The folks who award The Man Booker Prize for Fiction are letting the readers have a say in who wins The Best of the Booker to celebrate the prize’s 40th anniversary.
But because the Booker folks don’t completely trust the general public, they’ll whittle the list of 41 down to six for you to choose from come May.
Among the titles and authors are some of my favorites — “The God of Small Things” by Arundhati Roy being at the top of the list. But any of the contenders will likely be going up against “Midnight’s Children” by Salman Rushdie, which won the 25th anniversary celebratory award, the Booker of Bookers.
Read on for a list of the yearly winners, and punctuation be damned, I’m not sticking in all those quotation marks… or all the hyperlinks… (I’m feeling lazy today. Sorry.)
2007 The Gathering by Anne Enright
2006 The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
2005 The Sea by John Banville
2004 The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst
2003 Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre
2002 Life of Pi by Yann Martel
2001 True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey
2000 The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
1999 Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee
1998 Amsterdam: A Novel by Ian McEwan
1997 The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
1996 Last Orders by Graham Swift
1995 The Ghost Road by Pat Barker
1994 How Late It Was, How Late by James Kelman
1993 Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle
1992 The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje (co-winner)
Sacred Hunger by Barry Unsworth (co-winner)
1991 The Famished Road by Ben Okri
1990 Possession: A Romance by A. S. Byatt
1989 The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
1988 Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey
1987 Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively
1986 The Old Devils by Kingsley Amis
1985 The Bone People by Keri Hulme
1984 Hotel Du Lac by Anita Brookner
1983 Life & Times of Michael K by J. M. Coetzee
1982 Schindler’s List by Thomas Keneally (Originally titled Schindler’s Ark)
1981 Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie
1980 Rites of Passage by William Golding
1979 Offshore by Penelope Fitzgerald
1978 The Sea, the Sea by Iris Murdoch
1977 Staying on by Paul Scott
1976 Saville by David Storey
1975 Heat and Dust by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
1974 The Conservationist by Nadine Gordimer (co-winner)
Holiday by Stanley Middleton (co-winner)
1973 The Siege of Krishnapur by J. G. Farrell
1972 G. by John Berger
1971 In a Free State by V. S. Naipaul
1970 The Elected Member by Bernice. Rubens
1969 Something to Answer For by P. H. Newby
What do you think will make the Top 6 cut? What’s your vote for The Best of the Bookers? (I’m now running off to add some books to my Must Read list….)
Responses to “The Best of the Booker”
February 21st, 2008 at 10:58 pm
gee, nice to know that the Man Booker people don’t actually trust the reading public to do the right thing: “Here, let us eliminate most of the books for you.”
so, my selections, based purely on my reading over many years, are these: “Heat and Dust;” “Possession” (god, i love that book!); “Paddy Clark Ha Ha Ha” (god, i love that book!); “The Sea, the Sea;” “The True History of the Kelly Gang” and I guess, ok, “Midnight’s Children.” John Banville btw should have won for “Shroud,” a far more profound and moving novel than “The Sea,” though “The Sea” is exquisite in a chilling way. but they didn’t ask me, did they?
February 22nd, 2008 at 1:48 am
Yeah, I thought that was pretty big of them, letting us choose from six. I always wanted to read Paddy Clark Ha Ha Ha. Always looked at it longingly in the bookstores and never bought it. Don’t know why. Another one for my list…
June 1st, 2008 at 9:08 am
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