The Greatest Books of All Time on Tradition

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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
2135 Farewell To Matyora Valentin Rasputin 1976 Russian Russian
2140 Shadows on the Rock Willa Cather 1931 American English
2159 The Clan of the Cave Bear Jean M. Auel 1980 American English
2166 Bread Givers Anzia Yezierska 1925 American English
2173 Italian Folktales Italo Calvino 1956 Italian Italian
2177 Hawaii James A. Michener 1959 American English
2208 Waiting Ha Jin 1999 Chinese English
2231 The Cathedral Folk Nikolai Leskov 1872 Russian Russian
2244 The Tombs Of Atuan Ursula K. Le Guin 1971 American English
2255 Pan Tadeusz Adam Mickiewicz 1834 Polish Polish
2266 The Murderess Alexandros Papadiamantis 1903 Greek Greek
2307 The Old Forest Peter Taylor 1985 American English
2319 The Sacred Night Tahar Ben Jelloun 1987 Moroccan French
2329 Tom Brown's School Days Thomas Hughes 1857 British English
2332 Sunset Song Lewis Grassic Gibbon 1932 Scottish English
2343 Mastro Don Gesualdo Giovanni Verga 1889 Italian Italian
2348 A Summons to Memphis Peter Taylor 1986 American English
2385 Don Segundo Sombra Ricardo Güiraldes 1926 Argentinian Spanish
2410 That They May Face the Rising Sun John McGahern 2002 Irish English
2427 Soul Mountain Xingjian Gao 1990 Chinese Chinese
2443 How Green Was My Valley Richard Llewellyn 1939 British English
2462 Men At Arms Evelyn Waugh 1952 British English
2461 Lark Rise To Candleford Flora Thompson 1945 British English
2495 Miramar Naguib Mahfouz 1967 Egyptian Arabic
2513 On the Black Hill Bruce Chatwin 1982 British English
2548 Martín Fierro José Hernández 1872 Argentinian Spanish
2560 Pharaoh Bolesław Prus 1895 Polish Polish
2562 Segu Maryse Condé 1984 French French
2583 Good Behaviour Molly Keane 1981 Irish English
2585 Bokhandlaren som slutade bada Fritiof Nilsson Piraten 1937 Swedish Swedish
2594 Tales Of Hulan River Xiao Hong 1942 Chinese Chinese
2620 To Live Yu Hua 1993 Chinese Chinese
2623 Border Town Shen Congwen 1934 Chinese Chinese
2644 The Complete Poems And Plays T. S. Eliot 1952 British English
2648 The ABC of Reading Ezra Pound 1934 American English
2650 The House of Scorta Laurent Gaudé 2004 French French
2664 Debit And Credit Gustav Freytag 1855 German German
2667 The Songlines Bruce Chatwin 1987 British English
2689 The Ceremonies T. E. D. Klein 1984 American English
2719 The Sagas Of Icelanders Örnólfur Thorsson 1000 Icelandic Old norse
2742 Jerusalem Selma Lagerlöf 1901 Swedish Swedish
2775 Travels in Arabia Deserta Charles M. Doughty 1888 British English
2784 North Of Boston Robert Frost 1914 American English
2801 Delta Wedding Eudora Welty 1946 American English
2816 The Golden Apples Eudora Welty 1949 American English
2817 The Belkin Tales Alexander Pushkin 1831 Russian Russian
2838 Facing Mount Kenya Jomo Kenyatta 1938 Kenyan English
2860 Jamila Chinghiz Aitmatov 1958 Kyrgyz Kyrgyz
2869 House Made of Dawn N. Scott Momaday 1968 American English
2877 River of Fire Qurratulain Hyder 1959 Indian Urdu
2896 Teahouse Lao She 1957 Chinese Chinese
2930 The Waiting Years Fumiko Enchi 1957 Japanese Japanese
2938 Jauche Und Levkojen Christine Brückner 1975 German German
2971 The Steppe Anton Chekhov 1888 Russian Russian
3009 Labyrinths Christopher Okigbo 1971 Nigerian English
3016 The American Henry James 1877 American English
3037 They Were Counted Miklos Banffy 1934 Hungarian Hungarian
3042 England, Their England A. G. Macdonell 1933 British English
3070 Caramelo Sandra Cisneros 2002 American English
3079 Paradise of the Blind Dương Thu Hương 1988 Vietnamese Vietnamese
3086 Dragonflight Anne McCaffrey 1968 American English
