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The Booker Prize
62 winning novels and 282 more on the shortlists, 1969 to 2026. The other lists in The Novel Index show which of them have lasted.
Latest winner (2026): The End of Everything by M. John Harrison
2026: The End of Everything by M. John Harrison
The Booker Prize goes to a novel written in English and published in the UK or Ireland, and since 2014 authors from any country have been eligible. Treat its winners as a reading list, but choose with care: they range from slim to enormous, and the judges don’t always agree with the other lists.
The winners that appear on the most lists are the safest places to start: Midnight’s Children, Wolf Hall, Bring Up the Bodies, Disgrace and The God of Small Things. Disgrace is the shortest and quickest of them. Wolf Hall takes patience before it clicks, and Bring Up the Bodies reads better straight after it.
Winners and shortlists from Booker Prize Foundation. The prize's own record · Every book from this prize in the index
The winners the lists rate highest
Midnight's Children is the Booker Prize winner the other lists rate highest, on 12 other lists.
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When the shortlist outlasted the winner
The widest gap came in 2001, when Atonement lost to True History of the Kelly Gang: it is now on 10 of our lists, the winner on 3.
Years when a shortlisted novel is now on more of our lists than the book that won.
| Year | Shortlisted | Lists | Winner | Lists |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Atonement Ian McEwan | 10 | True History of the Kelly Gang | 3 |
| 2005 | Never Let Me Go Kazuo Ishiguro | 8 | The Sea | 1 |
| 1986 | The Handmaid's Tale Margaret Atwood | 7 | The Old Devils | 1 |
| 2015 | A Little Life Hanya Yanagihara | 6 | A Brief History of Seven Killings | 2 |
| 1979 | A Bend in the River V. S. Naipaul | 5 | Offshore | 1 |
| 2024 | James Percival Everett | 5 | Orbital | 1 |
| 1996 | A Fine Balance Rohinton Mistry | 6 | Last Orders | 3 |
| 2014 | How to Be Both Ali Smith | 5 | The Narrow Road to the Deep North | 2 |
| 1986 | An Artist of the Floating World Kazuo Ishiguro | 4 | The Old Devils | 1 |
| 2003 | Oryx and Crake Margaret Atwood | 4 | Vernon God Little | 1 |
| 2010 | Room Emma Donoghue | 4 | The Finkler Question | 1 |
| 2005 | On Beauty Zadie Smith | 3 | The Sea | 1 |
Every Booker Prize winner, year by year
The End of Everything won in 2026. The first winner, in 1969, was Something to Answer For.
| Year | Winner | Author | Tier | Lists |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | The End of Everything | M. John Harrison | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 2025 | Flesh | David Szalay | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 2024 | Orbital | Samantha Harvey | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 2023 | Prophet Song | Paul Lynch | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 2022 | The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida | Shehan Karunatilaka | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 2021 | The Promise | Damon Galgut | Rising Star | 2 |
| 2020 | Shuggie Bain | Douglas Stuart | Rising Star | 3 |
| 2019 | Girl, Woman, Other | Bernardine Evaristo | Essential | 4 |
| 2019 | The Testaments | Margaret Atwood | Essential | 4 |
| 2018 | Milkman | Anna Burns | Acclaimed | 3 |
| 2017 | Lincoln in the Bardo | George Saunders | Rising Star | 3 |
| 2016 | The Sellout | Paul Beatty | Rising Star | 3 |
| 2015 | A Brief History of Seven Killings | Marlon James | Rising Star | 2 |
| 2014 | The Narrow Road to the Deep North | Richard Flanagan | Acclaimed | 2 |
| 2013 | The Luminaries | Eleanor Catton | Rising Star | 3 |
| 2012 | Bring Up the Bodies | Hilary Mantel | Essential | 6 |
| 2011 | The Sense of an Ending | Julian Barnes | Rising Star | 4 |
| 2010 | The Finkler Question | Howard Jacobson | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 2009 | Wolf Hall | Hilary Mantel | All-Time Canon | 10 |
| 2008 | The White Tiger | Aravind Adiga | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 2007 | The Gathering | Anne Enright | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 2006 | The Inheritance of Loss | Kiran Desai | Acclaimed | 2 |
| 2005 | The Sea | John Banville | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 2004 | The Line of Beauty | Alan Hollinghurst | Essential | 6 |
| 2003 | Vernon God Little | DBC Pierre | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 2002 | Life of Pi | Yann Martel | Acclaimed | 2 |
| 2001 | True History of the Kelly Gang | Peter Carey | Acclaimed | 3 |
| 2000 | The Blind Assassin | Margaret Atwood | Acclaimed | 3 |
| 1999 | Disgrace | J. M. Coetzee | Essential | 6 |
| 1998 | Amsterdam | Ian McEwan | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 1997 | The God of Small Things | Arundhati Roy | Essential | 6 |
