 |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
THE BOOKER PRIZE
The Booker Prize, also known as the Man Booker Prize, established in 1969, is awarded each autumn by a committee of writers, critics, and academics to the best novel published by citizens of the British Commonwealth and the Republic of Ireland: the award is £50,000. 2008 The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga. A chauffeur in India murders his employer. Buy at Amazon: The White Tiger: A Novel 2007 The Gathering by Anne Enright. A sister brings her dead brother's body back from London to Ireland and stirs up family tensions. See Short Summary - The Gathering. Buy at Amazon: The Gathering 2006 The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai. In 1980s northern India, Anglophile Indians struggle with their cultural identities against a larger movement towards Nepalese independence. Buy at Amazon: The Inheritance of Loss 2005 The Sea by John Banville. A middle-aged Irishman mourning the death of his wife returns to the seaside town where his family vacationed when he was a child. Buy at Amazon: The Sea 2004 The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst. A status-conscious gay college student in 1980s England insinuates himself into the wealthy family of a Tory MP. Buy at Amazon: The Line of Beauty 2003 Vernon God Little by D.B.C. Pierre. A sarcastic Texas teenager goes on the run from cops who blame him for a school shooting. Buy at Amazon: Vernon God Little 2002 Life of Pi by Yann Martel. A teenaged zookeeper's son from India survives a shipwreck and finds himself marooned with a tiger on board a 26-foot lifeboat. Buy at Amazon: Life of Pi 2001 True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey. This novel examines the short, colorful life of Austalian outlaw and folk hero Ned Kelly. Buy at Amazon: True History of the Kelly Gang 2000 The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood. Two sisters grow up in a wealthy, decadent Canadian family, and one publishes the other's science-fiction novel (appearing as a novel within a novel) after her mysterious death. Buy at Amazon: The Blind Assassin 1999 Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee. An amoral professor in South Africa gets fired and retreats to a dangerous small town to repair his uneasy relationship with his daughter. Coetzee received the 2003 Nobel Prize for Literature. Buy at Amazon: Disgrace 1998 Amsterdam by Ian McEwan. Upon the unexpected death of a free-spirited woman, four of her former lovers struggle with each other and with moral choices that rise up in their lives. Buy at Amazon: Amsterdam 1997 The God Of Small Things by Arundahti Roy. The story of twins from an unconventional Indian family who live out the curse of generations past. Buy at Amazon: The God of Small Things 1996 Last Orders by Graham Swift. An elderly British veteran of WW II dies and his friends gather to scatter his ashes and re-evaluate their shared past. Buy at Amazon: Last Orders 1995 The Ghost Road by Pat Barker. Third book in a trilogy started with Regeneration and The Eye In the Door. A cynical English soldier and an upper-class psychiatrist are each scarred by the First World War. Buy at Amazon: The Ghost Road 1994 How Late It Was How Late by James Kelman. A drunken convict descends into a Kafka-esque nightmare set in the underbelly of Glasgow, Scotland. Buy at Amazon: How Late It Was, How Late 1993 Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle. The comic misadventures of an Irish juvenile delinquent. Buy at Amazon: Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha 1992 The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje. Four damaged people cross paths in an Italian monastery during WW II; the most mysterious one is a nameless burn victim who relates memories of passion and betrayal. Buy at Amazon: The English Patient 1991 Famished Road by Ben Okri. The surrealistic story of a "spirit child" struggling against supernatural and mundane forces to survive in a chaotic African village. Buy at Amazon: The Famished Road 1990 Possession A Romance by A. S. Byatt. Two underpaid British researchers uncover a shocking, secret love affair between two Victorian literary greats. Buy at Amazon: Possession 1989 The Remains Of The Day by Kazuo Ishiguro. A proper English butler attempts to find spiritual perfection in his work as his narrow world crumbles during and after WW II. Buy at Amazon: The Remains of the Day 1988 Oscar And Lucinda by Peter Carey. Two gamblers in 19th century Australia fall in love and attempt to transport a glass church across a harrowing wilderness. Buy at Amazon: Oscar and Lucinda 1987 Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively. A British woman who worked as a journalist in Egypt during WW II describes her adventures. Buy at Amazon: Moon Tiger 1986 The Old Devils by Kingsley Amis. A retired poet and his faded beauty-queen wife move to a small village of meddlers in Wales and engage in much back-stabbing and social climbing. Buy at Amazon: The Old Devils 1985 The Bone People by Keri Hulme. A strange trio drifts together to form an uneasy family: a strong-willed woman artist, an embittered Maori man, and an autistic child found on a New Zealand beach. Buy at Amazon: The Bone People 1984 Hotel Du Lac by Anita Brookner. A British spinster who writes romance novels is packed off to a Swiss hotel by her friends after experiencing a horrible social disgrace; she takes a wry look at her life and British society. Buy at Amazon: Hotel Du Lac 1983 Life And Times of Michael K by J.M. Coetzee. A simple-minded homeless man drifts through a fictitious civil war in apartheid-era South Africa, trying to survive and be left alone. Coetzee received the 2003 Nobel Prize for Literature. Buy at Amazon: Life and Times of Michael K 1982 Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally. A novel based on the true story of a German industrialist who hid thousands of Jews from Nazi persecution. Buy at Amazon: Schindler's List 1981 Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie. The hero narrates the strange history of his rich Indian family since India achieved independence from Britain. Buy at Amazon: Midnight's Children 1980 Rites of Passage by William Golding. A snobbish young Englishman of the upper classes takes a long 19th century sea voyage. William Golding received the 1983 Nobel Prize for Literature. Buy at Amazon: Rites of Passage 1979 Offshore by Penelope Fitzgerald. Strange and sinister events rock the world of a hapless Englishwoman and her two daughters who live with outcast barge dwellers on the Thames. Buy at Amazon: Offshore 1978 The Sea The Sea by Iris Murdoch. A conceited British theater director retires to write his memoirs by the sea and unexpectedly decides to kidnap an old flame who once rejected him. Buy at Amazon: The Sea, The Sea 1977 Staying On by Paul Scott. An impoverished British army officer and his long-suffering wife opt to stay in post-colonial India to save money. A tragicomic sequel to the immense Raj Quartet that can be read on its own. Buy at Amazon: Staying On 1976 Saville by David Storey. A man struggles to escape his family and the stifling environment of their mining community. Buy at Amazon: Saville 1975 Heat And Dust by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. In the 1920s, an Englishwoman in India leaves her husband for a disreputable Indian prince; fifty years later, her grand-daughter retraces her steps. Buy at Amazon: Heat and Dust 1974 The Conservationist by Nadine Gordimer. A businessman, disconnected from life, personifies the hypocrisy and decay of white South African society. Buy at Amazon: The Conservationist 1973 The Siege Of Krishnapur by J.G. Farrell. Upper-class Victorian British experience the madness and chaos of a native Indian uprising. Buy at Amazon: The Siege of Krishnapur 1972 G by John Berger. A playboy makes numerous sexual conquests in turbulent Italy during the dawn of the 20th century. Buy at Amazon: G.: A Novel 1971 In A Free State by V.S. Naipaul. Cultural alienation is the curse of the main characters: an Indian servant in Washington, a Trinidadian in racist London, and two whites in a fanatical black-power African nation. V.S. Naipaul received the 2001 Nobel Prize for Literature. Buy at Amazon: In a Free State 1970 The Elected Member by Bernice Rubens. A high-achieving barrister from a close-knit Jewish family becomes a paranoid drug-addict. Buy at Amazon: The Elected Member 1969 Something To Answer For by P.H. Newby.Buy at Amazon: Something to Answer For |
