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
13360 Blast I Wyndham Lewis 1914 British English
13360 Silence John Cage 1961 American English
13553 Tell The Machine Goodnight Katie Williams 2018 American English
13567 J Pod Douglas Coupland 2006 Canadian English
13600 The Roving Shadows Pascal Quignard 2002 French English
13694 First World Fantasy Awards Gahan Wilson 1977 American English
13711 The Fruit Thief Peter Handke 2017 Austrian German
13765 Anathem Neal Stephenson 2008 American English
13818 A Caso Tommaso Landolfi 1975 Italian Italian
13818 Nottetempo, Casa Per Casa Vincenzo Consolo 1992 Italian Italian
13879 First Love And Other Shorts Samuel Beckett 1970 French French
13923 Dangerous Visions Harlan Ellison 1967 American English
13964 Arbeit Und Struktur Wolfgang Herrndorf 2013 German German
13971 Hotel World Ali Smith 2001 British English
14047 Whereas Layli Long Soldier 2017 American English
14063 The Troika Stepan Chapman 1997 American English
14070 Erste Erde Epos Raoul Schrott 2016 Austrian German
14113 The Man Who Saw Everything Deborah Levy 2019 British English
14164 Am Weltenrand Sitzen Die Menschen Und Lachen Philipp Weiss 2018 Austrian German
14180 The Rhetoric of Fiction Wayne C. Booth 1961 American English
14232 Dart Alice Oswald 2002 British English
14232 In Ascension Martin MacInnes 2024 British English
14232 Memoirs Of A Polar Bear Yoko Tawada 2011 German German
14370 Aus Der Zuckerfabrik Dorothee Elmiger 2020 Swiss German
14389 Rivers and Mountains John Ashbery 1966 American English
14404 Die Inkommensurablen Raphaela Edelbauer 2021 Austrian German
14431 American Innovations Rivka Galchen 2014 American English
14434 Lost In The Funhouse John Barth 1968 American English
14457 Nog Rudy Wurlitzer 1969 American English
14498 Fiction and the Figures of Life William H. Gass 1970 American English
14598 The Pleasure of the Text Roland Barthes 1973 French French
14649 Superfiction Joe David Bellamy 1975 American English
14648 Wetlands Charlotte Roche 2008 German German
14730 I, etcetera Susan Sontag 1978 American English
14730 The World Within the Word William H. Gass 1978 American English
14730 The Book Alan Watts 1966 British English
14778 Monsieur Teste Paul Valéry 1896 French French
14932 Miss Mac Intosh, My Darling Marguerite Young 1965 American English
14945 Double Or Nothing Raymond Federman 1971 American English
14984 Going Native Stephen Wright 1994 American English
14976 The Soft Machine William S. Burroughs 1961 American English
14984 Nova Express William S. Burroughs 1964 American English
14984 No One Belongs Here More Than You Miranda July 2007 American English
14984 On the Calculation Of Volume 2 Solvej Balle 2024 Danish Danish
14984 The Complete Cosmicomics Italo Calvino 1965 Italian Italian
14984 Tremor Teju Cole 2023 American Unknown
14984 The Vorrh Brian Catling 2012 British English
14984 The Faculty of Dreams Sara Stridsberg 2006 Swedish Swedish
14984 Affinities Brian Dillon 2023 British English
15648 Peter Whiffle Carl Van Vechten 1922 American English
15663 Oculus Sally Wen Mao 2019 American English
15682 Knots R.D. Laing Scottish English
15682 The Motorcycle Betrayal Poems Diane Wakoski American English
15728 Passionate Journey Frans Masereel 1919 Belgian German
15736 Deliver Us From Love Suzanne Brogger 1976 Danish Danish
15803 The Harz Journey And Selected Prose Heinrich Heine 1826 German German
15799 Collected Poems Of T. S. Eliot 1909 1935 T. S. Eliot 1936 American English
15843 A Confederate General From Big Sur Richard Brautigan 1900 American English
15903 Behaviorism John Watson 1924 American English
15903 Idealism And The Endgame Of Theory F. W. J. Schelling 1800 German German