| 1996 | Last Orders | Graham Swift | Acclaimed | 3 |
| 1995 | The Ghost Road | Pat Barker | Acclaimed | 2 |
| 1994 | How Late It Was, How Late | James Kelman | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 1993 | Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha | Roddy Doyle | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 1992 | Sacred Hunger | Barry Unsworth | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 1992 | The English Patient | Michael Ondaatje | Acclaimed | 3 |
| 1991 | The Famished Road | Ben Okri | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 1990 | Possession | A.S. Byatt | Acclaimed | 4 |
| 1989 | The Remains of the Day | Kazuo Ishiguro | Essential | 6 |
| 1988 | Oscar and Lucinda | Peter Carey | Acclaimed | 3 |
| 1987 | Moon Tiger | Penelope Lively | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 1986 | The Old Devils | Kingsley Amis | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 1985 | The Bone People | Keri Hulme | Acclaimed | 2 |
| 1984 | Hotel du Lac | Anita Brookner | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 1983 | Life and Times of Michael K | J. M. Coetzee | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 1982 | Schindler's Ark | Thomas Keneally | Acclaimed | 3 |
| 1981 | Midnight's Children | Salman Rushdie | All-Time Canon | 13 |
| 1980 | Rites of Passage | William Golding | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 1979 | Offshore | Penelope Fitzgerald | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 1978 | The Sea, the Sea | Iris Murdoch | Acclaimed | 3 |
| 1977 | Staying On | Paul Scott | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 1976 | Saville | David Storey | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 1975 | Heat and Dust | Ruth Prawer Jhabvala | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 1974 | Holiday | Stanley Middleton | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 1974 | The Conservationist | Nadine Gordimer | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 1973 | The Siege of Krishnapur | J. G. Farrell | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 1972 | G. | John Berger | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 1971 | In a Free State | V. S. Naipaul | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 1970 | The Elected Member | Bernice Rubens | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 1970 | Troubles | J. G. Farrell | Acclaimed | 1 |
| 1969 | Something to Answer For | P. H. Newby | Acclaimed | 1 |
Lists used on this page
- The 100 best novels of all time, The Guardian (2026). Original list
- The 100 best novels written in English, The Guardian / Observer (2015). Original list
- The 100 greatest novels of all time, The Observer (2003). Original list
- The 100 best books of the 21st century, The Guardian (2019). Original list
- The 100 greatest British novels, BBC Culture (2015). Original list
- 100 novels that shaped our world, BBC Arts (2019). Original list
- 100 novels everyone should read, The Telegraph (2009). Original list
- All-Time 100 Novels, Time (2005). Original list
- 100 Best Novels (board's list), Modern Library (1998). Original list
- The 100 best books of the 21st century, The New York Times (2024). Original list
- Bokklubben World Library, Norwegian Book Clubs (2002). Original list
- 100 books of the century, Le Monde (1999). Original list
- Booker Prize (winners and shortlists), Booker Prize Foundation (1969-). Original list
- Women's Prize for Fiction (winners and shortlists), Women's Prize Trust (1996-). Original list
- Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (winners and finalists), Columbia University (1918-). Original list
- Costa (Whitbread) Novel Award (winners and shortlists), Costa (1971-2021). Original list
- Walter Scott Prize (winners and shortlists), Abbotsford Trust (2010-). Original list
- British Book Awards: Fiction Book of the Year (winners and shortlists), The Bookseller (1990-). Original list
- National Book Award for Fiction (winners and finalists), National Book Foundation (1950-). Original list
- The Big Read top 100, BBC (2003). Original list
- Readers' top 100 novels, The Guardian (2026). Original list
- The Big Jubilee Read, BBC Arts and The Reading Agency (2022). Original list
- The Great American Read, PBS (2018). Original list
- Goodreads Choice Awards: Fiction and Historical Fiction winners, Goodreads (2009-). Original list
- Richard & Judy Book Club picks, Richard & Judy / WHSmith (2004-). Original list
- Waterstones Book of the Year (winners and shortlists), Waterstones (2012-). Original list
- 100 Books to Read in a Lifetime, Amazon.co.uk (2014). Original list
- Oprah's Book Club picks, Oprah's Book Club (1996-). Original list