The Greatest Books of All Time on Violence

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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
97 For Whom the Bell Tolls Ernest Hemingway 1940 American English
107 Native Son Richard Wright 1940 American English
109 In Cold Blood Truman Capote 1966 American English
153 A Clockwork Orange Anthony Burgess 1962 British English
155 Macbeth William Shakespeare 1606 British English
170 Of Mice and Men John Steinbeck 1937 American English
172 Man's Fate Andre Malraux 1933 French French
181 Light in August William Faulkner 1932 American English
198 Blood Meridian Cormac McCarthy 1985 American English
208 A Good Man Is Hard to Find Flannery O'Connor 1953 American English
218 The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Robert Louis Stevenson 1886 British English
219 Brighton Rock Graham Greene 1938 British English
232 2666 Roberto Bolaño 2004 Chilean Spanish
242 The Godfather Mario Puzo 1969 American English
255 Disgrace J. M. Coetzee 1999 South African English
260 Song of Solomon Toni Morrison 1977 American English
272 The Devil to Pay in the Backlands Joao Guimaraes Rosa 1956 Brazilian Portuguese
291 The House of the Spirits Isabel Allende 1982 Chilean Spanish
305 The Confusions of Young Törless Robert Musil 1906 Austrian German
347 The Day of the Locust Nathanael West 1939 American English
350 The Complete Stories of Flannery O'Connor Flannery O'Connor 1971 American English
356 Germinal Émile Zola 1885 French French
396 The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Junot Diaz 2007 Dominican English
400 The Shining Stephen King 1977 American English
407 The World According to Garp John Irving 1978 American English
409 My Brilliant Friend Elena Ferrante 2012 American Italian
411 Underworld Don DeLillo 1997 American English
463 The Songs of Maldoror Comte de Lautréamont 1868 French French
473 The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle Haruki Murakami 1994 Japanese Japanese
500 Everything That Rises Must Converge Flannery O'Connor 1965 American English
509 Sanctuary William Faulkner 1931 American English
513 Kindred Octavia E. Butler 1979 American English
516 Season of Migration to the North Al-Tayyib Salih 1966 Sudanese Arabic
519 Call It Sleep Henry Roth 1934 American English
535 Red Cavalry Isaac Babel 1926 Russian Russian
536 Red Harvest Dashiell Hammett 1929 American English
570 American Psycho Bret Easton Ellis 1991 American English
595 Farewell, My Lovely Raymond Chandler 1940 American English
599 A Streetcar Named Desire Tennessee Williams 1947 American English
614 Facundo Domingo Faustino Sarmiento 1845 Argentinian Spanish
616 The Rebel Albert Camus 1951 French French
640 Black Boy Richard Wright 1945 American English
650 The Flanders Road Claude Simon 1960 French French
685 Them Joyce Carol Oates 1969 American English
687 The Time of the Hero Mario Vargas Llosa 1963 Peruvian Spanish
688 From Here to Eternity James Jones 1951 American English
695 Boys Alive Pier Paolo Pasolini 1955 Italian Italian
701 The Feast of the Goat Mario Vargas Llosa 2000 Peruvian Spanish
722 Bastard Out of Carolina Dorothy Allison 1992 American English
724 Michael Kohlhaas Heinrich von Kleist 1810 German German
751 All the Pretty Horses Cormac McCarthy 1992 American English
770 The Underground Railroad Colson Whitehead 2016 American English
779 The Outsiders S. E. Hinton 1967 American English
781 Simplicius Simplicissimus Hans Jakob Christoffel von Grimmelshausen 1668 German German
789 The Piano Teacher Elfriede Jelinek 1983 Austrian German
799 Kaputt Curzio Malaparte 1944 Italian Italian
804 The Vegetarian Han Kang 2007 Korean Korean
825 In Our Time Ernest Hemingway 1925 American English
