The Greatest Books of All Time on Trauma

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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
49 Beloved Toni Morrison 1987 American English
84 Slaughterhouse-Five Kurt Vonnegut 1969 American English
86 All Quiet on the Western Front Erich Maria Remarque 1928 German German
262 Austerlitz W. G. Sebald 2001 German German
308 The Bluest Eye Toni Morrison 1970 American English
329 History Elsa Morante 1974 Italian Italian
359 The God of Small Things Arundhati Roy 1997 Indian English
370 The Year of Magical Thinking Joan Didion 2005 American English
380 American Pastoral Philip Roth 1997 American English
451 Hiroshima John Hersey 1946 American English
477 Fateless or Fatelessness Imre Kertész 1975 Hungarian Hungarian
502 W, or the Memory of Childhood Georges Perec 1975 French French
509 Sanctuary William Faulkner 1931 American English
516 Season of Migration to the North Al-Tayyib Salih 1966 Sudanese Arabic
521 I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings Maya Angelou 1969 American English
545 The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie Agota Kristof 1986 Hungarian French
577 Anniversaries Uwe Johnson 1970 German German
600 Nine Stories J. D. Salinger 1953 American English
642 Testament Of Youth Vera Brittain 1933 British English
644 The English Patient Michael Ondaatje 1992 Canadian English
650 The Flanders Road Claude Simon 1960 French French
652 Dispatches Michael Herr 1977 American English
656 The Time Of The Doves Merce Rodoreda 1962 Spanish Catalan
685 Them Joyce Carol Oates 1969 American English
701 The Feast of the Goat Mario Vargas Llosa 2000 Peruvian Spanish
722 Bastard Out of Carolina Dorothy Allison 1992 American English
741 The Goldfinch Donna Tartt 2013 American English
803 Sophie's Choice William Styron 1979 American English
838 The Book of Daniel E. L. Doctorow 1971 American English
885 A Tale of Love and Darkness Amos Oz 2002 Israeli Hebrew
895 The Ravishing of Lol Stein Marguerite Duras 1964 French French
915 Malina Ingeborg Bachmann 1971 Austrian German
961 The Manchurian Candidate Richard Condon 1959 American English
981 It Stephen King 1986 American English
1001 Red Dragon Thomas Harris 1981 American English
1002 Ceremony Leslie Marmon Silko 1977 American English
1070 Birdsong Sebastian Faulks 1993 British English
1138 The Unwomanly Face Of War Svetlana Alexievich 1985 Russian Russian
1145 The Bone People Keri Hulme 1984 New Zealand English
1181 The Painted Bird Jerzy Kosinski 1965 Polish English
1220 The Return of the Soldier Rebecca West 1918 British English
1302 Poems Paul Celan 1952 German German
1315 Voices from Chernobyl Svetlana Alexievich 1997 Belarusian Russian
1344 The Emigrants W. G. Sebald 1992 German German
1435 Life After Life Kate Atkinson 2013 British English
1446 The Tongue Set Free Elias Canetti 1977 Austrian German
1460 Never Mind Edward St Aubyn 1992 British English
1497 How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents Julia Alvarez 1991 Dominican English
1499 Three Comrades Erich Maria Remarque 1936 German German
1552 Waterland Graham Swift 1983 British English
1569 Empire of the Sun J. G. Ballard 1984 British English
1621 Good-Bye to All That Robert Graves 1929 British English
1623 Corregidora Gayl Jones 1975 American English
1649 Cat's Eye Margaret Atwood 1988 Canadian English
1693 The Lovely Bones Alice Sebold 2002 American English
1700 The Hunger Angel Herta Müller 2009 German German
1764 A Little Life Hanya Yanagihara 2015 American English
1861 Citizen Claudia Rankine 2014 American English
1877 Cold Mountain Charles Frazier 1997 American English
