The Greatest Books of All Time on Survival

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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
1098 Seven Years in Tibet Heinrich Harrer 1952 Austrian German
1110 The Overstory Richard Powers 2018 American English
1114 Andersonville MacKinlay Kantor 1955 American English
1117 The Fifth Season N. K. Jemisin 2015 American English
1119 The Street Ann Petry 1946 American English
1138 The Unwomanly Face Of War Svetlana Alexievich 1985 Russian Russian
1142 Life of Pi Yann Martel 2001 Canadian English
1145 The Bone People Keri Hulme 1984 New Zealand English
1154 True History of the Kelly Gang Peter Carey 2000 Australian English
1158 Half of a Yellow Sun Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 2006 Nigerian English
1181 The Painted Bird Jerzy Kosinski 1965 Polish English
1199 This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen Tadeusz Borowski 1947 Polish Polish
1204 Nickel And Dimed Barbara Ehrenreich 2001 American English
1205 The Enchanted Wanderer Nikolai Leskov 1873 Russian Russian
1234 Woman at Point Zero Nawal El Saadawi 1975 Egyptian Arabic
1237 Jacob the Liar Jurek Becker 1969 German German
1241 The Life Before Us Romain Gary 1975 French French
1243 Kidnapped Robert Louis Stevenson 1886 British English
1245 Down and Out in Paris and London George Orwell 1933 British English
1247 The Jungle Book Rudyard Kipling 1894 British English
1269 The Unknown Soldier Väinö Linna 1954 Finnish Finnish
1277 A High Wind in Jamaica Richard Hughes 1929 British English
1287 Odessa Stories Isaac Babel 1923 Ukrainian Russian
1289 A Game of Thrones George R. R. Martin 1996 American English
1293 Salem's Lot Stephen King 1975 American English
1302 Poems Paul Celan 1952 German German
1303 The Seventh Cross Anna Seghers 1942 German German
1315 Voices from Chernobyl Svetlana Alexievich 1997 Belarusian Russian
1322 Devil in a Blue Dress Walter Mosley 1990 American English
1323 A Canticle for Leibowitz Walter M. Miller 1960 American English
1328 Parable Of The Sower Octavia E. Butler 1993 American English
1329 Exodus Leon Uris 1958 American English
1333 Barefoot Zaharia Stancu 1948 Romanian Romanian
1352 The Andromeda Strain Michael Crichton 1969 American English
1368 Salvage the Bones Jesmyn Ward 2011 American English
1372 The Horror Horn And Other Stories E. F. Benson 1931 British English
1376 Tales of the South Pacific James A. Michener 1947 American English
1381 Station Eleven Emily St John Mandel 2014 Canadian English
1388 The Hunger Games Suzanne Collins 2008 American English
1390 A Brief History of Seven Killings Marlon James 2014 Jamaican English
1394 Soldiers of Salamis Javier Cercas 2001 Spanish Spanish
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
1433 Random Family Adrian Nicole LeBlanc 2003 American English
1435 Life After Life Kate Atkinson 2013 British English
1442 Little House In The Big Woods Laura Ingalls Wilder 1932 American English
1448 Suite Française Irène Némirovsky 2004 French French
1451 The Children of Men P. D. James 1992 British English
1453 The Martian Chronicles Ray Bradbury 1950 American English
1470 Wind, Sand and Stars Antoine de Saint-Exupéry 1939 French French
1479 The Wall Marlen Haushofer 1963 Austrian German
1494 Eye Of The Needle Ken Follett 1978 British English
1495 Behind the Beautiful Forevers Katherine Boo 2012 American English
1499 Three Comrades Erich Maria Remarque 1936 German German
1500 The Bourne Identity Robert Ludlum 1980 American English
1503 The Friends Of Eddie Coyle George V. Higgins 1970 American English
1505 The Famished Road Ben Okri 1991 Nigerian English
1522 Cancer Ward Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 1967 Russian Russian
