The Greatest Travel Books Since 2000

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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
804 The Vegetarian Han Kang 2007 Korean Korean
885 A Tale of Love and Darkness Amos Oz 2002 Israeli Hebrew
909 The Warmth Of Other Suns Isabel Wilkerson 2010 American English
1252 Sapiens Yuval Noah Harari 2011 Israeli Hebrew
1272 Erasure Percival Everett 2001 American English
1456 Flights Olga Tokarczuk 2007 Polish Polish
1542 The Devil In The White City Erik Larson 2003 American English
1672 Pulphead John Jeremiah Sullivan 2011 American English
1818 Barbarian Days William Finnegan 2015 American English
1844 The Sixth Extinction Elizabeth Kolbert 2014 American English
1907 Consider The Lobster David Foster Wallace 2005 American English
2337 There There Tommy Orange 2018 American English
2425 Platform Michel Houellebecq 2001 French French
2534 A Man Called Ove Fredrik Backman 2012 Swedish Swedish
2596 Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? Jeanette Winterson 2011 British English
2679 H Is For Hawk Helen MacDonald 2014 British English
2887 Everything Is Illuminated Jonathan Safran Foer 2002 American English
2899 Moneyball Michael M. Lewis 2003 American English
2927 The Return Hisham Matar 2016 Libyan English
3078 River Town Peter Hessler 2001 American English
3090 Factory Girls Leslie T. Chang 2008 American English
3092 Disturbance Philippe Lançon 2018 French French
3102 Reading Lolita in Tehran Azar Nafisi 2003 Iranian English
3130 Oryx and Crake Margaret Atwood 2003 Canadian English
3171 The Tipping Point Malcolm Gladwell 2000 American English
3258 Killers Of The Flower Moon David Grann 2017 American English
3479 The Bookseller of Kabul Asne Seierstad 2002 Norwegian Norwegian
3520 Nothing to Envy Barbara Demick 2009 American English
3564 The Eighth Life Nino Haratishvili 2014 Georgian German
3576 The Possessed Elif Batuman 2010 Turkish English
3600 Debt David Graeber 2011 American English
3623 Sepharad Antonio Muñoz Molina 2001 Spanish Spanish
3824 Outliers Malcolm Gladwell 2008 Canadian English
3886 Lunar Park Bret Easton Ellis 2005 American English
4187 Age of Ambition Evan Osnos 2014 American English
4365 Kitchen Confidential Anthony Bourdain 2000 American English
4390 Crabwalk Günter Grass 2002 German German
4418 The Swerve Stephen Greenblatt 2011 American English
4537 Stiff Mary Roach 2003 American English
4613 Gulag Anne Applebaum 2003 American English
4626 The Opium War Julia Lovell 2011 British English
4750 The Omnivore's Dilemma Michael Pollan 2006 American English
4888 The Book of Salt Monique Truong 2003 American English
4895 The Emissary Yoko Tawada 2014 Japanese Japanese
4979 The Hare with Amber Eyes Edmund de Waal 2010 British English
5030 Honored Guest Joy Williams 2004 American English
5142 Eat, Pray, Love Elizabeth Gilbert 2006 American English
5151 Midnight In Peking Paul French 2012 British English
5249 The Art of Fielding Chad Harbach 2011 American English
5300 The Museum Of Innocence Orhan Pamuk 2008 Turkish Turkish
5598 Bloodlands Timothy Snyder 2010 American English
5599 The Lost City of Z David Grann 2009 American English
5605 Krakatoa Simon Winchester 2003 Krakatoa English
5614 The Mushroom At The End Of The World Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing 2015 American English
5642 These Truths Jill Lepore 2018 American English
5686 The Constant Gardener John le Carré 2001 British English
5728 My Kind of Place Susan Orlean 2004 American English
5985 Maximum City Suketu Mehta 2004 American English
6246 The Unwinding George Packer 2013 American English
6251 Why Nations Fail Daron Acemoğlu, James A. Robinson 2012 American English
