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
8370 Watchers Dean R. Koontz 1987 American English
8382 American War Omar El Akkad 2017 Canadian English
8387 The Orphan Master's Son Adam Johnson 2012 American English
8401 Graceling Kristin Cashore 2008 American English
8406 Meek Heritage Frans Eemil Sillanpää 1919 Finnish Finnish
8417 War and Remembrance Herman Wouk 1978 American English
8434 A Running Duck Paula Gosling 1978 American English
8445 The Natashas Yelena Moskovich 2016 Russian English
8445 The Diary Of A Gulag Prison Guard 1935 6 Ivan Chistyakov 2016 Russian Russian
8473 The Guyana Quartet Wilson Harris 1960 British English
8491 The Book Of My Lives Aleksandar Hemon 2013 American English
8516 Blue Mars Kim Stanley Robinson 1996 American English
8535 Man Plus Frederik Pohl 1976 American English
8578 The Sorrow Of War Dương Thu Hương 1990 Vietnamese Vietnamese
8583 The Last Of The Vikings Johan Bojer 1921 Norwegian Norwegian
8589 Sold Patricia McCormick 2006 American English
8593 Sonnenschein Daša Drndić 2007 Croatian Croatian
8596 Homecoming Cynthia Voigt 1981 American English
8670 The Hiding Place Corrie ten Boom 1971 Dutch English
8713 To A Distant Island James McConkey 1984 American English
8739 Second Skin John Hawkes 1964 American English
8747 The Key To Rebecca Ken Follett 1980 British English
8759 Night Draws Near Anthony Shadid 2005 American English
8773 Inland Téa Obreht 2019 American English
8775 See Under: Love David Grossman 1986 Israeli Hebrew
8817 Shikasta Doris May Lessing 1979 British English
8844 Negative Space Luljeta Lleshanaku 2018 Albanian Albanian
8845 Zeitoun Dave Eggers 2009 American English
8850 The Munch Mancini Mystery Series Barbara Seranella 1997 American English
8861 Empire Of The Ants Bernard Werber 1991 French French
8869 African Stories Doris May Lessing 1964 British English
8877 How To Survive A Plague David France 2016 American English
8881 Mockingbird Walter Tevis 1980 American English
8892 Midnight In Chernobyl Adam Higginbotham 2024 British English
8892 The Fatal Shore Robert Hughes 1987 Australian English
8923 At The Stone Of Losses T. Carmi 1966 Israeli Hebrew
8936 The White Girl Tony Birch 2019 Australian English
8940 Queen Of The Conquered Kacen Callender 2019 American English
8940 The Rage Of Dragons Evan Winter 2019 Canadian English
8976 The Mother Pearl S. Buck 1934 American English
8980 Crook Manifesto Colson Whitehead 2023 American English
8989 Falling Free Lois McMaster Bujold 1988 American English
9003 Floreana: A Woman's Pilgrimage to the Galapagos Margret Wittmer 1959 German German
9022 Kalimantaan C. S. Godshalk 1998 American English
9028 Desert Flower Waris Dirie, Cathleen Miller 1998 American English
9031 Citizen Of The Galaxy Robert A. Heinlein 1957 American English
9036 Them Old Cowboy Songs Annie Proulx 2008 American English
9036 Yama Loka Terminus Léo Henry, Jacques Mucchielli 2008 French French
9050 How I Live Now Meg Rosoff 2004 British English
9074 Billy Bathgate E. L. Doctorow 1989 American English
9098 Life Went On Anyway Oleg Sentsov 2019 Ukrainian Russian
9113 Cruddy Lynda Barry 1999 American English
9131 Mutant Message Down Under Marlo Morgan 1991 American English
9151 Mercy Jussi Adler-Olsen 2007 Danish Danish
9154 The Curve Of Time M. Wylie Blanchet 1961 Canadian English
9192 A Sliver Of Light Shane Bauer, Joshua Fattal, Sarah Shourd 2014 American English
9192 The Saboteur Paul Kix 2017 Unknown English
9223 Slan A. E. van Vogt 1940 Canadian English
9255 To Your Scattered Bodies Go Philip José Farmer 1971 American English
