Goal 1: I’d like to read the shortlist every year (schedule permitting) and see if I can guess the winner.
Goal 2: I’d like to read the shortlisted books from 2000 – present. (I wasn’t paying attention earlier than this so it’s the titles from 2000 on that make me say, “Right, I meant to read that…”) Books with the double asterisk (**) won their year.
2022 (longlist)
- After Sappho by Selby Wynn Schwartz
- Booth by Karen Joy Fowler
- Case Study by Graeme Macrae Burnet
- The Colony by Audrey Magee
- Glory by NoViolet Bulawayo
- Maps of Our Spectacular Bodies by Maddie Mortimer
- Nightcrawling by Leila Mottley
- Oh William! by Elizabeth Strout
- The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida by Shehan Karunatilaka
- Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
- Treacle Walker by Alan Garner
- The Trees by Percival Everett
- Trust by Hernan Diaz
2021
- Bewilderment by Richard Powers
- The Fortune Men by Nadifa Mohamed
- Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead
- No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood
- A Passage North by Anuk Arudpragasam
- **The Promise by Damon Galgut
2020
- Burnt Sugar by Avni Doshi
- The New Wilderness by Diane Cook
- Real Life by Brandon Taylor
- The Shadow King by Maaza Mengiste
- **Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
- This Mournable Body by Tsitsi Dangarembga
2019
- Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann
- **Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
- An Orchestra of Minorities by Chigozie Obioma
- