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
107 Oedipus the King Sophocles -429 Greek Ancient greek
134 Confessions Augustine 397 Roman Latin
207 The Gulag Archipelago Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn 1973 Russian Russian
221 The Republic Plato -379 Greek Ancient greek
371 Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus Ludwig Wittgenstein 1921 Austrian German
389 The Complete Works of Plato Plato -387 Greek Ancient greek
547 The Notebook, The Proof, The Third Lie Agota Kristof 1986 Hungarian French
668 Cat's Cradle Kurt Vonnegut 1963 American English
941 Collected Essays of George Orwell George Orwell 1968 British English
989 Flaubert's Parrot Julian Barnes 1984 British English
1005 A Dry White Season Andre Brink 1979 South African Afrikaans
1158 Apology Plato -389 Greek Ancient greek
1164 Essays Francis Bacon 1597 British English
1236 Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories Ryunosuke Akutagawa 1915 Japanese Japanese
1303 The Road Less Traveled M. Scott Peck 1978 American English
1574 The Story Of My Experiments With Truth Mahatma Gandhi 1927 Indian Gujarati
1722 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
2031 Introduction To Mathematical Philosophy Bertrand Russell 1919 British English
2218 The Sense of an Ending Julian Barnes 2011 British English
2290 Arcadia Tom Stoppard 1993 British English
2421 Phaedrus Plato -370 Greek Ancient greek
2422 Galileo Bertolt Brecht 1938 German German
2475 The Last Battle C. S. Lewis 1956 British English
2774 The Twilight of the Idols and The Antichrist Friedrich Nietzsche 1888 German German
3102 Spoon River Anthology Edgar Lee Masters 1915 American English
3107 Beyond Good and Evil Friedrich Nietzsche 1886 German German
3509 The Journalist and the Murderer Janet Malcolm 1990 American English
3638 Areopagitica John Milton 1644 British English
3638 The Raging Reporter Egon Erwin Kisch 1924 Czech German
3638 Caspar Hauser Or The Inertia Of The Heart Jakob Wassermann 1908 German German
4526 Living In Truth Vaclav Havel 1986 Czech Czech
5020 The King David Report Stefan Heym 1972 German German
5120 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
5607 Die Fälschung Nicolas Born 1979 German German
5723 Politics And The English Language George Orwell 1946 British English
5747 Open Secrets Alice Munro 1994 Canadian English
5751 Flight Of Ashes Monika Maron 1981 German German
5781 The Serpent Luigi Malerba 1966 Italian Italian
6004 Notebooks Joseph Joubert 1883 French French
6123 Monster Naoki Urasawa 1994 Japanese Japanese
6135 Country Of My Skull Antjie Krog 1998 South African Afrikaans
6310 Burial Rites Hannah Kent 2013 Australian English
6314 The Fifth Gospel Mario Pomilio 1974 Italian Italian
6353 The Perennial Scope Of Philosophy Karl Jaspers 1949 German German
6790 The True Deceiver Tove Jansson 1982 Finnish Swedish
6812 Scorched Wajdi Mouawad 2003 French French
7087 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
7844 The Accidental Ali Smith 2005 British English
7967 Balthazar Lawrence Durrell 1958 British English
8323 The Truth Terry Pratchett 2000 British English
8331 Wizard's First Rule Terry Goodkind 1994 American English
8463 Being Wrong Kathryn Schulz 2010 American English
8878 Philosophy And The Mirror Of Nature Richard Rorty 1979 American English
9113 The Wine Dark Sea Leonardo Sciascia 1968 Italian Italian
9190 Carry Me Down M. J. Hyland 2006 Australian English
9859 The Meaning of Truth William James 1909 American English
9899 The Love of a Good Woman Alice Munro 1998 Canadian English
10743 Truth And Truthfulness Bernard Williams 2002 British English
10859 The Lie Tree Frances Hardinge 2015 British English
10859 American Appetites Joyce Carol Oates 1989 American English
11000 The Twilight Zone Nona Fernández 2016 Chilean Spanish
11081 About a Mountain John D'Agata 2010 American English
11317 The Simple Truth Philip Levine 1994 American English
11586 Scepticism and Animal Faith George Santayana 1923 Spanish English
11676 Philosophical Explanations Robert Nozick 1981 American English
12460 Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? Edward Albee 1962 American English
12853 A Chorus Of Stones Susan Griffin 1992 American English
13000 The Dentist Tim Sullivan 2025 British Unknown
13382 An Enemy of the People Henrik Ibsen 1882 Norwegian Norwegian
13619 Histoire D'un Fait Divers Jean-Jacques Gautier 1946 French French
14256 Plato And Platonism Walter Pater 1893 British English
14376 Come With Me Ronald Malfi 2021 American English
14513 The Sword Of Truth Terry Goodkind 1994 American English
14850 The Wild Duck Henrik Ibsen 1884 Norwegian Norwegian
14846 Logic And Knowledge Bertrand Russell 1956 British English
15010 The Real Thing Tom Stoppard 1982 British English
15010 The True Story Of The 3 Little Pigs Jon Scieszka 1989 American English
15010 Fatherland Burkhard Bilger 2023 Unknown English
15010 The Most Secret Memory Of Men Mohamed Mbougar Sarr 2023 Senegalese French
15586 The Last Trial Scott Turow 2020 American English
15749 Mother Night Kurt Vonnegut 1961 American English
15770 The Wife of Martin Guerre Janet Lewis 1941 American English
15761 The Oedipus Plays Of Sophocles Sophocles -429 Greek Ancient greek
15897 Gospel of Truth Valentinus 150 Unknown Coptic
15897 The Maurizius Case Jakob Wassermann 1928 German German
15897 An Inquiry Into The Good Nishida Kitarō 1911 Japanese Japanese
15897 The Living Thoughts Of Kierkegaard Soren Kierkegaard 1938 Danish English
16506 On Truth And Lies In A Nonmoral Sense Friedrich Nietzsche 1873 German German
16553 Twelve Angry Men Reginald Rose 1954 American English
16730 Concluding Unscientific Postscript To Philosophical Fragments, Volume 1 Soren Kierkegaard 1846 Danish Danish
16732 Twilight Of The Idols, Or How To Philosophize With A Hammer Friedrich Nietzsche 1889 German German
16626 Curtain Agatha Christie 1975 British English
17113 The Devil's Advocate Morris West 1959 Australian English
17113 Death And The Maiden Ariel Dorfman 1991 Chilean Spanish
17113 Let The Northern Lights Erase Your Name Vendela Vida 2007 American English
17113 Paradigms Regained John L. Casti 2000 American English
17113 Justice For Hedgehogs Ronald Dworkin 2011 American English
17113 A Wilderness Station Alice Munro 1996 American English
17113 Simone Weil Simone Weil 1986 French French
17113 Les Goûters Philo Brigitte Labbé 1996 French French
17113 Being Logical D. Q. McInerny 2004 American English
17113 Confessions Of A Muckraker Jack Anderson 1979 American English
17113 Realism And Truth Michael Devitt 1991 American English
17113 The Social Construction Of What? Ian Hacking 1999 Canadian English
17113 Relativism Refuted Harvey Siegel 1987 American English
17113 Wool Omnibus Hugh Howey 2012 American English