6261 At The Existentialist Café Sarah Bakewell 2016 British English
6294 Oracle Bones Peter Hessler 2006 American English
6328 No Good Men Among The Living Anand Gopal 2014 American English
6360 The Library Book Susan Orlean 2018 American English
6415 My Forbidden Face Latifa 2001 Afghan French
6434 On Immunity Eula Biss 2014 American English
6507 Wild Houses Colin Barrett 2024 Irish English
6528 The Painter Of Battles Arturo Pérez-Reverte 2006 Spanish Spanish
6590 American Shaolin Matthew Polly 2007 American English
6596 The Invention Of Nature Andrea Wulf 2015 German English
6653 The Beast Óscar Martínez 2013 Salvadoran Spanish
6657 A Dream In Polar Fog Yuri Rytkheu 2005 Russian Russian
6661 Mendeleyev's Dream Paul Strathern 2000 British English
6664 How The Word Is Passed Clint Smith 2021 American English
6716 How To Change Your Mind Michael Pollan 2018 American English
6737 The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup Susan Orlean 2001 American English
6748 The Silent Steppe Mukhamet Shayakhmetov 2006 Kazakh English
6756 The Corpse Walker Liao Yiwu 2008 Chinese Chinese
6788 The Splendid And The Vile Erik Larson 2020 American English
6804 The Art Of Grahame Sydney Grahame Sydney 2000 New Zealand English
6817 Seven Husbands Of Evelyn Hugo Taylor Jenkins Reid 2017 American English
6843 A History of the World in 100 Objects Neil MacGregor 2010 British English
6873 Povedal Mi Veštec Tiziano Terzani 2002 Italian Italian
6916 The Paper Menagerie And Other Stories Ken Liu 2016 American English
6957 The Field Of Blood Joanne B. Freeman 2018 American English
6980 We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live Joan Didion 2006 American English
7084 Shape Shifter Hone Tuwhare 2003 New Zealand English
7086 A Short Border Handbook Gazmend Kapllani 2009 Greek Albanian
7094 The Color Of Law Richard Rothstein 2017 American English
7104 Māori Michael King 2003 New Zealand English
7108 The Children Of The Dead Elfriede Jelinek 2024 Austrian German
7166 The Places In Between Rory Stewart 2004 British English
7174 Wild Cheryl Strayed 2012 American English
7205 Flight From The Ussr Dato Turashvili 2010 Georgian Georgian
7562 Compass Mathias Enard 2015 French French
7615 Don't Get Too Comfortable David Rakoff 2005 Canadian English
7666 The Age Of Wonder Richard Holmes 2008 British English
7667 The Wild Places Robert Macfarlane 2007 British English
7738 No Turning Back Rania Abouzeid 2018 Unknown English
7750 Critical Mass Philip Ball 2004 British English
7787 Cold Enough For Snow Jessica Au 2022 Australian English
7849 The Birth House Ami McKay 2006 Canadian English
7869 The Life Changing Magic Of Numbers Bobby Seagull 2019 British English
7933 Mr. China Tim Clissold 2004 British English
7998 Journey To Diaspora Seo Kyung-sik 2006 Unknown Korean
8004 There Are Little Kingdoms Kevin Barry 2007 Irish English
8018 Mirrors Eduardo Galeano 2008 Uruguayan Spanish
8030 Walk The Blue Fields Claire Keegan 2007 Irish English
8093 Nixon And Mao Margaret MacMillan 2005 Canadian English
8143 Night Circus And Other Stories Ursula Kovalyk 2014 Slovak Unknown
8158 Out Of Mao’s Shadow Philip P. Pan 2008 Unknown English
8187 Questions Of Travel Michelle de Kretser 2012 Australian English
8221 Tombstone Yang Jisheng 2008 Chinese Chinese
8231 China Susan Shirk 2007 Unknown English
8245 The Man Awakened From Dreams Henrietta Harrison 2005 Unknown English
8248 Always Unreliable Clive James 2001 British English
8257 Strangers In Their Own Land Arlie Russell Hochschild 2016 American English
8286 The Last Days Of Old Beijing Michael Meyer 2008 Unknown English
8304 The Ghost Riders Of Ordebec Fred Vargas 2011 French French
8311 A Marriage At Sea Sophie Elmhirst 2024 British English