The Greatest Books of All Time on Survival

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
26 The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck 1939 American English
33 Catch-22 Joseph Heller 1961 American English
52 Lord of the Flies William Golding 1954 British English
58 Gone With the Wind Margaret Mitchell 1936 American English
69 Robinson Crusoe Daniel Defoe 1719 British English
84 Slaughterhouse-Five Kurt Vonnegut 1969 American English
86 All Quiet on the Western Front Erich Maria Remarque 1928 German German
100 Dune Frank Herbert 1965 American English
112 Doctor Zhivago Boris Pasternak 1957 Russian Russian
113 The Diary of a Young Girl Anne Frank 1947 Dutch Dutch
126 If This Is a Man Primo Levi 1947 Italian Italian
132 The Handmaid's Tale Margaret Atwood 1985 Canadian English
148 One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 1962 Russian Russian
180 On the Origin of Species Charles Darwin 1859 British English
190 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Douglas Adams 1979 British English
191 And Then There Were None Agatha Christie 1939 British English
198 Blood Meridian Cormac McCarthy 1985 American English
206 The Gulag Archipelago Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 1973 Russian Russian
209 Hunger Knut Hamsun 1890 Norwegian Norwegian
214 Life and Fate Vasily Grossman 1980 Russian Russian
224 Watership Down Richard Adams 1972 British English
230 The Call of the Wild Jack London 1903 American English
274 The Stand Stephen King 1978 American English
288 Independent People Halldor Laxness 1934 Icelandic Icelandic
290 The Road Cormac McCarthy 2006 American English
294 The Time Machine H. G. Wells 1895 British English
309 Tarzan of the Apes Edgar Rice Burroughs 1912 American English
314 The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay Michael Chabon 2000 American English
329 History Elsa Morante 1974 Italian Italian
331 Housekeeping Marilynne Robinson 1980 American English
344 The Thirty-Nine Steps John Buchan 1915 British English
351 Moll Flanders Daniel Defoe 1722 British English
363 The Left Hand Of Darkness Ursula K. Le Guin 1969 American English
372 War of the Worlds H. G. Wells 1898 British English
375 Kolyma Stories Varlam Shalamov 1954 Russian Russian
413 The Naked and the Dead Norman Mailer 1948 American English
427 Cloud Atlas David Mitchell 2004 British English
451 Hiroshima John Hersey 1946 American English
477 Fateless or Fatelessness Imre Kertész 1975 Hungarian Hungarian
501 W, or the Memory of Childhood Georges Perec 1975 French French
507 The Last of the Mohicans James Fenimore Cooper 1826 American English
509 Sanctuary William Faulkner 1931 American English
513 Kindred Octavia E. Butler 1979 American English
528 Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Philip K. Dick 1968 American English
544 The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes Unknown 1554 Spanish Spanish
545 The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie Agota Kristof 1986 Hungarian French
549 A Fine Balance Rohinton Mistry 1995 Indian English
558 Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee Dee Alexander Brown 1970 American English
588 The Pillars Of The Earth Ken Follett 1989 British English
594 Growth of the Soil Knut Hamsun 1917 Norwegian Norwegian
598 Night Elie Wiesel 1958 French French
623 Lonesome Dove Larry McMurtry 1985 American English
630 The Swindler Francisco de Quevedo 1626 Spanish Spanish
635 Johnny Got His Gun Dalton Trumbo 1939 American English
644 The English Patient Michael Ondaatje 1992 Canadian English
648 The Things They Carried Tim O'Brien 1990 American English
650 The Flanders Road Claude Simon 1960 French French
652 Dispatches Michael Herr 1977 American English
656 The Time Of The Doves Merce Rodoreda 1962 Spanish Catalan
663 The Siege of Krishnapur J. G. Farrell 1973 British English
673 Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea Jules Verne 1870 French French
685 Them Joyce Carol Oates 1969 American English
692 The Hive Camilo José Cela 1951 Spanish Spanish
693 Little House on the Prairie Laura Ingalls Wilder 1935 American English
695 Boys Alive Pier Paolo Pasolini 1955 Italian Italian
696 King Solomon's Mines H. Rider Haggard 1885 British English
706 The Skin Curzio Malaparte 1949 Italian Italian
710 At the Mountains of Madness H. P. Lovecraft 1936 American English
722 Bastard Out of Carolina Dorothy Allison 1992 American English
732 A Bend in the River V. S. Naipaul 1979 Trinidadian English
741 The Goldfinch Donna Tartt 2013 American English
745 Memed, My Hawk Yashar Kemal 1955 Turkish Turkish
754 If I Forget Thee, Jerusalem William Faulkner 1939 American English
770 The Underground Railroad Colson Whitehead 2016 American English
773 The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym Edgar Allan Poe 1838 American English
777 I Am Legend Richard Matheson 1954 American English
781 Simplicius Simplicissimus Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen 1668 German German
783 Anabasis Xenophon -390 Greek Ancient greek
799 Kaputt Curzio Malaparte 1944 Italian Italian
803 Sophie's Choice William Styron 1979 American English
817 Rickshaw Boy Lao She 1936 Chinese Chinese
826 Voss Patrick White 1957 Australian English
828 Lost Horizon James Hilton 1933 British English
832 The Last Of The Just André Schwarz-Bart 1959 French French
858 The Woman in the Dunes Kobo Abé 1962 Japanese Japanese
861 We Have Always Lived in the Castle Shirley Jackson 1962 American English
862 Smilla's Sense of Snow Peter Høeg 1992 Danish Danish
878 The Poisonwood Bible Barbara Kingsolver 1998 American English
879 A Town Like Alice Nevil Shute 1950 British English
903 Wild Swans Jung Chang 1991 Chinese English
914 The Yearling Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings 1938 American English
917 The Day of the Triffids John Wyndham 1951 British English
925 Deliverance James Dickey 1970 American English
926 Journey to the Center of the Earth Jules Verne 1864 French French
928 Tobacco Road Erskine Caldwell 1932 American English
942 Cannery Row John Steinbeck 1945 American English
947 Bel Canto Ann Patchett 2001 American English
951 A Princess Of Mars Edgar Rice Burroughs 1912 American English
956 The Girls of Slender Means Muriel Spark 1963 British English
958 The Periodic Table Primo Levi 1975 Italian Italian
969 Storm of Steel Ernst Jünger 1920 German German
976 Rogue Male Geoffrey Household 1939 British English
979 The Worst Journey in the World Apsley Cherry-Garrard 1922 British English
981 It Stephen King 1986 American English
994 Blindness José Saramago 1995 Portuguese Portuguese
1004 2001 Arthur C. Clarke 1968 British English
1013 Green Mansions W. H. Hudson 1904 British English
1021 If Not Now, When? Primo Levi 1982 Italian Italian
1023 Transit Anna Seghers 1944 German German
1028 Schindler's List Thomas Keneally 1982 Australian English
1057 The Master of Ballantrae Robert Louis Stevenson 1889 British English
1061 The Case of Sergeant Grischa Arnold Zweig 1927 German German
1070 Birdsong Sebastian Faulks 1993 British English
1071 The Midwich Cuckoos John Wyndham 1957 British English
1075 The Kon-Tiki Expedition Thor Heyerdahl 1948 Norwegian Norwegian
1084 Mother Courage and Her Children Bertolt Brecht 1941 German German
1085 The Book Thief Markus Zusak 2005 Australian English
1086 Misery Stephen King 1987 American English
1089 Suttree Cormac McCarthy 1979 American English
1094 Gorky Park Martin Cruz Smith 1981 American English