The Greatest Books of All Time on Suffering

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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
4218 Hecuba Euripides -424 Greek Ancient greek
4269 Sevastopol Sketches Leo Tolstoy 1855 Russian Russian
4453 Zurita Raul Zurita 1979 Chilean Spanish
4494 The Little Match Girl Unknown 1845 Unknown Danish
4511 Out Of The Fire Ales Adamovich, Yanka Bryl, Vladimir Kolesnik 1981 Belarusian Russian
4615 Gulag Anne Applebaum 2003 American English
4631 De Profundis Oscar Wilde 1905 British English
4688 The Lord Romano Guardini 1934 German German
4893 The Short Stories Of Anton Chekhov Anton Chekhov 1886 Russian Russian
4984 New Poems Rainer Maria Rilke 1907 German German
5026 Deathfeast Takis Sinopoulos 1978 Greek Greek
5102 The Doctor Stories William Carlos Williams 1984 American English
5154 Quarantine Jim Crace 1997 British English
5237 Deep River Shūsaku Endō 1993 Japanese Japanese
5362 On Suicide Jean Améry 1976 Unknown German
5393 The Poems of Emily Bronte Emily Brontë 1846 British English
5393 Devotions upon Emergent Occasions John Donne 1624 British English
5393 Holy Dying Jeremy Taylor 1651 British English
5482 The Inferno Dante Alighieri 1308 Italian Italian
5488 Body Rags Galway Kinnell 1968 American English
5513 Riders In The Chariot Patrick White 1961 Australian English
5591 How It Is Samuel Beckett 1961 Irish French
5599 Bloodlands Timothy Snyder 2010 American English
5668 The Passionate Heart Beatrix Beck 1955 French French
5753 Shadows On The Tundra Dalia Grinkevičiutė 1997 Lithuanian Lithuanian
5863 Poems And Prose Gerald Manley Hopkins 1918 British English
5906 Notes From Underground & Other Stories Fyodor Dostoevsky 1864 Russian Russian
6005 A Woman Named Solitude André Schwarz-Bart 1972 French French
6005 Night Edgar Hilsenrath 1964 German German
6005 Testimony Charles Reznikoff 1965 American English
6005 Van Gogh Antonin Artaud 1947 French French
6132 The Fool In Christ Gerhart Hauptmann 1910 German German
6180 The Complete Poems of Samuel Taylor Coleridge Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1828 British English
6219 Holocaust Charles Reznikoff 1975 American English
6277 The Narrow Road To The Deep North Richard Flanagan 2013 Australian English
6358 Heroes' Shrine For Sale or The Elegant Toilet Marios Hakkas 1993 Greek Greek
6448 Warngedichte Erich Fried 1987 Austrian German
6537 The Empathy Exams Leslie Jamison 2014 American English
6651 Tratado das Paixões da Alma António Lobo Antunes 1990 Portuguese Portuguese
6654 Beauty Salon Mario Bellatin 1994 Mexican Spanish
6748 The Garlic Ballads Yan Mo 1988 Chinese Chinese
6872 Eustace Chisholm And The Works James Purdy 1967 American English
6873 Love's Work Gillian Rose 1995 British English
7040 Hope Against Hope Nadezhda Mandelstam 1970 Russian Russian
7110 Journey Into The Whirlwind Eugenia Ginzburg 1967 Russian Russian
7216 Sonnets And Madrigals Michelangelo Buonarroti 1545 Italian Italian
7216 The Poems Of St. John Of The Cross St. John of the Cross 1578 Spanish Spanish
7216 Silex Scintillans, Etc Henry Vaughan 1650 British English
7216 The Complete Works Of Richard Crashaw Richard Crashaw 1652 British English
7216 Samson Agonistes John Milton 1671 British English
7216 Poems Of William Cowper William Cowper 1782 British English
7216 Poems Of George Crabbe George Crabbe 1807 British English
7216 Juives Robert Garnier 1583 French French
7216 The Lisbon Earthquake Voltaire 1756 French French
7216 Poems Of Alfred De Vigny Alfred de Vigny 1837 French French
7216 To Damascus August Strindberg 1898 Swedish Swedish
7216 Poems Of Matthew Arnold Matthew Arnold 1853 British English
7216 The City Of The Dreadful Night James Thomson 1880 British English
7216 Short Novels Fyodor Dostoevsky 1846 Russian Russian
