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
7655 A Better World Than This Marie Joseph 1982 British English
7664 Against Interpretation Susan Sontag 1966 American English
7656 King Jesus Robert Graves 1946 British English
7656 Collected Poetry Aimé Césaire 1946 French French
7656 Poems Of Judith Wright Judith Wright 1946 Australian English
7656 Paterson William Carlos Williams 1946 American English
7656 Poems Of Robert Lowell Robert Lowell 1946 American English
7663 East Wind Pearl S. Buck 1930 American English
7656 The Sunday Of Life Raymond Queneau 1952 French French
7665 The Flowering of New England Van Wyck Brooks 1936 American English
7667 The Age Of Wonder Richard Holmes 2008 British English
7666 Victory City Salman Rushdie 2023 British English
7668 The Wild Places Robert Macfarlane 2007 British English
7670 Julián Is A Mermaid Jessica Love 2018 American English
7669 Soldier Sailor Claire Kilroy 2024 Irish Unknown
7671 The Letters Of Vincent Van Gogh Vincent van Gogh 1914 Dutch Dutch
7672 The One And Only Ivan Katherine Applegate 2012 American English
7672 Shadow And Bone Leigh Bardugo 2012 American English
7672 14 Peter Clines 2012 American English
7672 Cinder Marissa Meyer 2012 American English
7672 The Raven Boys Maggie Stiefvater 2012 American English
7677 The Soft Side Henry James 1900 British English
7678 Darwin's Black Box Michael J. Behe 1996 American English
7679 The Netanyahus Joshua Cohen 2021 American English
7682 Left Behind Tim LaHaye, Jerry B. Jenkins 1995 American English
7681 The Long Journey Johannes V. Jensen 1908 Danish Danish
7683 Sophie Calle Sophie Calle 1994 French French
7684 Looking for Alaska John Green 2005 American English
7685 Startide Rising David Brin 1983 American English
7685 Among Others Jo Walton 2011 British English
7685 A Master of Djinn P. Djèlí Clark 2021 American English
7688 The Rest is Noise Alex Ross 2007 American English
7689 The Time It Never Rained Elmer Kelton 1973 American English
7691 Dark Gods T. E. D. Klein 1985 American English
7692 Heroes Like Us Thomas Brussig 1995 German German
7692 Opernball Josef Haslinger 1995 Austrian German
7692 Nikolaikirche Erich Loest 1995 German German
7692 Das Superweib Hera Lind 1995 German German
7698 The Ruins Scott Smith 2006 American English
7697 It Happened One Autumn Lisa Kleypas 2005 American English
7699 La Orilla Oscura José María Merino 1985 Spanish Spanish
7701 Tirza Arnon Grunberg 2006 Dutch Dutch
7702 The Buffalo Hunter Hunter Stephen Graham Jones 2025 American English
7703 Beatlebone Kevin Barry 2015 Irish English
7704 Julie Of The Wolves Jean Craighead George 1972 American English
7705 You Can't Go Home Again Thomas Wolfe 1940 American English
7706 Poverty, By America Matthew Desmond 2023 American English
7707 On The Beach Nevil Shute 1957 Australian English
7708 Bank Shot Donald E. Westlake 1972 American English
7709 Moral Hazard Kate Jennings 2002 Australian English
7711 The Honourable Schoolboy John le Carré 1977 British English
7714 We Were Not The Savages Daniel N. Paul 1993 Canadian English
7716 Shroud For A Nightingale P. D. James 1971 British English
7717 Complete Nonsense Edward Lear 1947 British English
7717 Collected Poems Herman Melville 1947 American English
7717 Three Tragedies Federico García Lorca 1947 Spanish Spanish
7717 Selected Writings Antonin Artaud 1947 French French
7724 Purity And Danger Mary Douglas 1966 British English
7724 The Peasants Of Languedoc Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie 1966 French French
7722 Pig Tales Marie Darrieussecq 1996 French French
