The 100 best easy postwar and mid-century books

No. 11 on this list. Meditations in an Emergency · Frank O'Hara · 1957

An important early New York School text, though less widely known than Lunch Poems. Its reputation has grown as O'Hara's stature has increased.

No. 12 on this list. The Diary of a Young Girl · Anne Frank · 1947

The diary is a fixture of secondary education worldwide and appears in 72 Wikipedia language editions — on par with The Great Gatsby — reflecting its global canonical reach. Its 133 Open Syllabus appearances (53rd percentile) undercount its true presence, as it is taught most heavily at the pre-university level. Le Monde named it one of the 100 Books of the Century in 1999.

No. 13 on this list. Men in the Sun · Ghassan Kanafani · 1963

Foundational text of Palestinian literature. Widely taught and translated.

No. 14 on this list. Pippi Longstocking · Astrid Lindgren · 1945

Taught in schools: Lithuanian literature curriculum (lietuvių kalba ir literatūra)

Included in: Bokklubben World Library

Pippi Longstocking is translated into over 70 languages and has sold more than 140 million copies worldwide, making it one of the most widely distributed children's books ever published. It is standard reading in Swedish schools and appears on canonical children's literature lists across Europe and beyond. While not a fixture of university literature syllabi, it holds an unassailable position in the children's literature canon globally.

No. 15 on this list. To Kill a Mockingbird · Harper Lee · 1961

Taught in schools: Cambridge IGCSE Literature in English (0475), Common Core text exemplars (Appendix B) (US), CSEC English B – Caribbean Examinations Council

Appears on 1,674 university syllabi (80.6th percentile, Open Syllabus Project) and is a fixture of American high school and university English curricula. Wikipedia articles exist in 58 languages with dedicated reception and adaptations sections. Published by four prestige houses — Library of America, Everyman's Library, Penguin Classics, and Penguin Modern Classics — confirming its standing in the Western canon.

No. 16 on this list. Foundation and Empire · Isaac Asimov · 1952

Central volume of the Foundation trilogy, one of the most important works in science fiction history. The Mule is one of the genre's iconic characters.

No. 17 on this list. Return to Haifa · Ghassan Kanafani · 1969

Taught in schools: Moroccan secondary Arabic literature (Morocco)

One of the foundational texts of Palestinian literature and one of the most widely read Arabic novellas worldwide.

No. 18 on this list. Foundation · Isaac Asimov · 1951

Foundation occupies an unambiguous place in the science fiction canon and appears on university SF course syllabi worldwide, though it sits outside the standard literary curriculum that places Gatsby or 1984 on nearly every English department reading list. The 1966 Hugo Award for 'Best All-Time Series' — a category created specifically for this occasion — signals the field's recognition of its foundational status. Its influence on the genre is taught wherever science fiction is studied seriously.

No. 19 on this list. A Man of the People · Chinua Achebe · 1966

Taught in schools: Pacific Senior Secondary Certificate – English

Included in: Heinemann African Writers Series

"A Man of the People" appears regularly on university syllabi in African literature, postcolonial studies, and world literature courses, though it occupies a secondary position relative to Achebe's "Things Fall Apart," which is among the most taught novels globally. The book's prophetic publication date—released the same day as Nigeria's first military coup—secured it a place in literary history beyond its syllabus presence. It is standard reading in courses on African political fiction and postcolonial satire.

No. 20 on this list. The Moon and the Bonfires · Cesare Pavese · 1950

Pavese's acknowledged masterpiece and one of the essential Italian novels of the postwar period. Widely translated and taught.

No. 21 on this list. The City and the Dogs · Mario Vargas Llosa · 1963

Recognized as one of the founding novels of the Latin American boom and a landmark of Peruvian literature.

No. 22 on this list. The Truce · Primo Levi · 1963

"The Truce" is taught widely in Holocaust literature, Italian literature, and 20th-century European history courses at universities across Europe and North America. It is less universally assigned than "If This Is a Man" but is firmly in the canon of serious literary and testimonial writing. No syllabus data was returned by the database, but Levi's standing in academic curricula is well established independently.

