The Greatest Western Books of All Time

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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
3378 Black Easter James Blish 1968 American English
3377 Ordinary People Judith Guest 1976 American English
3380 The Shadow Line Joseph Conrad 1917 British English
3379 Zadig Voltaire 1747 French French
3381 Der Laden Erwin Strittmatter 1983 German German
3382 Like Life Lorrie Moore 1990 American English
3383 Poems Miguel de Unamuno 1907 Spanish Spanish
3384 The Plague-Sower Gesualdo Bufalino 1981 Italian Italian
3388 Bomber Len Deighton 1970 British English
3390 La Realidad Y El Deseo Luis Cernuda 1936 Spanish Spanish
3391 Napoleon Emil Ludwig 1926 German German
3391 Selected Poetry Of Francisco De Quevedo Francisco de Quevedo 1648 Spanish Spanish
3391 Los Gozos Y Las Sombras Gonzalo Torrente Ballester 1957 Spanish Spanish
3391 Crónica Del Alba Ramón J. Sender 1942 Spanish Spanish
3396 Cities of the Red Night William S. Burroughs 1981 American English
3397 King Rat James Clavell 1962 British English
3398 The Name Of The Wind Patrick Rothfuss 2007 American English
3399 Portrait Of A Marriage Nigel Nicolson 1973 British English
3400 Great Plains Ian Frazier 1989 American English
3402 Shadow Over Mars Leigh Brackett 1944 American English
3403 Wobble To Death Peter Lovesey 1970 British English
3404 The Unfortunates B. S. Johnson 1969 British English
3405 Fifty Shades of Grey: E. L. James 2011 British English
3407 All Heads Turn When The Hunt Goes By John Farris 1977 American English
3407 In A Lonely Place Karl Edward Wagner 1977 American English
3409 The Glass Bees Ernst Jünger 1957 German German
3409 The Manila Rope Veijo Meri 1957 Finnish Finnish
3409 The deadbeats Ward Ruyslinck 1957 Belgian Dutch
3409 The Birds Tarjei Vesaas 1957 Norwegian Norwegian
3413 A Biographical Dictionary Of Film David Thomson 1975 British English
3414 Night's Black Agents Fritz Leiber 1961 American English
3415 Hanna's Daughters Marianne Fredriksson 1994 Swedish Swedish
3416 Bécon Les Bruyères Emmanuel Bove 1927 French French
3418 Plays Pierre Corneille 1641 French French
3420 In The Country Of Last Things Paul Auster 1987 American English
3421 The Shock Doctrine Naomi Klein 2007 Canadian English
3423 The Back Room Carmen Martín Gaite 1978 Spanish Spanish
3424 Common Sense Thomas Paine 1776 British English
3426 The Violent Bear It Away Flannery O'Connor 1960 American English
3428 Count Julian Juan Goytisolo 1970 Spanish Spanish
3427 The Great Transformation Karl Polanyi 1944 Canadian English
3428 Short Letter, Long Farewell Peter Handke 1972 Austrian German
3430 Get A Life, Chloe Brown Talia Hibbert 2019 British English
3431 The Stories of Ray Bradbury Ray Bradbury 1980 American English
3434 Horseman, Pass By Larry McMurtry 1961 American English
3433 The Meeting At Telgte Günter Grass 1979 German German
3435 On Wings Of Song Thomas M. Disch 1979 American English
3436 The Broken Earth Trilogy N. K. Jemisin 2015 American English
3437 So Far From God Ana Castillo 1993 American English
3438 The Needle's Eye Fanny Howe 1970 American English
3439 The House Next Door Anne Rivers Siddons 1978 American English
3440 Ideas Have Consequences Richard M. Weaver 1948 American English
3441 In Search Of The Castaways Jules Verne 1867 French French
3442 The Summer Tree Guy Gavriel Kay 1984 Canadian English
3443 Transit Rachel Cusk 2016 British English
3444 The Bitter Glass Eilís Dillon 1958 Irish English
3444 The Kandy Kolored Tangerine Flake Streamline Baby Tom Wolfe 1965 American English
3447 Look At Me Anita Brookner 1983 British English
3448 Falling Angel William Hjortsberg 1978 American English
3449 The Satin Slipper Paul Claudel 1929 French French