7723 Unnatural Selection Mara Hvistendahl 2011 American English
7717 The Southpaw Mark Harris 1953 American English
7726 A Worldly Country John Ashbery 2007 American English
7728 Cast A Cold Eye Alan Ryan 1984 American English
7728 Usher's Passing Robert R. McCammon 1984 American English
7730 Verzameld Werk: Gedichten Martinus Nijhoff 1990 Dutch Dutch
7731 Fraternity John Galsworthy 1909 British English
7732 Ready Player One Ernest Cline 2011 American English
7733 The Story Of Harold Terry Andrews 1974 American English
7734 Despair Vladimir Nabokov 1934 Russian Russian
7735 Stag Dance Torrey Peters 2025 American English
7736 The Wanderers Richard Price 1974 American English
7737 The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel Amy Hempel 2006 American English
7738 Becoming Madame Mao Anchee Min 2000 American English
7741 The Ice Princess Camilla Läckberg 2003 Swedish Swedish
7740 Klíč Je Pod Rohožkou Vlastimil Třešňák 1995 Czech Czech
7742 The Third Reich Of Dreams Charlotte Beradt 1966 German German
7743 Flesh David Szalay 2025 British English
7744 My Life and My Life in the Nineties Lyn Hejinian 1980 American English
7745 Désirée Annemarie Selinko 1951 Austrian German
7746 The Sending Geoffrey Household 1980 British English
7748 The Structure Of Social Action Talcott Parsons 1937 American English
7749 Geography Iii Elizabeth Bishop 1976 American English
7751 Critical Mass Philip Ball 2004 British English
7750 The Screwfly Solution Raccoona Sheldon 1977 American English
7752 The Age of Surveillance Capitalism Shoshana Zuboff 2019 American English
7753 Another Marvelous Thing Laurie Colwin 1986 American English
7755 Infidel Ayaan Hirsi Ali 2007 Dutch English
7756 One Hundred and One Poems by Paul Verlaine Paul Verlaine 1948 French French
7754 Mr. Fox Helen Oyeyemi 2011 British English
7757 Shuggie Bain Douglas Stuart 2020 Scottish English
7758 The Hunger Whitley Strieber 1981 American English
7760 Tatty Christine Dwyer Hickey 2004 Irish English
7763 The Collected Stories of Heinrich Boll Heinrich Böll 1972 German German
7764 Too Much Happiness Alice Munro 2009 Canadian English
7765 Annapurna Maurice Herzog 1951 French French
7772 Napoleon Vincent Cronin 1971 British English
7772 The Name Above the Title Frank Capra 1971 American English
7766 Pavel's Letters Monika Maron 1999 German German
7779 The Cold Moon Jeffrey Deaver 2006 American English
7772 Stories And Recollections Umberto Saba 1948 Italian Italian
7772 Poems Of André Breton André Breton 1948 French French
7772 Collected Poems Robert Graves 1948 British English
7772 Summer And Smoke Tennessee Williams 1948 American English
7766 Mating In Captivity Esther Perel 2006 Belgian English
7780 The Red Magician Lisa Goldstein 1982 American English
7766 This Is Your Brain On Music Daniel J. Levitin 2006 Canadian English
7772 The Bad Seed William March 1954 American English
7782 The Memory Palace Of Matteo Ricci Jonathan Spence 1984 American English
7783 The Gunslinger Stephen King 1982 American English
7784 My Friends Hisham Matar 2024 British Unknown
7785 Close To The Machine Ellen Ullman 1997 American English
7786 The Wig Charles Wright 1966 American English
7787 Lessons In Chemistry Bonnie Garmus 2022 American English
7788 Cold Enough For Snow Jessica Au 2022 Australian English
7789 Chatham School Affair Thomas Cook 1996 American English
7790 The Mind and Society Vilfredo Pareto 1916 Italian Italian
7791 Weetzie Bat Francesca Lia Block 1989 American English
7791 Sandstorms Peter Theroux 1990 American English
7793 The Gods Themselves Isaac Asimov 1972 American English