins 2019 Unknown English
9741 Alphabetical Africa Walter Abish 1974 American English
9826 Tristano Dies Antonio Tabucchi 2004 Italian Italian
9833 Fountain And Tomb Naguib Mahfouz 1975 Egyptian Arabic
10076 Habibi Craig Thompson 2011 American English
10110 Stradbroke Dreamtime Oodgeroo Noonuccal 1972 Australian English
10305 Morphology Of The Folktale Vladimir Aioakovlevich Propp 1928 Russian Russian
10450 Finishing The Hat Stephen Sondheim 2010 American English
10507 October Light John Gardner 1976 American English
10709 The Dress Diary Kate Strasdin 2023 Unknown English
10782 Cassandra Speaks Elizabeth Lesser 2020 American English
10846 Orson Welles André Bazin 1972 French French
10963 The Films In My Life Francois Truffaut 1975 French French
11049 The Roots Of Ticasuk Ticasuk Brown 1981 American English
11164 Foe J. M. Coetzee 1986 South African English
11209 Based On A True Story Norm Macdonald 2016 Canadian English
11253 Sister Age M. F. K. Fisher 1983 American English
11253 Womenfolks Shirley Abbott 1983 American English
11406 Women Who Run With The Wolves Clarissa Pinkola Estés 1992 American English
11442 Mohawk Trail Beth Brant 1985 Canadian English
11580 Getting Home Alive Aurora Levins Morales, Rosario Morales 1986 American English
11661 China Men Maxine Hong Kingston 1980 American English
11661 Arabesques Anton Shammas 1986 Israeli Hebrew
11878 Sololand Hassan Blasim 2021 Iraqi Arabic
11882 This All Come Back Now Mykaula Saunders 2022 Unknown English
12023 Cafe Scheherazade Arnold Zable 2001 Australian English
12045 Chimera John Barth 1972 American English
12083 The Big Mama Stories Shay Youngblood 1989 American English
12083 Dancing At The Edge Of The World Ursula K. Le Guin 1989 American English