3089 I, Rigoberta Menchú Rigoberta Menchú Tum 1983 Guatemalan Spanish
3118 The Nine Guardians Rosario Castellanos 1957 Mexican Spanish
3123 Carpentaria Alexis Wright 2006 Australian English
3135 Ake Wole Soyinka 1981 Nigerian English
3144 Poems Hayyim Nahman Bialik 1901 Israeli Hebrew
3173 A Simple Story S.Y. Agnon 1935 Israeli Hebrew
3214 Snow Flower and the Secret Fan Lisa See 2005 Chinese English
3228 Ghachar Ghochar Vivek Shanbhag 2015 Indian Kannada
3246 The Transcendent Unity Of Religions Frithjof Schuon 1953 French French
3262 Chronicle In Stone Ismail Kadare 1971 Albanian Albanian
3278 Up in the Old Hotel Joseph Mitchell 1992 American English
3288 Stories of Washington Irving Washington Irving 1820 American English
3288 Savushun Simin Daneshvar 1969 Iranian Persian
3297 Maps Nuruddin Farah 1986 Somali English
3324 Broad and Alien is the World Ciro Alegría 1941 Peruvian Spanish
3324 The Harvesters Cesare Pavese 1941 Italian Unknown
3324 Conversations in Sicily Elio Vittorini 1941 Italian Italian
3324 A Day in Spring Ciril Kosmač 1953 Slovenian Slovene
3324 The Sound of Waves Yukio Mishima 1954 Japanese Japanese
3381 Der Laden Erwin Strittmatter 1983 German German
3391 Los Gozos Y Las Sombras Gonzalo Torrente Ballester 1957 Spanish Spanish
3406 The Great Indian Novel Shashi Tharoor 1989 Indian English
3419 Taipei People Pai Hsien-yung 1971 Chinese Chinese
3434 Horseman, Pass By Larry McMurtry 1961 American English
3438 So Far From God Ana Castillo 1993 American English
3480 The Bookseller of Kabul Asne Seierstad 2002 Norwegian Norwegian
3501 Family Matters Rohinton Mistry 2002 Canadian English
3505 Heavy Wings Jie Zhang 1981 Chinese Chinese
3559 Memoirs of a Peasant Boy Xosé Neira Vilas 1961 Spanish Galician
3594 The Day Lasts More Than A Hundred Years Chinghiz Aitmatov 1980 Kyrgyz Russian
3597 The Third Wedding Kōstas Tachtsēs 1962 Greek Greek
3625 The Lost Salt Gift Of Blood Alistair MacLeod 1976 Canadian English
3631 I And My Chimney Herman Melville 1856 American English
3638 The Portable Faulkner William Faulkner 1946 American English
3638 Trans-Atlantyk Witold Gombrowicz 1953 Polish Polish
3638 The White Ship Chinghiz Aitmatov 1970 Kyrgyz Russian
3638 Days In The Caucasus Banine 1945 French French
3638 Childe Harold Of Dysna Moyshe Kulbak 1939 Belarusian Yiddish
3638 On Sunday Morning She Gathered Herbs Olha Kobylianska 1909 Ukrainian Ukrainian
3638 The Rider on the White Horse Theodor Storm 1888 German German
3638 Des Knaben Wunderhorn Clemens Brentano, Achim von Arnim 1808 German German
3638 Sämtliche Werke Des Wandsbecker Boten Matthias Claudius 1775 German German
3638 Uli The Farmhand Jeremias Gotthelf 1841 Swiss German
3638 So Tender Was Suleyken Siegfried Lenz 1955 German German
3638 The Seven Lamps Of Architecture John Ruskin 1849 British English
3638 Art In Crisis Hans Sedlmayr 1948 Austrian German
3638 Die Feuerzangenbowle Heinrich Spoerl 1933 German German
3638 Lausbubengeschichten Ludwig Thoma 1905 German German
3638 Cavalleria Rusticana Giovanni Verga 1896 Italian Italian
3832 Stories Of Three Decades Thomas Mann 1936 German German
3860 Tales of Amadou Koumba Birago Diop 1947 Togolese French
3860 The Wrath of the Ancestors Archibald Campbell Jordan 1940 South African English
3860 Amal'eZulu B. W. Vilakazi 1945 South African Zulu
3860 Ethiopia Unbound J. E. Casely Hayford 1911 Ghanaian English
3880 The River Between Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o 1965 Kenyan English
3885 Collected Plays John Millington Synge 1935 Irish English
3907 Med Ana Schwoazzn Dintn Hans Carl Artmann 1958 Austrian German
3945 Doña Bárbara Rómulo Gallegos 1929 Venezuelan Spanish
3948 Le Passé Simple Driss Chraibi 1954 Moroccan French