The 100 Most Banned Books in the World
Ranked by number of documented bans across countries and institutions. A "ban" here means a formal government prohibition, a court-ordered removal, or a documented school or library challenge resulting in restriction — each with a verifiable source. The same book can be banned independently in multiple countries, and each ban is counted separately. For more on how we define and verify bans, see our methodology.
The Satanic Verses
Salman Rushdie
Iran · India · Kenya
bans
Animal Farm
George Orwell
Soviet Union · Vietnam · United Arab Emirates
bans
1984
George Orwell
United States · China · Soviet Union
bans
Lolita
Vladimir Nabokov
France · United Kingdom · South Africa
bans
The Da Vinci Code
Dan Brown
Lebanon · Jordan · Iran
bans
Lady Chatterley's Lover
D.H. Lawrence
United Kingdom · South Africa · Australia
bans
Mein Kampf
Adolf Hitler
Russia · Germany · Austria
bans
On the Origin of Species
Charles Darwin
Yugoslavia · United States · Germany
bans
Open Veins of Latin America
Eduardo Galeano
Argentina · Chile · Uruguay
bans
Tropic of Cancer
Henry Miller
United States · Australia · United Kingdom
bans
The Story of O
Pauline Réage
France · Australia · United Kingdom
bans
Brave New World
Aldous Huxley
Ireland · Argentina · Australia
bans
The Anarchist Cookbook
William Powell
Australia · United Kingdom · New Zealand
bans
The Communist Manifesto
Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels
Germany · Argentina · South Africa
bans
The Decameron
Giovanni Boccaccio
United States · New Zealand · Australia
bans
The God of Small Things
Arundhati Roy
India · Lebanon · United States
bans
The Metamorphosis
Franz Kafka
Argentina · Germany · Soviet Union
bans
Ulysses
James Joyce
United States · Germany · United Kingdom
bans
One Thousand and One Nights
Anonymous
Egypt · Saudi Arabia · New Zealand
bans
The Story of Zahra
Hanan al-Shaykh
Lebanon · Saudi Arabia · Egypt
bans
Das Kapital
Karl Marx
Spain · Portugal · South Korea
bans
Tropic of Capricorn
Henry Miller
United States · Australia · United Kingdom
bans
Lajja
Taslima Nasrin
Bangladesh · Iran · India
bans
Married Love
Marie Stopes
Ireland · United States · New Zealand
bans
The Diary of a Young Girl
Anne Frank
United States · Lebanon · Malaysia
bans
Candide
Voltaire
United States · France · Vatican City (Holy See)
bans
Persepolis
Marjane Satrapi
United States · Iran · Lebanon
bans
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Mark Twain
United States
bans
The Jungle
Upton Sinclair
United States · Germany · Soviet Union
bans
All Quiet on the Western Front
Erich Maria Remarque
Germany · Italy · New Zealand
bans
The Trial
Franz Kafka
Germany · Argentina · Czechoslovakia
bans
The Jewel of Medina
Sherry Jones
Saudi Arabia · Qatar · Malaysia
bans
Les Misérables
Victor Hugo
Spain · Vatican City (Holy See) · Russia
bans
American Psycho
Bret Easton Ellis
Australia · Germany · New Zealand
bans
The Painted Bird
Jerzy Kosiński
Poland · Czechoslovakia · Soviet Union
bans
The Social Contract
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Vatican City (Holy See) · France · United Kingdom
bans
And Tango Makes Three
Justin Richardson, Peter Parnell
United States · Singapore · China
bans
The Tin Drum
Günter Grass
United States · Germany · Poland
bans
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
Benjamin Alire Sáenz
United States · Russia
bans
The Lord of the Flies
William Golding
United States · Australia
bans
The Well of Loneliness
Radclyffe Hall
United Kingdom · New Zealand
bans
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Gabriel García Márquez
United States · Kuwait
bans
Kaffir Boy
Mark Mathabane
United States · South Africa
bans
Things Fall Apart
Chinua Achebe
United States · Nigeria
bans
Canto General
Pablo Neruda
Chile · Spain
bans
Death of a Salesman
Arthur Miller
United States · Soviet Union
bans
Empire of Storms
Sarah J. Maas
United States
bans
Hubert Selby Jr.: Last Exit to Brooklyn
Hubert Selby Jr.