1890 Obasan Joy Kogawa 1981 Canadian English
1904 The Diviners Margaret Laurence 1974 Canadian English
1942 The Land At The End Of The World António Lobo Antunes 1979 Portuguese Portuguese
1969 Poppy And Memory Paul Celan 1950 German German
1977 House with the Blind Glass Windows Herbjørg Wassmo 1981 Norwegian Norwegian
1983 The Great Believers Rebecca Makkai 2018 American English
2009 The War Marguerite Duras 1985 French French
2069 The Round House Louise Erdrich 2012 American English
2083 The Memoirs of a Survivor Doris May Lessing 1974 British English
2097 The Bean Trees Barbara Kingsolver 1988 American English
2100 Tree of Smoke Denis Johnson 2007 American English
2174 Surfacing Margaret Atwood 1972 Canadian English
2200 Death Of A Hero Richard Aldington 1929 British English
2201 Arch Of Triumph Erich Maria Remarque 1945 German German
2221 Simon and the Oaks Marianne Fredriksson 1985 Swedish Swedish
2236 Billiards at Half-Past Nine Heinrich Böll 1959 German German
2244 The Gathering Anne Enright 2007 Irish English
2283 Goodnight Mister Tom Michelle Magorian 1981 British English
2294 Family Life Akhil Sharma 2014 Indian English
2303 Machine Dreams Jayne Anne Phillips 1984 American English
2317 To The End Of The Land David Grossman 2008 Israeli Hebrew
2336 There There Tommy Orange 2018 American English
2350 The Salt Eaters Toni Cade Bambara 1980 American English
2356 The Butcher Boy Patrick McCabe 1992 Irish English
2363 The Sorrow Of War Bao Ninh 1990 Vietnamese Vietnamese
2472 Fall On Your Knees Ann-Marie MacDonald 1996 Canadian English
2477 L'acacia Claude Simon 1989 French French
2497 Room Emma Donoghue 2010 Irish English
2502 Homegoing Yaa Gyasi 2016 Ghanaian English
2523 Old Filth Jane Gardam 2004 British English
2524 Beyond the Pleasure Principle Sigmund Freud 1920 Austrian German
2526 On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous Ocean Vuong 2019 American English
2547 Her Privates We Frederic Manning 1929 Australian English
2587 Red Shift Alan Garner 1973 British English
2590 The Trick Is to Keep Breathing Janice Galloway 1989 British English
2598 The Witness Juan José Saer 1983 Argentinian Spanish
2596 Possessing the Secret of Joy Alice Walker 1992 American English
2607 Heavy Kiese Laymon 2018 American English
2639 The Child in Time Ian McEwan 1987 British English
2653 The Skeleton Amrita Pritam 1950 Indian Punjabi
2657 The Daughter Pavlos Matesis 1990 Greek Greek
2716 The Great War and Modern Memory Paul Fussell 1975 American English
2791 Dog Years Günter Grass 1963 German German
2846 The Museum of Unconditional Surrender Dubravka Ugrešić 1997 Croatian Croatian
2847 What Is the What Dave Eggers 2006 American English
2855 A Mercy Toni Morrison 2008 American English
2885 Everything Is Illuminated Jonathan Safran Foer 2002 American English
2910 Tu Patricia Grace 2004 New Zealand English
2949 Some Hope Edward St Aubyn 1994 British English
2955 Fugitive Pieces Anne Michaels 1996 Canadian English
3091 Disturbance Philippe Lançon 2018 French French
3096 Open City Teju Cole 2011 American English
3138 Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk Ben Fountain 2012 American English
3182 Minor Detail Adania Shibli 2017 Palestinian Arabic
3202 Trap For Cinderella Sebastien Japrisot 1963 French French
3276 The Polish Rider Antonio Muñoz Molina 1991 Spanish Spanish
3321 Where Are The Children? Mary Higgins Clark 1975 American English
3324 Retreat Without Song Shahan Shahnur 1929 Armenian Armenian
3377 Ordinary People Judith Guest 1976 American English
3386 The Shadow Lines Amitav Ghosh 1988 Indian English
3436 The Broken Earth Trilogy N. K. Jemisin 2015 American English