The Greatest Books of All Time on Truth

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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
106 Oedipus the King Sophocles -429 Greek Ancient greek
133 Confessions Augustine 397 Roman Latin
206 The Gulag Archipelago Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 1973 Russian Russian
220 The Republic Plato -379 Greek Ancient greek
369 Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus Ludwig Wittgenstein 1921 Austrian German
388 The Complete Works of Plato Plato -387 Greek Ancient greek
545 The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie Agota Kristof 1986 Hungarian French
681 Cat's Cradle Kurt Vonnegut 1963 American English
941 Collected Essays of George Orwell George Orwell 1968 British English
988 Flaubert's Parrot Julian Barnes 1984 British English
1003 A Dry White Season Andre Brink 1979 South African Afrikaans
1156 Apology Plato -389 Greek Ancient greek
1162 Essays Francis Bacon 1597 British English
1236 Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories Ryunosuke Akutagawa 1915 Japanese Japanese
1301 The Road Less Traveled M. Scott Peck 1978 American English
1573 The Story Of My Experiments With Truth Mahatma Gandhi 1927 Indian Gujarati
1721 Pragmatism William James 1907 American English
1802 Kallocain Karin Boye 1940 Swedish Swedish
1803 The Problems of Philosophy Bertrand Russell 1912 British English
1812 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time Mark Haddon 2003 British English
1966 Truth And Method Hans-Georg Gadamer 1960 German German
2032 Introduction To Mathematical Philosophy Bertrand Russell 1919 British English
2219 The Sense of an Ending Julian Barnes 2011 British English
2291 Arcadia Tom Stoppard 1993 British English
2423 Phaedrus Plato -370 Greek Ancient greek
2424 Galileo Bertolt Brecht 1938 German German
2477 The Last Battle C. S. Lewis 1956 British English
2772 The Twilight of the Idols and The Antichrist Friedrich Nietzsche 1888 German German
3104 Spoon River Anthology Edgar Lee Masters 1915 American English
3109 Beyond Good and Evil Friedrich Nietzsche 1886 German German
3507 The Journalist and the Murderer Janet Malcolm 1990 American English
3637 Areopagitica John Milton 1644 British English
3637 The Raging Reporter Egon Erwin Kisch 1924 Czech German
3637 Caspar Hauser Or The Inertia Of The Heart Jakob Wassermann 1908 German German
4526 Living In Truth Vaclav Havel 1986 Czech Czech
5021 The King David Report Stefan Heym 1972 German German
5121 Baudolino Umberto Eco 2000 Italian Italian
5275 Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Tennessee Williams 1955 American English
5287 Gandhi's Truth Erik H. Erikson 1969 American English
5353 Stasiland Anna Funder 2002 Australian English
5608 Die Fälschung Nicolas Born 1979 German German
5725 Politics And The English Language George Orwell 1946 British English
5749 Open Secrets Alice Munro 1994 Canadian English
5753 Flight Of Ashes Monika Maron 1981 German German
5783 The Serpent Luigi Malerba 1966 Italian Italian
6005 Notebooks Joseph Joubert 1883 French French
6124 Monster Naoki Urasawa 1994 Japanese Japanese
6136 Country Of My Skull Antjie Krog 1998 South African Afrikaans
6311 Burial Rites Hannah Kent 2013 Australian English
6315 The Fifth Gospel Mario Pomilio 1974 Italian Italian
6354 The Perennial Scope Of Philosophy Karl Jaspers 1949 German German
6791 The True Deceiver Tove Jansson 1982 Finnish Swedish
6812 Scorched Wajdi Mouawad 2003 French French
7086 La Verità Sul Caso D. Carlo Fruttero, Franco Lucentini 1993 Italian Italian
7189 Pet Akwaeke Emezi 2019 American English
7216 An Apology For Poetry Philip Sidney 1595 British English
7216 A Defence Of Poetry Percy Bysshe Shelley 1840 British English
7216 Modern Painters John Ruskin 1843 British English
7216 Naked Masks Luigi Pirandello 1922 Italian Italian
7216 The Empty Book Josefina Vicens 1958 Mexican English
