The Greatest Books of All Time on Translation

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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
2287 The History of the Siege of Lisbon José Saramago 1989 Portuguese Portuguese
3532 An Unnecessary Woman Rabih Alameddine 2013 Lebanese English
3577 The Possessed Elif Batuman 2010 Turkish English
3638 The Works Of John Dryden John Dryden 1808 British English
4603 Babel R. F. Kuang 2022 American English
4855 Zettels Traum Arno Schmidt 1970 German German
8552 Word And Object Willard Van Orman Quine 1960 American English
9005 The Translator Leila Aboulela 1999 British English
9227 El Traductor Salvador Benesdra 1998 Argentinian Spanish
9289 Findings Richard Howard 1970 American Unknown
11660 Dawn To The West Donald Keene 1984 American English
11882 Translating Myself And Others Jhumpa Lahiri 2022 Multiple English
12324 Vladimir Nabokov Brian Boyd 1990 British English
12482 The Sisters Of Sinai Janet Soskice 2009 Unknown English
14983 Translations Brian Friel 1980 Irish English
17117 After Babel George Steiner 1975 British English
17117 Finding Them Gone Red Pine 2015 Chinese English
17117 Translation As Transhumance Mireille Gansel 2017 French French
17117 The Poet’s Bible David Rosenberg 1991 Unknown English
17117 Selected Translations 1948–1968 W. S. Merwin 1969 American English
17117 Drift Caroline Bergvall 2014 Unknown English