The Greatest Books of All Time on Trauma

Click to learn how this list is calculated.

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.

View: List Grid Table
Filter by: Genres Dates Countries

Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
6623 Looking For The Possible Dance A. L. Kennedy 1993 British English
6637 Savannah Bay Marguerite Duras 1983 French French
6651 Tratado das Paixões da Alma António Lobo Antunes 1990 Portuguese Portuguese
6663 Preparation for the Next Life Atticus Lish 2014 American English
6686 Pain Zeruya Shalev 2015 Israeli Hebrew
6698 Landscapes After the Battle Juan Goytisolo 1982 Spanish Spanish
6731 The Afterlife Donald Antrim 2006 American English
6737 Silver Stallion Junghyo Ahn 1990 Korean Korean
6748 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
7204 The Surgeon Tess Gerritsen 2001 American English
7623 The Little Red Chairs Edna O'Brien 2015 Irish English
7685 Among Others Jo Walton 2011 British English
7692 Quiet Flows The Una Faruk Šehić 2011 Bosnian Bosnian
7733 The Story Of Harold Terry Andrews 1974 American English
7737 The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel Amy Hempel 2006 American English
7766 As If I Am Not There Slavenka Drakulic 1999 Croatian English
7802 Another Brooklyn Jacqueline Woodson 2016 American English
7806 First They Killed My Father Loung Ung 2000 Cambodian English
7809 Twilight of the Superheroes Deborah Eisenberg 2006 American English
7812 The Blind Side of the Heart Julia Franck 2007 German German
7881 Safe Area Joe Sacco 2000 American English
7892 Shutter Island Dennis Lehane 2003 American English
7898 The Night Watch Sarah Waters 2006 British English
7977 Trust Exercise Susan Choi 2019 American English
7996 Black Rain Masuji Ibuse 1965 Japanese Japanese
8026 The Dew Breaker Edwidge Danticat 2004 American English
8030 Falling Man Don DeLillo 2007 American English
8058 Palestine Hubert Haddad 1989 French French
8062 Santo Oficio De La Memoria Mempo Giardinelli 1991 Argentinian Spanish
8099 Day A. L. Kennedy 2007 British English
8144 Suspicious River Laura Kasischke 1999 American English
8167 In A State Of Memory Tununa Mercado 1990 Argentinian Spanish
8215 Stories In An Almost Classical Mode Harold Brodkey 1989 American English
8280 The Wind Claude Simon 1957 French French
8352 The Farming of Bones Edwidge Danticat 1998 Haitian English
8382 American War Omar El Akkad 2017 Canadian English
8404 The Art Of Losing Alice Zeniter 2017 French French
8442 Faithful Place Tana French 2010 Irish English
8445 The Natashas Yelena Moskovich 2016 Russian English
8445 Panorama Dušan Šarotar 2016 Slovenian Slovene
8473 The Patrick Melrose Novels Edward St Aubyn 1992 British English
8527 Ten Tiny Breaths K.A. Tucker 2012 Canadian English
8579 The Sorrow Of War Dương Thu Hương 1990 Vietnamese Vietnamese
8588 The Postcard Anne Berest 2021 French French
8594 Sonnenschein Daša Drndić 2007 Croatian Croatian
8653 Jane Maggie Nelson 2005 American English
8676 Marabou Stork Nightmares Irvine Welsh 1995 British English
8689 Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close Jonathan Safran Foer 2005 American English
8699 Those Bones Are Not My Child Toni Cade Bambara 1999 American English
8702 Silence Of The Grave Arnaldur Indriðason 2003 Icelandic Icelandic
8730 The History of Silence Pedro Zarraluki 1995 Spanish Spanish
8740 Second Skin John Hawkes 1964 American English
8776 See Under: Love David Grossman 1986 Israeli Hebrew
8833 Hiroshima Notes Kenzaburō Ōe 1965 Japanese Japanese
8845 Negative Space Luljeta Lleshanaku 2018 Albanian Albanian
8857 The Water Dancer Ta-Nehisi Coates 2019 American English
8924 At The Stone Of Losses T. Carmi 1966 Israeli Hebrew
8940 Memorial Drive Natasha Trethewey 2020 American English
8946 Wolf in White Van John Darnielle 2014 American English
8970 Asking For It Louise O'Neill 2015 Irish English
9028 The Other Americans Laila Lalami 2019 Moroccan English
9051 How I Live Now Meg Rosoff 2004 British English
9114 Cruddy Lynda Barry 1999 American English
9126 Beyond Black Hilary Mantel 2005 British English
9133 My Name Is Lucy Barton Elizabeth Strout 2016 American English
9193 How To Slowly Kill Yourself And Others In America Kiese Laymon 2013 American English
9193 Irritable Hearts Mac McClelland 2015 Unknown English
9259 The Great Swindle Pierre Lemaitre 2013 French French
9263 The Yellow Birds Kevin Powers 2012 American English
9318 Memory Rose Into Threshold Speech Paul Celan 2020 German German
9343 Rails Under My Back Jeffery Renard Allen 2000 American English
9511 Dita Saxova Arnost Lustig 1962 Czech Czech
9517 Joe Turner's Come And Gone August Wilson 1984 American English
9603 Girl Edna O'Brien 2019 Irish English
9604 The Interpreter From Java Alfred Birney 2016 Dutch Dutch
9607 Meteor In The Madhouse Leon Forrest 2001 American English
9614 A Quiet Belief In Angels R. J. Ellory 2007 British English
9627 Three Women Lisa Taddeo 2019 American English
9661 Nedokoro No Kyoudai Kenzaburō Ōe Japanese Japanese
9686 Broken Glass Arthur Miller 1994 American English
9745 June Rain Jabbour Douaihy 2006 Lebanese Arabic
9756 Darkness Spoken Ingeborg Bachmann 2006 Austrian German
9764 The Armies Evelio Rosero 2007 Colombian Spanish
9771 The Narrow Land Christine Dwyer Hickey 2019 Irish English
9797 We Pierce Andrew Huebner 2002 American English
9803 Axiomatic Maria Tumarkin 2018 Australian English
9803 The Shepherd's Hut Tim Winton 2018 Australian English
9807 Long Way Down Jason Reynolds 2017 American English
9809 The Obelisk Gate N. K. Jemisin 2016 American English
9811 Journal Julie Delporte 2013 Unknown French
9888 The Memory Of War James Fenton 1983 British English
9892 A Woman In Berlin Marta Hillers 1954 German German
9896 Falling Is Like Flying Manon Uphoff 2019 Dutch Dutch
9915 Thera Zeruya Shalev 2005 Israeli Hebrew
9916 Your House Will Pay Steph Cha 2019 American English
9932 A Dress Of Fire Dalia Ravikovitch 1976 Israeli Hebrew
9965 Going After Cacciato Tim O'Brien 1978 American English
9966 San Remo Drive Leslie Epstein 2003 American English
9976 Gebrek Is Een Groot Woord Nina Polak 2018 Dutch Dutch
9990 I Know This Much Is True Wally Lamb 1998 American English
10013 Tamas Bhisham Sahni 1974 Indian Hindi
10022 Mending Bodies Hon Lai-Chu 2010 Chinese Chinese
10028 Wounds Of Passion bell hooks 1997 American English
10039 10 Minutes, 38 Seconds In This Strange World Elif Shafak 2019 Turkish English