The Man Booker Prize “promotes the finest in fiction by rewarding the very best book of the year.” It is awarded every September. I try to read the winner in the year it’s announced, and read shortlisted nominees that sound interesting. Since 2007, I’ve also been hosting The Complete Booker to encourage others to join me in reading works by these great authors.
In October, 2010 I achieved a long-term goal to read all winners of the Man Booker Prize for Fiction. I published A Complete Booker Retrospective to share my picks for the best and worst Booker Prize winners, and general impressions on the winners list.
Complete List of Booker Prize Winners & Shortlists Read (with links to reviews where available):
2012 – Bring up the Bodies (Mantel)
Shortlist:
2011 – The Sense of an Ending (Barnes)
2010 – The Finkler Question (Jacobson)
Shortlist:
- Room (Donoghue)
2009 – Wolf Hall (Mantel)
Shortlist:
- The Little Stranger (Waters)
2008 – The White Tiger (Adiga)
2007 – The Gathering (Enright)
Shortlist:
- The Reluctant Fundamentalist (Hamid)
- On Chesil Beach (McEwan)
2006 – The Inheritance of Loss (Desai)
Shortlist:
- The Night Watch (Waters)
- The Secret River (Grenville)
- Carry Me Down (Hyland)
- In the Country of Men (Matar)
- Mother’s Milk (St. Aubyn)
2005 – The Sea (Banville)
Shortlist:
- Arthur and George (Barnes)
- Never Let Me Go (Ishiguro)
- On Beauty (Smith)
- The Accidental (Smith)
2004 – The Line of Beauty (Hollinghurst)
Shortlist:
- Cloud Atlas (Mitchell)
- The Master (Tóibín)
2003 – Vernon God Little (Pierre)
Shortlist:
- Brick Lane (Ali)
- Notes on a Scandal (Heller)
- Oryx and Crake (Atwood)
2002 – Life of Pi (Martel)
Shortlist:
- Fingersmith (Waters)
- Dirt Music (Winton)
- Family Matters (Mistry)
- The Story of Lucy Gault (Trevor)
- Unless (Shields)
2001 – True History of the Kelly Gang (Carey)
Shortlist:
- Atonement (McEwan)
- The Dark Room (Seiffert)
2000 – The Blind Assassin (Atwood)
Shortlist:
- The Keepers of Truth (Collins)
- English Passengers (Kneale)
- The Hiding Place (Azzopardi)
- When We Were Orphans (Ishiguro)
- The Deposition of Father McGreevy (O’Doherty)
1999 – Disgrace (Coetzee)
1998 – Amsterdam: A Novel (McEwan)
1997 – The God of Small Things (Roy)
1996 – Last Orders(Swift)
Shortlist:
- A Fine Balance (Mistry)
- Alias Grace (Atwood)
1995 – The Ghost Road (Barker)
1994 – How Late it Was, How Late (Kelman)
1993 – Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha (Doyle)
Shortlist:
- Remembering Babylon (Malouf)
- The Stone Diaries (Shields)
1992 – The English Patient (Ondaatje)
1992 – Sacred Hunger (Unsworth)
1991 – The Famished Road (Okri)
1990 – Possession: A Romance (Byatt)
1989 – The Remains of the Day(Ishiguro)
Shortlist:
- Restoration (Tremain)
1988 – Oscar and Lucinda (Carey)
1987 – Moon Tiger (Lively)
Shortlist:
- The Book and the Brotherhood (Murdoch)
1986 – The Old Devils (Amis)
Shortlist:
- The Handmaid’s Tale (Atwood)
- An Artist of the Floating World (Ishiguro)
1985 – The Bone People (Hulme)
Shortlist:
- The Good Apprentice (Murdoch)
1984 – Hotel du Lac (Brookner)
1983 – Life & Times of Michael K (Coetzee)
1982 – Schindler’s Ark (Keneally)
1981 – Midnight’s Children (Rushdie)
Shortlist:
- The Comfort of Strangers (McEwan)
- Good Behaviour (Keane)
1980 – Rites of Passage (Golding)
Shortlist:
- A Month in the Country (Carr)
1979 – Offshore (Fitzgerald)
1978 – The Sea, the Sea (Murdoch)
1977 – Staying on (Scott)
Shortlist:
- Quartet in Autumn (Pym)
1976 – Saville (Storey)
1975 – Heat and Dust (Jhabvala)
1974 – The Conservationist (Gordimer)
1974 – Holiday (Middleton)
1973 – The Siege of Krishnapur (Farrell)
Shortlist:
- The Black Prince (Murdoch)
1972 – G. (Berger)
1971 – In a Free State (Naipaul)
Shortlist:
- Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont (Taylor)
1970 – The Elected Member (Rubens)
Shortlist:
- Bruno’s Dream (Murdoch)
1970 – Troubles (Farrell) – 2010 “Lost Booker Prize”
1969 – Something to Answer For (Newby)
Shortlist:
- The Nice and the Good (Murdoch)