841 Crash J. G. Ballard 1973 British English
853 Mc Teague Frank Norris 1899 American English
886 Riders of the Purple Sage Zane Grey 1912 American English
901 Last Exit to Brooklyn Hubert Selby 1964 American English
918 The Plot Against America Philip Roth 2004 American English
920 The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum Heinrich Böll 1974 German German
925 Deliverance James Dickey 1970 American English
955 Moravagine Blaise Cendrars 1926 Swiss French
968 Jesus' Son Denis Johnson 1992 American English
969 Storm of Steel Ernst Jünger 1920 German German
973 The Burning Plain and Other Stories Juan Rulfo 1953 Mexican Spanish
989 The Grass Is Singing Doris May Lessing 1950 British English
1031 The Temple of the Golden Pavilion Yukio Mishima 1956 Japanese Japanese
1073 The Lottery and Other Stories Shirley Jackson 1948 American English
1078 Death on Credit Louis-Ferdinand Céline 1936 French French
1088 The Dwarf Par Lagerkvist 1944 Swedish Swedish
1090 The Kreutzer Sonata Leo Tolstoy 1889 Russian Russian
1109 Othello William Shakespeare 1603 British English
1111 Get Shorty Elmore Leonard 1990 American English
1119 The Street Ann Petry 1946 American English
1137 Miss Lonelyhearts Nathanael West 1933 American English
1148 The Werewolf Of Paris Guy Endore 1933 American English
1181 The Painted Bird Jerzy Kosinski 1965 Polish English
1201 Kafka On The Shore Haruki Murakami 2002 Japanese Japanese
1210 The Wasp Factory Iain Banks 1984 British English
1215 Explosion In A Cathedral Alejo Carpentier 1962 Cuban Spanish
1222 Studs Lonigan James T. Farrell 1932 American English
1275 The Laughing Policeman Maj Sjöwall, Per Wahlöö 1968 Swedish Swedish
1277 A High Wind in Jamaica Richard Hughes 1929 British English
1287 Odessa Stories Isaac Babel 1923 Ukrainian Russian
1322 Devil in a Blue Dress Walter Mosley 1990 American English
1347 Story of the Eye Georges Bataille 1928 French French
1390 A Brief History of Seven Killings Marlon James 2014 Jamaican English
1440 The Virginian Owen Wister 1902 American English
1445 Faceless Killers Henning Mankell 1991 Swedish Swedish
1473 What We Talk About When We Talk About Love Raymond Carver 1981 American English
1500 The Bourne Identity Robert Ludlum 1980 American English
1503 The Friends Of Eddie Coyle George V. Higgins 1970 American English
1541 The Confessions of Nat Turner William Styron 1967 American English
1550 Njal's Saga Iceland 1280 Icelandic Old norse
1579 The Collected Stories of Isaac Babel Isaac Babel 1934 Russian Russian
1581 The Civilizing Process Norbert Elias 1939 German German
1599 The Unfortunate Traveller Thomas Nashe 1594 British English
1606 White Fang Jack London 1906 American English
1635 The Autumn of the Patriarch Gabriel García Márquez 1975 Colombian Spanish
1639 No Orchids for Miss Blandish James Hadley Chase 1939 British English
1640 The Asphalt Jungle W. R. Burnett 1949 American English
1650 Sing, Unburied, Sing Jesmyn Ward 2017 American English
1674 London Fields Martin Amis 1989 British English
1679 The Killer Inside Me Jim Thompson 1952 American English
1688 Carrie Stephen King 1974 American English
1695 The Last Good Kiss James Crumley 1978 American English
1711 Woyzeck Georg Buchner 1879 German German
1720 The Lady In The Lake Raymond Chandler 1943 American English
1723 1Q84 Haruki Murakami 2009 Japanese Japanese
1756 Strange Fruit Lillian Smith 1944 American English
1757 Books of Blood Clive Barker 1984 British English
1760 Desperate Characters Paula Fox 1970 American English
1771 Stone Butch Blues Leslie Feinberg 1993 American English
1785 The Murders in the Rue Morgue Edgar Allan Poe 1841 American English
1795 Victory Joseph Conrad 1915 British English
1801 A Time To Kill John Grisham 1989 American English