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
4506 North Woods Daniel Mason 2023 American English
4510 Out Of The Fire Ales Adamovich, Yanka Bryl, Vladimir Kolesnik 1981 Belarusian Russian
4513 Comet In Moominland Tove Jansson 1946 Finnish Swedish
4518 When The Wind Blows Raymond Briggs 1982 British English
4534 Annihilation Jeff VanderMeer 2014 American English
4541 The Stone Of Laughter Hoda Barakat 1990 Lebanese Arabic
4547 Island Of The Blue Dolphins Scott O'Dell 1960 American English
4548 Forever Amber Kathleen Winsor 1944 American English
4548 Restoree Anne McCaffrey 1967 American English
4559 Star Of The Sea Joseph O'Connor 2003 Irish English
4575 The Black Brothers Lisa Tetzner 1941 German German
4580 Papillon Henri Charrière 1969 French French
4581 The Zone Sergei Dovlatov 1982 Russian Russian
4581 The Autobiography Of A Runaway Slave Miguel Barnet 1966 Cuban Spanish
4589 The Nickel Boys Colson Whitehead 2019 American English
4614 Gulag Anne Applebaum 2003 American English
4644 Midnight Plus One Gavin Lyall 1965 British English
4652 The Forever War Dexter Filkins 2008 American English
4662 The Swan Book Alexis Wright 2013 Australian English
4668 Allah Is Not Obliged Ahmadou Kourouma 2000 French French
4673 Time Of Parting Anton Donchev 1964 Bulgarian Bulgarian
4708 Six Of Crows Leigh Bardugo 2015 American English
4719 The Old Man Who Read Love Stories Luis Sepúlveda 1989 Chilean Spanish
4723 Death of a Lake Arthur William Upfield 1954 Australian English
4739 At Play in the Fields of the Lord Peter Matthiessen 1965 American English
4759 Baptism Yang Jiang 1988 Chinese Chinese
4763 Metropole Ferenc Karinthy 1970 Hungarian Hungarian
4783 Ice Anna Kavan 1967 British English
4795 The Good Person of Szechwan Bertolt Brecht 1943 German German
4800 Home to Harlem Claude McKay 1928 American English
4829 Cataract Mykhaylo Osadchy 1976 Ukrainian Ukrainian
4847 A Season In Sinji J. L. Carr 1967 British English
4848 Women's Diaries of the Westward Journey Lillian Schiessel 1982 American English
4856 The Gift Horse Hildegard Knef 1970 German German
4878 To The End Of The World Blaise Cendrars 1957 French French
4889 The MaddAddam Trilogy Margaret Atwood 2003 Canadian English
4895 Abel Alone Áron Tamási 1932 Hungarian Hungarian
4896 The Emissary Yoko Tawada 2014 Japanese Japanese
4933 The Terror Dan Simmons 2007 American English
4934 Who Fears Death Nnedi Okorafor 2010 Nigerian English
4950 Paper Children Mariana Marin 1987 Romanian Romanian
4984 Arctic Dreams Barry Lopez 1986 American English
4991 The Wandering Falcon Jamil Ahmed 2011 Pakistani English
5001 Teach Us To Outgrow Our Madness Kenzaburō Ōe 1969 Japanese Japanese
5001 The Bamboo Bed William Eastlake 1969 American English
5012 Zone One Colson Whitehead 2011 American English
5016 High Citadel Desmond Bagley 1965 British English
5021 Hourglass Danilo Kiš 1972 Serbian Serbo-croatian
5039 Eight Men Richard Wright 1961 American English
5041 Black Hawk Down Mark Bowden 1999 American English
5085 Nowhere In Africa Stefanie Zweig 1995 German German
5100 Three To Kill Jean-Patrick Manchette 1976 French French
5118 Swamplandia! Karen Russell 2011 American English
5132 All But My Life Gerda Weissmann Klein 1957 American English
5148 Dawn Elie Wiesel 1961 Romanian French
5154 Quarantine Jim Crace 1997 British English
5155 Cursed Bunny Bora Chung 2021 Korean Korean
5156 Where The Crawdads Sing Delia Owens 2018 American English
5162 Die Söhne Der Großen Bärin Liselotte Welskopf-Henrich 1951 German German
5190 The Professor Challenger Stories Arthur Conan Doyle 1912 British English
5232 Holes Louis Sachar 1998 American English
