The Man Booker Prize Winners: 1968 to Present

Man Booker Prize winners get bragging rights to one of the most prestigious literary awards in the English-speaking world. Like the winners of Pulitzer Prizes for Letters and the National Book Award, Man Booker Prize winners also experience a bump in book publicity and generally in sales. And, like the Nobel Prize for Literature recipient, the Booker Prize winner (and the winners of its sister awards, the Man Booker International Prize and Special Prizes) also gets a substantial cash payout.

Here are the Man Booker Prize winners since the 1968 creation of the award:

2010–2020

Douglas Stuart

Shuggie Bain, 2020
United States

Margaret Atwood

The Testaments, 2019
Canada

Bernardine Evaristo

Girl, Woman, Other, 2019
United Kingdom

Anna Burns

Milkman, 2018
United Kingdom/Northern Ireland

George Saunders

Lincoln in the Bardo, 2017
United States

Paul Beatty

The Sellout, 2016
United States

Marlon James

A Brief History of Seven Killings, 2015
Jamaica

Richard Flanagan

The Narrow Road to the Deep North, 2014
Australia

Eleanor Catton

The Luminaries, 2013
Canada/New Zealand

Hilary Mantel

Bring Up The Bodies, 2012
United Kingdom

Julian Barnes

The Sense of an Ending, 2011
United Kingdom

Howard Jacobson

The Finkler Question, 2010
United Kingdom

2000-2009

Hilary Mantel

Wolf Hall, 2009
United Kingdom

Aravind Adiga

The White Tiger, 2008
India

Anne Enright

The Gathering, 2007
Ireland

Kiran Desai

The Inheritance of Loss, 2006
India

John Banville

The Sea, 2005
Ireland

Allan Hollinghurst

The Line of Beauty, 2004
United Kingdom

DBC Pierre

Vernon God Little, 2003
Australia

Yann Martel

Life of Pi, 2002
Canada

Peter Carey

True History of the Kelly Gang, 2001
Australia

Margaret Atwood

The Blind Assassin, 2000
Canada

1990–1999

J. M. Coetzee

Disgrace, 1999
South Africa

Ian McEwan

Amsterdam, 1998
United Kingdom

Arundhati Roy

The God of Small Things, 1997
India

Graham Swift

Last Orders, 1996
United Kingdom

Pat Barker

The Ghost Road, 1995
United Kingdom

James Kelman

How Late It Was, How Late, 1994
United Kingdom

Roddy Doyle

Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, 1993
Ireland

Barry Unsworth

Sacred Hunger, 1992
United Kingdom

Also*:

Michael Ondaatje

The English Patient
Canada/Sri Lanka

Ben Okri

The Famished Road, 1991
Nigeria

A. S. Byatt

Possession, 1990
United Kingdom

1980–1989

Kazuo Ishiguro

The Remains of the Day, 1989
United Kingdom/Japan

Peter Carey

Oscar and Lucinda, 1988
Australia

Penelope Lively

Moon Tiger, 1987
United Kingdom

Kingsley Amis

The Old Devils, 1986
United Kingdom

Keri Hulme

The Bone People, 1985
New Zealand

Anita Brookner

Hotel du Lac, 1984
United Kingdom

J. M. Coetzee

Life & Times of Michael K, 1983
South Africa

Thomas Keneally

Schindler's Ark, 1982
Australia

Salman Rushdie

Midnight's Children, 1981
United Kingdom/India

William Golding

Rites of Passage, 1980
United Kingdom

1969–1979

Penelope Fitzgerald

Offshore, 1979

United Kingdom

Iris Murdoch

The Sea, The Sea, 1978
Ireland/United Kingdom

Paul Scott

Staying On, 1977
United Kingdom

David Storey

Saville, 1976
United Kingdom

Ruth Prawer Jhabvala

Heat and Dust, 1975
United Kingdom/Germany

Nadine Gordimer

The Conservationist, 1974
South Africa

Also*:

Stanley Middleton

Holiday
United Kingdom

J. G. Farrell

The Siege of Krishnapur, 1973
United Kingdom/Ireland

John Berger

G., 1972
United Kingdom

V. S. Naipaul

In a Free State, 1971 (short story)**
United Kingdom/Trinidad and Tobago

J. G. Farrell

Troubles, 1970***
United Kingdom/Ireland

Also*:

Bernice Rubens

The Elected Member
United Kingdom

P. H. Newby

Something to Answer For, 1969
United Kingdom

*Current rules stipulate that the prize may not be divided.

**Current Man Booker Prize rules stipulate that, in order to be considered for the award, the submitted book "must be a unified and substantial work," effectively making short stories ineligible.

***Awarded in 2010. Due to an administrative decision that shifted the Booker Prize eligible publication dates, books published in the year 1970 were excluded from prize consideration for either the 1970 or the 1971 award. In an attempt to rectify the exclusion, in 2010, 22 novels published in 1970 were considered for what was deemed "The Lost Booker Prize." J. G. Farrell's Troubles was determined to be the winner, and the prize was awarded posthumously.