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.