The Greatest Western Experimental 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
5685 Big Blondes Jean Echenoz 1995 French French
5692 Period Dennis Cooper 1994 American English
5720 Warlight Michael Ondaatje 2018 Canadian English
5741 The Young And Evil Charles Henri Ford, Parker Tyler 1933 American English
5749 The Message In the Bottle Walker Percy 1975 American English
5750 The Insult Rupert Thomson 1996 British English
5756 Concerning The Eccentricities Of Cardinal Pirelli Ronald Firbank 1926 British English
5774 Χαιρε Ποτε Kiki Dimoula 1988 Greek Greek
5802 Kruso Lutz Seiler 2014 German German
5804 Martyr! Kaveh Akbar 2024 American English
5916 Our Lord Don Quixote Miguel de Unamuno 1935 Spanish Spanish
5930 Light M. John Harrison 2002 British English
5935 Look At Me Now And Here I Am Gertrude Stein 1967 American Unknown
5993 Writing Degree Zero Roland Barthes 1953 French French
6000 The Cipher Kathe Koja 1991 American English
6004 Inner Experience Georges Bataille 1943 French French
6004 Waiting For Nothing And Other Writings Tom Kromer 1935 American English
6004 A Certain Plume Henri Michaux 1930 French English
6004 Die Niederschrift Des Gustav Anias Horn Hans Henny Jahnn 1949 German German
6004 Dire I–Ii Danielle Collobert 1972 French French
6004 Divagations Stéphane Mallarmé 1897 French French
6004 Les Métamorphoses Du Cercle Georges Poulet 1961 Belgian French
6004 Madness Of The Day Maurice Blanchot 1949 French French
6004 No One's Rose Paul Celan 1963 German German
6004 Poem Of The End Marina Tsvetaeva 1923 Russian Russian
6004 Pylon William Faulkner 1935 American English
6004 Someone Robert Pinget 1965 French French
6004 The Golden Fruits Nathalie Sarraute 1963 French French
6004 The Motorcycle André Pieyre de Mandiargues 1963 French French
6004 The Pine Wood Notebook Francis Ponge 1947 French French
6004 Three Women Robert Musil 1924 Austrian German
6004 Which Moped With Chrome Plated Handlebars At The Back Of The Yard? Georges Perec 1966 French French
6075 The Voyeur Alain Robbe-Grillet 1955 French French
6085 Sundog Jim Harrison 1984 American English
6105 Apocrief De Analphabetische Naam Lucebert 1952 Dutch Dutch
6105 Het Boek Alfa Ivo Michiels 1963 Belgian Dutch
6124 Inland Gerald Murnane 1988 Australian English
6143 The Time Ludmila Petrushevskaya 1992 Russian Russian
6144 Oreille Rouge Eric Chevillard 1993 French French
6178 Geste Michelle Grangaud 1991 French French
6200 The Elegies Of Oxopetra Odysseas Elytis 1991 Greek Greek
6219 Chronicle of Feelings Alexander Kluge 2000 German German
6234 The Cannibal John Hawkes 1949 American English
6235 Petrolio Pier Paolo Pasolini 1992 Italian Italian
6256 Omensetter's Luck William H. Gass 1966 American English
6283 Sur La Scène Intérieure Marcel Cohen 2013 French French
6291 Amers Saint-John Perse 1957 French French
6303 Dreaming Of Babylon Richard Brautigan 1977 American English
6315 Comfort Me With Apples Peter De Vries 1956 American English
6355 Yes Thomas Bernhard 1978 Austrian German
6410 Bluets Maggie Nelson 2009 American English
6438 The Gaudy Image William Talsman 1958 American English
6458 The Essential Ellison Harlan Ellison 1987 American English
6472 The Sound Of My Voice Ron Butlin 1987 British English
6486 The Philosopher's Stone Colin Wilson 1969 British English
6503 The End Of The Road John Barth 1958 American English
6516 Language, Truth, And Logic A. J. Ayer 1936 British English
6517 Ghost Image Hervé Guibert 1981 French French
6524 Le Coq Et L'arlequin Jean Cocteau 1918 French French
6575 Phenomenology Of Perception Maurice Merleau-Ponty 1945 French French