15903 Seven Types Of Ambiguity William Empson 1930 British English
15899 The Retreat To Commitment William Warren Bartley 1962 American English
15903 Death Of A Naturalist Seamus Heaney 1966 Irish English
15881 Americana Don DeLillo 1971 American English
15903 Man Of Smoke Aldo Palazzeschi 1911 Italian Italian
15903 Childhood Of Nivasio Dolcemare Alberto Savinio 1938 Italian Italian
16577 The Pill Vs. The Springhill Mine Disaster Richard Brautigan 1968 American English
16721 Diary Of A Seducer Soren Kierkegaard 1843 Danish Danish
16638 The Water Method Man John Irving 1972 American English
16641 100 Selected Poems E. E. Cummings 1954 American English
16744 Concluding Unscientific Postscript To Philosophical Fragments, Volume 1 Soren Kierkegaard 1846 Danish Danish
16724 The Peregrine J. A. Baker 1967 British English
17130 Facts of Life Maureen Howard 1965 American English
17130 Art and Culture Clement Greenberg 1961 American English
17130 The PowerBook Jeanette Winterson 2000 British English
17130 Hopeful Monsters Nicholas Mosley 1990 British English
17130 The Ticket That Exploded William S. Burroughs 1962 American English
17130 Take It Or Leave It Raymond Federman 1976 American English
17130 The Stain Rikki Ducornet 1984 American English
17130 Entering Fire Rikki Ducornet 1986 American English
17130 Genoa Paul C. Metcalf 1965 American English
17130 The Age of Wire and String Ben Marcus 1995 American English
17130 Up Ronald Sukenick 1968 American English
17130 You Bright and Risen Angels William T. Vollmann 1987 American English
17130 Mulligan Stew Gilbert Sorrentino 1979 American English
17130 In Memoriam to Identity Kathy Acker 1990 American English
17130 Hogg Samuel R. Delany 1995 American English
17130 Ray Barry Hannah 1980 American English
17130 Such Christine Brooke-Rose 1966 British English
17130 Eucalyptus Murray Bail 1998 Australian English
17130 Red John Logan 2009 American English
17130 Heroines Kate Zambreno 2012 American English
17130 Paradigms Lost John L. Casti 1989 American English
17130 The Cosmic Landscape Leonard Susskind 2005 American English
17130 Against Method Paul Feyerabend 1975 German English
17130 Spurs Jacques Derrida 1976 French French
17130 Medieval In La Jim Paul 1996 American English
17130 Artful Ali Smith 2012 British English
17130 A Moment's Liberty Virginia Woolf 1990 British English
17130 On Such A Full Sea Chang-rae Lee 2014 American English
17130 The Dada Painters and Poets Robert Motherwell 1978 American English
17130 Great Mambo Chicken And The Transhuman Condition Ed Regis 1990 American English
17130 Man After Man Dougal Dixon 1990 British English
17130 Eunoia Christian Bök 2001 Canadian English
17130 The Middle Stories Sheila Heti 2001 Canadian English
17130 Time And Narrative (Time & Narrative) Paul Ricœur 1983 French French
17130 But Beautiful Geoff Dyer 1991 British English
17130 Woodworm Layla Martínez 2024 Spanish Unknown
17130 Invisible Monsters Chuck Palahniuk 1999 American English
17130 Metamagical Themas Douglas Hofstadter 1985 American English
17130 Evolutionary Epistemology, Rationality, And The Sociology Of Knowledge Gerard Radnitzky 1987 German English
17130 Men In The Off Hours Anne Carson 2000 Canadian English
17130 Survivor Chuck Palahniuk 1999 American English
17130 Silk Caitlín R. Kiernan 2002 American English
17130 Omon Ra Victor Pelevin 1992 Russian Russian
17130 999 Al Sarrantonio 1999 American English
17130 Signorina Rosina Antonio Pizzuto 1956 Italian Italian
17130 Nuovo Commento Giorgio Manganelli 1969 Italian Italian
17130 Le Avventure Di Guizzardi Gianni Celati 1973 Italian Italian
17130 Brothers Carmelo Samonà 1978 Italian Italian