5235 Intensity Dean R. Koontz 1995 American English
5253 The Boats Of The "Glen Carrig" William Hope Hodgson 1907 British English
5259 Solomon Gursky Was Here Mordecai Richler 1989 Canadian English
5260 Cockroaches Scholastique Mukasonga 2006 French French
5262 Death And The Penguin Andrey Kurkov 1996 Ukrainian Russian
5268 A Long Way Gone Ishmael Beah 2007 Sierra Leonean English
5270 Under The Feet Of Jesus Helena María Viramontes 1995 American English
5271 I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream Harlan Ellison 1967 American English
5276 The Stone Sky N. K. Jemisin 2017 American English
5277 Slave Of The Huns Géza Gárdonyi 1901 Hungarian Hungarian
5293 Der Mädchenkrieg Manfred Bieler 1975 German German
5293 Tadellöser & Wolff Walter Kempowski 1975 German German
5302 The Swarm Frank Schatzing 2004 German German
5311 The Town House Norah Lofts 1959 British English
5314 A General Theory Of Oblivion José Eduardo Agualusa 2012 Angolan Portuguese
5315 Abu Telfan, Return from the Mountains of the Moon Wilhelm Karl Raabe 1867 German German
5316 The Vampire Tapestry Suzy McKee Charnas 1980 American English
5325 If He Hollers Let Him Go Chester Himes 1945 American English
5327 A Storm Of Wings M. John Harrison 1980 British English
5340 Days Without End Sebastian Barry 2016 Irish English
5342 A Funtineli Boszorkány Albert Wass 1959 Hungarian Hungarian
5373 Endurance Alfred Lansing 1959 American English
5375 Packing For Mars Mary Roach 2010 American English
5408 A Constellation of Vital Phenomena Anthony Marra 2013 American English
5416 Kard és Kasza Albert Wass 1939 Hungarian Hungarian
5417 The Brodeck Report Philippe Claudel 2007 French French
5422 What The Dead Know Laura Lippman 2007 American English
5429 Hello Summer, Goodbye Michael G. Coney 1975 British English
5429 The Machine Gunners Robert Westall 1975 British English
5448 Imperium Ryszard Kapuscinski 1993 Polish Polish
5448 A Winter In Hakkari Ferit Edgü 1977 Turkish Turkish
5457 Ballad of the Salt Sea Hugo Pratt 1967 Italian Italian
5463 The Animals In That Country Laura Jean McKay 2020 Australian English
5466 Child 44 Tom Rob Smith 2008 Russian English
5469 L'étrange Destin De Wangrin Amadou Hampâté Bâ 1973 French French
5468 Six Days Of The Condor James Grady 1974 American English
5470 The Birthday Boys Beryl Bainbridge 1991 British English
5480 Strumpet City James Plunkett 1969 Irish English
5500 After the Flood P. C. Jersild 1982 Swedish Swedish
5502 Warsaw Diary Kazimierz Brandys 1978 Polish Polish
5511 Now in November Josephine Winslow Johnson 1934 American English
5518 Dolores Claiborne Stephen King 1992 American English
5519 The Willows Algernon Blackwood 1907 British English
5530 The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store James McBride 2023 American English
5595 World War Z Max Brooks 2006 American English
5598 The Lazarus Project Aleksandar Hemon 2008 Bosnian English
5599 Bloodlands Timothy Snyder 2010 American English
5600 The Lost City of Z David Grann 2009 American English
5613 Zuleikha Guzel Yakhina 2015 Russian Russian
5616 Vuk István Fekete 1965 Hungarian Hungarian
5617 Shadow 81 Lucien Nahum 1978 American English
5625 Wave Sonali Deraniyagala 2013 Sri Lankan English
5630 Hatchet Gary Paulsen 1987 American English
5654 Reasons to Live Amy Hempel 1985 American English
5657 Soul Eater K. W. Jeter 1983 American English
5663 The Evolution Man Or How I Ate My Father Roy Lewis 1960 British English
5668 The Loser György Konrád 1980 Hungarian Hungarian
5685 Moriori Michael King 1989 New Zealand English
5692 All God’s Dangers Theodore Rosengarten 1974 American English