6594 Centuria Giorgio Manganelli 1979 Italian Italian
6608 The Anomaly Hervé Le Tellier 2020 French French
6616 The Poetics Of Space Gaston Bachelard 1958 French French
6621 Zone Mathias Enard 2008 French French
6633 Reveries Of The Wild Woman Hélène Cixous 2000 French French
6637 The Curse Of Lono Hunter S. Thompson 1983 American English
6637 The Opoponax Monique Wittig 1983 French French
6637 The Ruin Of Kasch Roberto Calasso 1983 Italian Italian
6637 The Stadium Of Wimbledon Daniele del Giudice 1983 Italian Italian
6688 Le Drame De La Vie & Le Discours Aux Animaux Valère Novarina 1984 French French
6698 Landscapes After the Battle Juan Goytisolo 1982 Spanish Spanish
6709 Knížka S červeným Obalem Alexandra Berková 1986 Czech Czech
6717 Human, All Too Human Friedrich Nietzsche 1878 German German
6715 The Origin Of Consciousness In The Breakdown Of The Bicameral Mind Julian Jaynes 1976 American English
6737 Emergence Steven Johnson 2001 American English
6787 Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments Saidiya Hartman 2019 American English
6811 Écrits Jacques Lacan 1966 French French
6821 Mark Twain's (Burlesque) Autobiography And First Romance Mark Twain 1871 American English
6846 Three Georges Perec 1991 French French
6851 Apeirogon Colum McCann 2020 Irish English
6854 Chelsea Girls Eileen Myles 1994 American English
6872 Eustace Chisholm And The Works James Purdy 1967 American English
6901 Raymond And Hannah Stephen Marche 2005 Canadian English
6903 Selected Poems II Margaret Atwood 1987 Canadian English
6912 Herrumbrosas Lanzas Juan Benet 1983 Spanish Spanish
6924 Życie Jest Gdzie Indziej Milan Kundera 1989 Czech Czech
6947 Ducks, Newburyport Lucy Ellmann 2019 British English
6948 The Fantastic In Literature Eric S. Rabkin 1976 American English
6963 Sheeper Irving Rosenthal 1967 American English
6972 The Exquisite Corpse Alfred Chester 1967 American English
6981 Hawthorn & Child Keith Ridgway 2012 Irish English
6984 Sleeping It Off in Rapid City August Kleinzahler 2008 American English
6991 The Employees Olga Ravn 2018 Danish Danish
6996 You Don't Love Yourself Nathalie Sarraute 1989 French French
7001 Collected Poems Jack Gilbert 2012 American English
7038 The Afterlife Of George Cartwright John Steffler 1992 Canadian English
7056 Some Thing Black Jacques Roubaud 1990 French French
7080 The Blazing World Siri Hustvedt 2014 American English
7096 Try Dennis Cooper 1994 American English
7096 Guide Dennis Cooper 1994 American English
7100 Les Guerilleres Monique Wittig 1969 French French
7103 Get In Trouble Kelly Link 2015 American English
7120 A Louis Zukofsky 1991 American English
7157 La Horde Du Contrevent Alain Damasio 2004 French French
7175 Out Of Sheer Rage Geoff Dyer 1997 British English
7199 The Language Of The Night Ursula K. Le Guin 1979 American English
7215 Aurelia Gerard de Nerval 1855 French French
7215 Eureka Edgar Allan Poe 1848 American English
7215 Selected Works Alfred Jarry 1901 French French
7215 Seven Dada Manifestoes Tristan Tzara 1924 French French
7215 The Use Of Speech Nathalie Sarraute 1933 French French
7215 The King Of Time Velimir Khlebnikov 1920 Russian Russian
7215 The Geographical History Of America Gertrude Stein 1936 American English
7215 The Journal Of Albion Moonlight Kenneth Patchen 1941 American English
7215 Europe After The Rain Alan Burns 1965 British English
7215 Tamarisk Row Gerald Murnane 1974 Australian English
7602 The Beginning Of Infinity David Deutsch 2011 British English
7604 Mourir M'enrhume Eric Chevillard 1993 French French
7605 L'interruption Dominique Noguez 1993 French French
7605 Writing Marguerite Duras 1993 French French