3450 Mistborn Brandon Sanderson 2006 American English
3451 The Elegant Universe Brian Greene 1999 American English
3452 The Closing of the American Mind Allan Bloom 1987 American English
3453 Magic for Beginners Kelly Link 2005 American English
3455 Profiles in Courage John F. Kennedy 1956 American English
3456 Glory Road Robert A. Heinlein 1963 American English
3457 Hamlet, Revenge! Michael Innes 1937 British English
3458 The Glass Menagerie Tennessee Williams 1944 American English
3461 The First Deadly Sin Lawrence Sanders 1973 American English
3463 The Raven Edgar Allan Poe 1845 American English
3464 The Emperor's New Clothes Hans Christian Andersen 1837 Danish Danish
3465 Murgunstrumm And Others Hugh B. Cave 1977 American English
3465 Sweetheart, Sweetheart Bernard Taylor 1977 British English
3467 Kudos Rachel Cusk 2018 British English
3468 The Story Of English Robert McCrum 1986 British English
3469 Solar Bones Mike McCormack 2016 Irish English
3470 Little Caesar W. R. Burnett 1929 American English
3471 The Armada Garrett Mattingly 1959 American English
3473 Native Speaker Chang-rae Lee 1995 American English
3475 The Campaign of the Marne Sewell Tyng 1927 American English
3476 The Black Obelisk Erich Maria Remarque 1956 German German
3477 American Born Chinese Gene Luen Yang 2006 American English
3479 The Bookseller of Kabul Asne Seierstad 2002 Norwegian Norwegian
3480 The King Of Elfland's Daughter Lord Dunsany 1924 British English
3481 The Trusting And The Maimed James Plunkett 1959 Irish English
3482 The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop. Robert Coover 1968 American English
3483 Consider Phlebas Iain Banks 1987 Scottish English
3484 The Scorpion Fish Nicolas Bouvier 1982 French French
3485 The Fault in Our Stars John Green 2012 American English
3486 Descent Into Hell Charles Williams 1937 British English
3487 The Great Victorian Collection Brian Moore 1975 Canadian English
3488 Akata Witch Nnedi Okorafor 2011 American English
3489 Seminario Sulla Gioventù Aldo Busi 1984 Italian Italian
3490 Democracy and Leadership Irving Babbitt 1924 American English
3491 The Claw Of The Conciliator Gene Wolfe 1981 American English
3492 Selected Poems Pierre Ronsard 1501 French French
3494 Eating Animals Jonathan Safran Foer 2009 American English
3493 Laura Vera Caspary 1943 American English
3496 Institutes of the Christian Religion John Calvin 1536 French Latin
3496 Devil's Cub Georgette Heyer 1932 British English
3496 The Thin Red Line James Jones 1962 American English
3499 Reflections of a Russian Statesman Konstantin P. Pobedonostsev 1898 Russian Russian
3500 Family Matters Rohinton Mistry 2002 Canadian English
3502 The Works of Max Beerbohm Max Beerbohm 1902 British English
3503 The Big Blowdown George P. Pelecanos 1996 American English
3505 Speak Laurie Halse Anderson 1999 American English
3507 The Journalist and the Murderer Janet Malcolm 1990 American English
3508 Joe Cinque's Consolation Helen Garner 2004 Australian English
3509 Song Of Kali Dan Simmons 1985 American English
3510 Alone With The Horrors Ramsey Campbell 1993 British English
3511 Scrutiny F. R. Leavis 1932 British English
3512 Mary Chesnut's Civil War Mary Boykin Chesnut 1981 American English
3513 Poems, 1913 1956 Bertolt Brecht 1976 German German
3515 In the American Grain William Carlos Williams 1925 American English
3516 The Presentation Of Self In Everyday Life Erving Goffman 1959 American English
3517 Bureaucracy Ludwig von Mises 1944 Austrian English
3518 Poems of Friedrich Hölderlin Friedrich Holderlin 1800 German German
3519 Sidetracked Henning Mankell 1995 Swedish Swedish
3520 Nothing to Envy Barbara Demick 2009 American English
3521 Balzac Stefan Zweig 1946 Austrian German