I spent two years living in England and fell in love with the people and my city (LEEDS!). While over there I started reading ‘home-grown’ literature and enjoyed it, the same way I enjoy reading Southern Fiction. I also discovered the Man Booker Prize and as I love lists, and this is one of the most prestigious awards within the literary community, I decided I wanted to read the winners of the prize.
According to Wikipedia, established in 1969,
The Man-Booker Prize is a literary prize awarded each year for the best original full-length novel, written in the English language by a citizen of the Commonwealth of Nations, Ireland or Zimbabwe. The winner of the Man Booker Prize is generally assured of international renown and success and, for this reason, the prize is of great significance for the book trade. It is also a mark of distinction to be nominated for the Man Booker long list or selected for inclusion on the shortlist.
Those books listed under the year are shortlisted books that I want to read. I’m not sure I’ll ever get around to reading all of them, but it would be neat (there are all sorts of Booker reading challenges out there).
1969 – Something to Answer For, PH Newby
1970 – The Elected Member, Bernice Rubens
1970* – Troubles, JG Farrell (See Wikipedia for the reason for this)
1971 – In a Free State, VS Naipaul
- Briefing for a Descent into Hell, Doris Lessing (shortlist)
1972 – G, John Berger
1973 – The Siege of Krishnapur, JG Farrell
1974 – The Conservationist, Nadine Gordimer – Holiday, Stanley Middleton
1975 – Heat and Dust, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
1976 – Saville, David Storey
1977 – Staying On, Paul Scott
1978 – The Sea, The Sea, Iris Murdoch
1979 – Offshore, Penelope Fitzgerald
1980 – Rites of Passage, William Golding
- The Beggar Maid, Alice Munro (shortlist)
1981 – Midnight’s Children, Salman Rushdie
- The Sirian Experiments, Doris Lessing (shortlist)
1982 – Schindler’s Ark, Thomas Keneally
1983 – Life & Times of Michael K, JM Coetzee
1984 – Hotel du Lac, Anita Brookner
1985 – The Bone People, Keri Hulme
- The Good Terrorist, Doris Lessing (shortlist)
1986 – The Old Devils, Kingsley Amis
- The Handmaids Tale, Margaret Atwood (shortlist)
1987 – Moon Tiger, Penelope Lively
1988 – Oscar and Lucinda, Peter Carey
- The Satanic Verses, Salman Rushdie (shortlist)
1989 – The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro
- The Cat’s Eye, Margaret Atwood (shortlist)
1990 – Possession: A Romance, AS Byatt
1991 – The Famished Road, Ben Okri
1992 – The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje – Sacred Hunger, Barry Unsworth
1993 – Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, Roddy Doyle
1994 – How Late It Was, How Late, James Kelman
- The Folding Star, Alan Hollinghurst (shortlist)
1995 – The Ghost Road, Pat Barker
1996 - Last Orders, Graham Swift
– Alias Grace, Margaret Atwood (shortlist)
1997 – The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
1998 – Amsterdam, Ian McEwan
1999 – Disgrace, JM Coetzee
2000 – The Blind Assassin, Margaret Atwood
2001 – True History of the Kelly Gang, Peter Carey
- Atonement, Ian McEwan (shortlist)
2002 – Life of Pi, Yann Martel
2003 – Vernon God Liddle, DBC Pierre
- Oryx and Crake, Margaret Atwood (shortlist)
2004 – The Line of Beauty, Alan Hollinghurst
2005 – The Sea, John Banville
- On Beauty, Zadie Smith (shortlist)
- Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro (shortlist)
2006 – The Inheritance of Loss, Kiran Desai
2007 – The Gathering, Anne Enright
2008 – The White Tiger, Aravind Adiga
2009 – Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel
2010 – The Finkler Question, Howard Jacobson
- Room, Emma Donoghue (shortlist)
2011 – The Sense of an Ending, Julian Barnes
- The Stranger’s Child - Alan Hollinghurst (longlist)
