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
6621 Looking For The Possible Dance A. L. Kennedy 1993 British English
6635 Savannah Bay Marguerite Duras 1983 French French
6649 Tratado das Paixões da Alma António Lobo Antunes 1990 Portuguese Portuguese
6662 Preparation for the Next Life Atticus Lish 2014 American English
6685 Pain Zeruya Shalev 2015 Israeli Hebrew
6697 Landscapes After the Battle Juan Goytisolo 1982 Spanish Spanish
6730 The Afterlife Donald Antrim 2006 American English
6736 Silver Stallion Junghyo Ahn 1990 Korean Korean
6747 Infanta Bodo Kirchhoff 1990 German German
6812 Scorched Wajdi Mouawad 2003 French French
6818 Koko Peter Straub 1988 American English
6836 We are All Completely Beside Ourselves Karen Joy Fowler 2013 American English
6859 A Head Full Of Ghosts Paul Tremblay 2015 American English
6891 Bared To You Sylvia Day 2012 American English
6906 Washington Black Esi Edugyan 2018 Canadian English
6912 Herrumbrosas Lanzas Juan Benet 1983 Spanish Spanish
6996 Dina's Book Herbjørg Wassmo 1989 Norwegian Norwegian
7008 Gente Que Se Fue David Gistau 2010 Spanish Spanish
7056 Kaddish For An Unborn Child Imre Kertész 1990 Hungarian Hungarian
7063 Nightcrawling Leila Mottley 2022 American English
7079 A Court Of Mist And Fury Sarah J. Maas 2016 American English
7086 Klotsvog Margarita Khemlin 2009 Russian Russian
7105 Brother, I'm Dying Edwidge Danticat 2007 Haitian English
7108 The Children Of The Dead Elfriede Jelinek 2024 Austrian German
7151 The Shawl Cynthia Ozick 1989 American English
7203 The Surgeon Tess Gerritsen 2001 American English
7622 The Little Red Chairs Edna O'Brien 2015 Irish English
7684 Among Others Jo Walton 2011 British English
7691 Quiet Flows The Una Faruk Šehić 2011 Bosnian Bosnian
7731 The Story Of Harold Terry Andrews 1974 American English
7735 The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel Amy Hempel 2006 American English
7764 As If I Am Not There Slavenka Drakulic 1999 Croatian English
7800 Another Brooklyn Jacqueline Woodson 2016 American English
7804 First They Killed My Father Loung Ung 2000 Cambodian English
7808 Twilight of the Superheroes Deborah Eisenberg 2006 American English
7811 The Blind Side of the Heart Julia Franck 2007 German German
7880 Safe Area Joe Sacco 2000 American English
7891 Shutter Island Dennis Lehane 2003 American English
7897 The Night Watch Sarah Waters 2006 British English
7976 Trust Exercise Susan Choi 2019 American English
7995 Black Rain Masuji Ibuse 1965 Japanese Japanese
8025 The Dew Breaker Edwidge Danticat 2004 American English
8029 Falling Man Don DeLillo 2007 American English
8057 Palestine Hubert Haddad 1989 French French
8061 Santo Oficio De La Memoria Mempo Giardinelli 1991 Argentinian Spanish
8097 Day A. L. Kennedy 2007 British English
8142 Suspicious River Laura Kasischke 1999 American English
8165 In A State Of Memory Tununa Mercado 1990 Argentinian Spanish
8213 Stories In An Almost Classical Mode Harold Brodkey 1989 American English
8278 The Wind Claude Simon 1957 French French
8350 The Farming of Bones Edwidge Danticat 1998 Haitian English
8379 American War Omar El Akkad 2017 Canadian English
8401 The Art Of Losing Alice Zeniter 2017 French French
8439 Faithful Place Tana French 2010 Irish English
8442 The Natashas Yelena Moskovich 2016 Russian English
8442 Panorama Dušan Šarotar 2016 Slovenian Slovene
8469 The Patrick Melrose Novels Edward St Aubyn 1992 British English
8524 Ten Tiny Breaths K.A. Tucker 2012 Canadian English
8575 The Sorrow Of War Dương Thu Hương 1990 Vietnamese Vietnamese