7216 Poems Of Sidney Lanier Sidney Lanier 1884 American English
7216 Orphic Songs Dino Campana 1914 Italian Italian
7216 Selected Poems Giuseppe Ungaretti 1942 Italian Italian
7216 The Buried Harbour Giuseppe Ungaretti 1916 Italian Italian
7216 Poems Of Pierre Jean Jouve Pierre-Jean Jouve 1925 French French
7216 Collected Poems Isaac Rosenberg 1937 British English
7216 Selected Tales Leonid Andreyev 1900 Russian Russian
7216 Selected Poems Angelos Sikelianos 1900 Greek Greek
7216 Poems Of H. Leivick H. Leivick 1918 Yiddish Yiddish
7216 Shirot Bialik Hayyim Nahman Bialik 1901 Israeli Hebrew
7583 Animal Liberation Peter Singer 1975 Australian English
7861 Poems Of Blas De Otero Blas de Otero 1950 Spanish Spanish
7861 Poems Of René Char René Char 1950 French French
7911 Poems Of Keith Douglas Keith Douglas 1951 British English
7959 La Casa De La Fuerza Angélica Liddell 2009 Spanish Spanish
7993 A World Apart Gustaw Herling 1951 Polish Polish
7996 Black Rain Masuji Ibuse 1965 Japanese Japanese
8009 Poems Of Elizabeth Jennings Elizabeth Jennings 1953 British English
8107 The History Of Mary Prince, A West Indian Slave Mary Prince 1831 British English
8178 Three Novels Samuel Beckett 1955 Irish French
8355 Libertinagem Manuel Bandeira 1930 Brazilian Portuguese
8363 Ethics Dietrich Bonhoeffer 1949 German German
8389 Poems Of Edmond Jabès Edmond Jabès 1959 French French
8423 The Green Mile Stephen King 1996 American English
8473 Selected Writings Salvatore Quasimodo 1960 Italian Italian
8473 La Pell De Brau Salvador Espríu 1960 Catalan Catalan
8473 Poems Of Anne Hébert Anne Hébert 1960 Canadian French
8517 Os Escravos Castro Alves 1883 Brazilian Portuguese
8670 The Hiding Place Corrie ten Boom 1971 Dutch English
8675 Collected Poems Wilfred Owen 1963 British English
8705 The Last Books of Hector Viel Temperley Hector Viel Temperley
 2011 Argentinian Spanish
8795 Viper In The Fist Hervé Bazin 1948 French French
8801 World Light Halldor Laxness 1937 Icelandic Icelandic
8832 Hiroshima Notes Kenzaburō Ōe 1965 Japanese Japanese
8952 Eu Augusto Dos Anjos 1912 Brazilian Portuguese
8970 The Shack William P. Young 2007 American English
9160 La Blessure Et La Soif Laurence Plazenet 2009 French French
9246 The Complete Dramatic Works Of Samuel Beckett Samuel Beckett 1986 Irish English
9294 Casualties John Pepper Clark 1970 Nigerian English
9317 Russia Is Burning Maria Bloshteyn 2020 Russian English
9358 Selected Poems Marina Tsvetayeva 1971 Russian Russian
9596 The Gospel According To Jesus Christ José Saramago 1991 Portuguese Portuguese
9623 Efuru Flora Nwapa 1966 Nigerian English
9648 Selected Poems Osip Mandelstam 1973 Russian Russian
9648 Selected Poems Czesław Miłosz 1973 Polish Polish
9660 The Messiah Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock 2012 German German
9836 An Interrupted Life Etty Hillesum 1981 Dutch Dutch
9931 Poems Of Umberto Saba Umberto Saba 1976 Italian Italian
9931 Collected Poems Richard Eberhart 1976 American English
10031 The Boy Who Stole Attila's Horse Ivan Repila 2013 Spanish Spanish
10168 A River Sutra Gita Mehta 1993 Indian English
10241 In Love With The World Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, Helen Tworkov 2019 Unknown English
10264 Selected Poems Miguel Hernández 1979 Spanish Spanish
10454 This Republic of Suffering Drew Gilpin Faust 2008 American English
10660 Grief Observed C. S. Lewis 1961 British English
10752 Selected Poems Galway Kinnell 1982 American English
10780 Sandalwood Death Yan Mo 2001 Chinese Chinese
10941 The Art Of Cruelty Maggie Nelson 2011 American English
10957 Tears in the Darkness Michael Norman, Elizabeth M. Norman 2009 American English
11002 City Of Joy Dominique Lapierre 1985 French French
11278 In The Storm Of Roses Ingeborg Bachmann 1987 Austrian German