7580 Speaker for the Dead Orson Scott Card 1986 American English
7845 The Accidental Ali Smith 2005 British English
7967 Balthazar Lawrence Durrell 1958 British English
8322 The Truth Terry Pratchett 2000 British English
8330 Wizard's First Rule Terry Goodkind 1994 American English
8466 Being Wrong Kathryn Schulz 2010 American English
8880 Philosophy And The Mirror Of Nature Richard Rorty 1979 American English
9116 The Wine Dark Sea Leonardo Sciascia 1968 Italian Italian
9192 Carry Me Down M. J. Hyland 2006 Australian English
9859 The Meaning of Truth William James 1909 American English
9895 The Love of a Good Woman Alice Munro 1998 Canadian English
10739 Truth And Truthfulness Bernard Williams 2002 British English
10855 The Lie Tree Frances Hardinge 2015 British English
10855 American Appetites Joyce Carol Oates 1989 American English
10996 The Twilight Zone Nona Fernández 2016 Chilean Spanish
11076 About a Mountain John D'Agata 2010 American English
11311 The Simple Truth Philip Levine 1994 American English
11571 Scepticism and Animal Faith George Santayana 1923 Spanish English
11662 Philosophical Explanations Robert Nozick 1981 American English
12441 Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? Edward Albee 1962 American English
12834 A Chorus Of Stones Susan Griffin 1992 American English
12982 The Dentist Tim Sullivan 2025 British Unknown
13362 An Enemy of the People Henrik Ibsen 1882 Norwegian Norwegian
13600 Histoire D'un Fait Divers Jean-Jacques Gautier 1946 French French
14212 Plato And Platonism Walter Pater 1893 British English
14334 Come With Me Ronald Malfi 2021 American English
14478 The Sword Of Truth Terry Goodkind 1994 American English
14823 The Wild Duck Henrik Ibsen 1884 Norwegian Norwegian
14820 Logic And Knowledge Bertrand Russell 1956 British English
14985 The Real Thing Tom Stoppard 1982 British English
14985 The True Story Of The 3 Little Pigs Jon Scieszka 1989 American English
14985 Fatherland Burkhard Bilger 2023 Unknown English
14985 The Most Secret Memory Of Men Mohamed Mbougar Sarr 2023 Senegalese French
15567 The Last Trial Scott Turow 2020 American English
15757 Mother Night Kurt Vonnegut 1961 American English
15791 The Wife of Martin Guerre Janet Lewis 1941 American English
15773 The Oedipus Plays Of Sophocles Sophocles -429 Greek Ancient greek
15915 Gospel of Truth Valentinus 150 Unknown Coptic
15915 The Maurizius Case Jakob Wassermann 1928 German German
15915 An Inquiry Into The Good Nishida Kitarō 1911 Japanese Japanese
15915 The Living Thoughts Of Kierkegaard Soren Kierkegaard 1938 Danish English
16523 On Truth And Lies In A Nonmoral Sense Friedrich Nietzsche 1873 German German
16576 Twelve Angry Men Reginald Rose 1954 American English
16767 Concluding Unscientific Postscript To Philosophical Fragments, Volume 1 Soren Kierkegaard 1846 Danish Danish
16778 Twilight Of The Idols, Or How To Philosophize With A Hammer Friedrich Nietzsche 1889 German German
16639 Curtain Agatha Christie 1975 British English
17158 The Devil's Advocate Morris West 1959 Australian English
17158 Death And The Maiden Ariel Dorfman 1991 Chilean Spanish
17158 Let The Northern Lights Erase Your Name Vendela Vida 2007 American English
17158 Paradigms Regained John L. Casti 2000 American English
17158 Justice For Hedgehogs Ronald Dworkin 2011 American English
17158 A Wilderness Station Alice Munro 1996 American English
17158 Simone Weil Simone Weil 1986 French French
17158 Les Goûters Philo Brigitte Labbé 1996 French French
17158 Being Logical D. Q. McInerny 2004 American English
17158 Confessions Of A Muckraker Jack Anderson 1979 American English
17158 Realism And Truth Michael Devitt 1991 American English
17158 The Social Construction Of What? Ian Hacking 1999 Canadian English
17158 Relativism Refuted Harvey Siegel 1987 American English
17158 Wool Omnibus Hugh Howey 2012 American English