8584 The Postcard Anne Berest 2021 French French
8590 Sonnenschein Daša Drndić 2007 Croatian Croatian
8649 Jane Maggie Nelson 2005 American English
8672 Marabou Stork Nightmares Irvine Welsh 1995 British English
8685 Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close Jonathan Safran Foer 2005 American English
8695 Those Bones Are Not My Child Toni Cade Bambara 1999 American English
8698 Silence Of The Grave Arnaldur Indriðason 2003 Icelandic Icelandic
8725 The History of Silence Pedro Zarraluki 1995 Spanish Spanish
8735 Second Skin John Hawkes 1964 American English
8771 See Under: Love David Grossman 1986 Israeli Hebrew
8829 Hiroshima Notes Kenzaburō Ōe 1965 Japanese Japanese
8841 Negative Space Luljeta Lleshanaku 2018 Albanian Albanian
8853 The Water Dancer Ta-Nehisi Coates 2019 American English
8920 At The Stone Of Losses T. Carmi 1966 Israeli Hebrew
8936 Memorial Drive Natasha Trethewey 2020 American English
8942 Wolf in White Van John Darnielle 2014 American English
8966 Asking For It Louise O'Neill 2015 Irish English
9024 The Other Americans Laila Lalami 2019 Moroccan English
9047 How I Live Now Meg Rosoff 2004 British English
9109 Cruddy Lynda Barry 1999 American English
9121 Beyond Black Hilary Mantel 2005 British English
9128 My Name Is Lucy Barton Elizabeth Strout 2016 American English
9189 How To Slowly Kill Yourself And Others In America Kiese Laymon 2013 American English
9189 Irritable Hearts Mac McClelland 2015 Unknown English
9255 The Great Swindle Pierre Lemaitre 2013 French French
9259 The Yellow Birds Kevin Powers 2012 American English
9313 Memory Rose Into Threshold Speech Paul Celan 2020 German German
9338 Rails Under My Back Jeffery Renard Allen 2000 American English
9506 Dita Saxova Arnost Lustig 1962 Czech Czech
9512 Joe Turner's Come And Gone August Wilson 1984 American English
9598 Girl Edna O'Brien 2019 Irish English
9599 The Interpreter From Java Alfred Birney 2016 Dutch Dutch
9602 Meteor In The Madhouse Leon Forrest 2001 American English
9609 A Quiet Belief In Angels R. J. Ellory 2007 British English
9622 Three Women Lisa Taddeo 2019 American English
9656 Nedokoro No Kyoudai Kenzaburō Ōe Japanese Japanese
9681 Broken Glass Arthur Miller 1994 American English
9740 June Rain Jabbour Douaihy 2006 Lebanese Arabic
9751 Darkness Spoken Ingeborg Bachmann 2006 Austrian German
9759 The Armies Evelio Rosero 2007 Colombian Spanish
9766 The Narrow Land Christine Dwyer Hickey 2019 Irish English
9792 We Pierce Andrew Huebner 2002 American English
9798 Axiomatic Maria Tumarkin 2018 Australian English
9798 The Shepherd's Hut Tim Winton 2018 Australian English
9802 Long Way Down Jason Reynolds 2017 American English
9804 The Obelisk Gate N. K. Jemisin 2016 American English
9806 Journal Julie Delporte 2013 Unknown French
9883 The Memory Of War James Fenton 1983 British English
9887 A Woman In Berlin Marta Hillers 1954 German German
9891 Falling Is Like Flying Manon Uphoff 2019 Dutch Dutch
9910 Thera Zeruya Shalev 2005 Israeli Hebrew
9911 Your House Will Pay Steph Cha 2019 American English
9926 A Dress Of Fire Dalia Ravikovitch 1976 Israeli Hebrew
9959 Going After Cacciato Tim O'Brien 1978 American English
9960 San Remo Drive Leslie Epstein 2003 American English
9970 Gebrek Is Een Groot Woord Nina Polak 2018 Dutch Dutch
9984 I Know This Much Is True Wally Lamb 1998 American English
10007 Tamas Bhisham Sahni 1974 Indian Hindi
10016 Mending Bodies Hon Lai-Chu 2010 Chinese Chinese
10022 Wounds Of Passion bell hooks 1997 American English
10091 Twenty Years And A Day Jorge Semprún 2003 Spanish Spanish