9258 The Great Swindle Pierre Lemaitre 2013 French French
9262 A Children’s Bible Lydia Millet, Xe Sands 2020 American English
9262 The Yellow Birds Kevin Powers 2012 American English
9274 Naples 44 Norman Lewis 1978 British English
9279 The Balkan Trilogy Olivia Manning 1960 British English
9281 Kurangaituku Whiti Hereaka 2022 New Zealander English
9284 News Of The World Paulette Jiles 2016 American English
9294 Casualties John Pepper Clark 1970 Nigerian English
9301 The Client John Grisham 1993 American English
9334 Acceptance Jeff VanderMeer 2014 American English
9341 Not Before Sundown Johanna Sinisalo 2000 Finnish Finnish
9371 Leviathan Wakes James S. A. Corey 2011 American English
9373 The African Shore Rodrigo Rey Rosa 1999 Guatemalan Spanish
9377 Edgar Huntly Charles Brockden Brown 1799 American English
9377 In The Midst Of Life Ambrose Bierce 1891 American English
9510 Dita Saxova Arnost Lustig 1962 Czech Czech
9532 A Torch Against The Night Sabaa Tahir 2016 American English
9537 The Tiger John Vaillant 2010 Canadian English
9542 Annapurna Arlene Blum 1980 American English
9544 Sofia Petrovna Lydia Chukovskaya 1965 Russian Russian
9550 Selected Poems Jacob Glatstein 1972 Polish Yiddish
9569 Les Naufragés Patrick Declerck 2001 French French
9599 The Noodle Maker Ma Jian 2004 Chinese Chinese
9602 Girl Edna O'Brien 2019 Irish English
9603 The Interpreter From Java Alfred Birney 2016 Dutch Dutch
9613 The Tin Roof Blowdown James Lee Burke 2007 American English
9613 Ascent Jed Mercurio 2007 British English
9622 Curse Of The Narrows Laura Mac Donald 2005 Canadian English
9640 The Lime Twig John Hawkes 1961 American English
9643 Tram 83 Fiston Mwanza Mujila 2014 Congolese French
9660 The Cell Horst Bienek German Unknown
9683 Not Wanted On The Voyage Timothy Findley 1984 Canadian English
9690 In Siberia Colin Thubron 1999 British English
9702 Beasts Made Of Night Tochi Onyebuchi 2017 American English
9712 Hell Divers Nicholas Sansbury Smith 2016 American English
9723 No Enemy But Time Michael Bishop 1982 American English
9729 The Story Of Edgar Sawtelle David Wroblewski 2008 American English
9730 Gagner La Guerre Jean-Philippe Jaworski 2009 French French
9744 View Of Dawn In The Tropics Guillermo Cabrera Infante 1974 Cuban Spanish
9763 The Armies Evelio Rosero 2007 Colombian Spanish
9796 We Pierce Andrew Huebner 2002 American English
9796 The Past Is Myself Christabel Bielenberg 1968 German English
9801 I Will Fear No Evil Robert A. Heinlein 1970 American English
9802 The Shepherd's Hut Tim Winton 2018 Australian English
9808 The Obelisk Gate N. K. Jemisin 2016 American English
9813 No Mercy Redmond O'Hanlon 1997 British English
9822 The Precipice Toby Ord 2020 British English
9835 The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley Hannah Tinti 2017 American English
9860 This Child's Gonna Live Sarah E. Wright 1969 American English
9859 The Red Tent Anita Diamant 1997 American English
9860 The Delicate Prey Paul Bowles 1950 American English
9887 The Memory Of War James Fenton 1983 British English
9891 A Woman In Berlin Marta Hillers 1954 German German
9896 Bad Land Jonathan Raban 1996 British English
9895 Falling Is Like Flying Manon Uphoff 2019 Dutch Dutch
9915 Miracle Creek Angie Kim 2019 American English
9926 Children Of Time Adrian Tchaikovsky 2015 British English
9931 A Dress Of Fire Dalia Ravikovitch 1976 Israeli Hebrew
9943 Daddy Was A Number Runner Louise Meriwether 1970 American English
9946 Medicine Walk Richard Wagamese 2014 Canadian English
9964 Going After Cacciato Tim O'Brien 1978 American English