No. 23 on this list. Memed, My Hawk · Yasar Kemal · 1955

Included in: UNESCO Collection of Representative Works

The foundational novel of modern Turkish literature's international reputation. Widely translated and studied as a masterpiece of Turkish fiction.

No. 24 on this list. The Earthsea Quartet · Ursula K Le Guin · 1968

Across four novels spanning decades, Le Guin builds the archipelago of Earthsea—a world of islands, sailing, and true-name magic where knowing a thing's true name gives power over it. A Wizard of Earthsea follows the young wizard Ged as he releases a shadow-creature and must pursue it across the world. The Tombs of Atuan follows a priestess freed from underground servitude. The Farthest Shore follows Ged, now Archmage, pursuing a wizard who has broken the boundary between life and death. Tehanu, written sixteen years later, returns to Earthsea with a feminist perspective, following the abused child Therru and the former priestess Tenar in a world where women's power has been systematically suppressed. Le Guin's magic system—where speaking a true name is the fundamental magical act—is the most elegant in fantasy. The prose is spare, rhythmic, and precise, closer to myth than novel.

No. 25 on this list. Deep Rivers · José María Arguedas · 1958

Taught in schools: UNAM Escuela Nacional Preparatoria – programas de Literatura (Mexico)

The central work of indigenist literature in Latin America and a cornerstone of Peruvian fiction.

No. 26 on this list. Live or Die · Anne Sexton · 1966

Anne Sexton arranged these thirty-three poems in the order she wrote them — January 1962 to February 1966 — and called the result 'a fever chart for a bad case of melancholy.' Each poem arrives with a date at the bottom, evidence rather than ornament. The collection opens with her father, a wool salesman who drank in his bedroom and died on the road; within pages she has checked herself into a psychiatric ward, addressed Sylvia Plath's corpse ('Thief!— how did you crawl into, crawl down alone into the death I wanted so badly'), mourned a son she never had, and watched her daughter call on God instead of her mother when a horse crushes her foot. Sexton's language stays in the body. She counts out eight pharmaceutical capsules each night, arranges them 'as in the laying on of hands or the black sacrament.' Suicides, she observes, 'have a special language. Like carpenters they want to know which tools. They never ask why build.' The hospital and the suburban kitchen share equal authority. God appears, and Mary, and Judas, and Sylvia, and none of them offer adequate answers. The final poem, 'Live,' turns the collection's entire argument on its axis. Eight Dalmatian puppies survive the pails of water that waited to drown them. 'I am not what I expected. Not an Eichmann. The poison just didn't take.' The fever chart ends with a temperature that isn't, finally, fatal. This is the Pulitzer Prize-winning collection that defined confessional poetry as a form capable of sustaining both unbearable honesty and survival.

No. 27 on this list. The Magician’s Nephew · C.S. Lewis · 1955

The Chronicles of Narnia rank among the most widely read children's series of the 20th century, with over 100 million copies sold globally. The Magician's Nephew appears on virtually every major 'best children's books' list and is taught in primary schools worldwide. No syllabus data available in the database, but its foundational place in children's literature curricula — particularly in English-speaking countries — establishes strong canonical status within its sphere.

No. 28 on this list. The Book of Three · Lloyd Alexander · 1964

Newbery Medal winner (for The High King). The Chronicles of Prydain are a cornerstone of children's fantasy.

No. 29 on this list. Dirty Hands · Jean-Paul Sartre · 1948

One of the most performed French plays of the twentieth century and a staple of political theater. Widely taught in philosophy and literature courses.

No. 30 on this list. The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz · Mordecai Richler · 1959

One of the defining Canadian novels, central to the canon of both Canadian and Jewish-American-adjacent literature. Required reading in Canadian schools and universities.