Australia · United Kingdom
bans
Burned
Ellen Hopkins
United States
bans
Elmer Gantry
Sinclair Lewis
United States · Ireland
bans
Watchmen
Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons
Singapore · United States
bans
Cry, the Beloved Country
Alan Paton
South Africa
bans
What If It's Us
Becky Albertalli & Adam Silvera
Malaysia · United States
bans
Peyton Place
Grace Metalious
Canada · Australia
bans
The Conjugal Dictatorship of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos
Primitivo Mijares
Philippines
bans
Heartstopper
Alice Oseman
United States
bans
Philosophical Dictionary
Voltaire
France · Vatican City (Holy See)
bans
The Turner Diaries
William Luther Pierce
Germany · Canada
bans
Borstal Boy
Brendan Behan
Ireland · Australia
bans
Nana
Émile Zola
United States · New Zealand
bans
Invisible Man
Ralph Ellison
United States
bans
People's Republic of Amnesia
Louisa Lim
Hong Kong · China
bans
Prisoner of the State
Zhao Ziyang
China · Hong Kong
bans
Storm and Fury
Jennifer L. Armentrout
United States
bans
Fontamara
Ignazio Silone
Italy · Germany
bans
Bread and Wine
Ignazio Silone
Italy · Germany
bans
Cancer Ward
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Soviet Union · Israel
bans
Goat Days
Benyamin
United Arab Emirates · Saudi Arabia
bans
Show Me
Will McBride
Australia · New Zealand
bans
The Captive Mind
Czesław Miłosz
Poland · Czechoslovakia
bans
I, the Supreme
Augusto Roa Bastos
Paraguay · Argentina
bans
Identical
Ellen Hopkins
United States
bans
Dwikhandita
Taslima Nasrin
India · Bangladesh
bans
Tricks
Ellen Hopkins
United States
bans
The Peaceful Pill Handbook
Philip Nitschke
Australia · New Zealand
bans
The Stranger
Albert Camus
United States
bans
It
Stephen King
United States
bans
Into the River
Ted Dawe
New Zealand
bans
Gender Queer: A Memoir
Maia Kobabe
United States
bans
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Stephen Chbosky
United States
bans
Woman at Point Zero
Nawal El Saadawi
Saudi Arabia · United Arab Emirates
bans
The Grapes of Wrath
John Steinbeck
United States · Argentina
bans
The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald
United States · Romania
bans
The Handmaid's Tale
Margaret Atwood
United States · Iran
bans
Agostino
Alberto Moravia
Italy · Vatican City (Holy See)
bans
The Color Purple
Alice Walker
United States · South Africa
bans
Lawn Boy
Jonathan Evison
United States
bans
Looking for Alaska
John Green
United States
bans
The Hidden Face of Eve
Nawal El Saadawi
Saudi Arabia · Egypt
bans
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Lewis Carroll
China
bans
The Sorrows of Young Werther
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Austria · Italy
bans
Theologico-Political Treatise
Baruch Spinoza
Vatican City (Holy See) · Netherlands
bans
The Kite Runner
Khaled Hosseini
United States · Afghanistan
bans
Last Night at the Telegraph Club
Malinda Lo
United States
bans
Forever Amber
Kathleen Winsor
Australia · New Zealand
bans
Les 120 Journées de Sodome
Marquis de Sade
France · Australia
bans
Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret
Judy Blume
United States
bans
The Last Temptation of Christ
Nikos Kazantzakis
Greece · Vatican City (Holy See)
bans
Cities of Salt
Abdelrahman Munif
Saudi Arabia · United Arab Emirates
bans
The Monk
Matthew Lewis
United Kingdom · Vatican City (Holy See)
bans
Data is updated daily. Bans reflect documented records in our catalogue — coverage is uneven and skewed toward countries with systematic reporting (notably the United States). Read the methodology →