1523 Guzmán de Alfarache Mateo Alemán 1599 Spanish Spanish
1531 Jurassic Park Michael Crichton 1990 American English
1535 The Sound Of His Horn Sarban 1952 British English
1567 To Build A Fire Jack London 1902 American English
1569 Empire of the Sun J. G. Ballard 1984 British English
1570 The Young Lions Irwin Shaw 1948 American English
1578 The Cement Garden Ian McEwan 1978 British English
1579 The Collected Stories of Isaac Babel Isaac Babel 1934 Russian Russian
1589 Tarka the Otter Henry Williamson 1927 British English
1606 White Fang Jack London 1906 American English
1609 The Drowned World J. G. Ballard 1962 British English
1615 Giants in the Earth Ole Edvart Rolvaag 1927 Norwegian Norwegian
1621 Good-Bye to All That Robert Graves 1929 British English
1625 The Three Stigmata Of Palmer Eldritch Philip K. Dick 1965 American English
1645 Shogun James Clavell 1975 British English
1669 The Underdogs Mariano Azuela 1915 Mexican Spanish
1670 The Emigrants Vilhelm Moberg 1949 Swedish Swedish
1684 Train Dreams Denis Johnson 2002 American English
1700 The Hunger Angel Herta Müller 2009 German German
1705 The Sea-Wolf Jack London 1904 American English
1708 The Guns Of Navarone Alistair MacLean 1957 British English
1714 Go Down, Moses William Faulkner 1942 American English
1718 The Fixer Bernard Malamud 1966 American English
1730 The Mouse And His Child Russell Hoban 1967 American English
1743 Life & Times of Michael K J. M. Coetzee 1983 South African English
1752 Men We Reaped Jesmyn Ward 2013 American English
1765 A Little Life Hanya Yanagihara 2015 American English
1777 Flowering Nettle Harry Martinson 1935 Swedish Swedish
1783 A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius Dave Eggers 2000 American English
1786 Farthest North Fridtjof Nansen 1897 Norwegian Norwegian
1804 Cartucho And My Mother's Hands Nellie Campobello 1931 Mexican Spanish
1813 Swan Song Robert R. McCammon 1987 American English
1837 Jaws Peter Benchley 1974 American English
1846 Swiss Family Robinson Johann David Wyss 1812 Swiss German
1852 July's People Nadine Gordimer 1981 South African English
1862 On Aggression Konrad Lorenz 1963 Austrian German
1868 Junky William S. Burroughs 1953 American English
1877 Cold Mountain Charles Frazier 1997 American English
1897 The Ice People René Barjavel 1968 French French
1902 The Physician Noah Gordon 1986 American English
1905 The Road to Klockrike Harry Martinson 1948 Swedish Swedish
1906 Red Sorghum Yan Mo 1986 Chinese Chinese
1919 The Dying Earth Jack Vance 1950 American English
1930 Killing Floor Lee Child 1997 British English
1935 Corelli's Mandolin Louis de Bernières 1994 British English
1945 Medusa E. H. Visiak 1929 British English
1953 Titus Alone Mervyn Peake 1959 British English
1954 They Shoot Horses, Don't They? Horace McCoy 1935 American English
1958 Let the Great World Spin Colum McCann 2009 Irish English
1967 Leviathan Arno Schmidt 1949 German German
1971 Parable of the Talents Octavia E. Butler 1998 American English
1974 The Emperor of All Maladies Siddhartha Mukherjee 2010 American English
1983 The Great Believers Rebecca Makkai 2018 American English
1996 A Childhood Harry Crews 1978 American English
2009 The War Marguerite Duras 1985 French French
2011 Pincher Martin William Golding 1956 British English
2014 A Journal Of The Plague Year Daniel Defoe 1722 British English
2017 Riddley Walker Russell Hoban 1980 British English
2018 The Death Ship B. Traven 1926 German German
2019 The Berlin Stories Christopher Isherwood 1945 British English
2025 Memoirs of a Geisha Arthur Golden 1997 American English
2029 Nobody's Boy Hector Malot 1878 French French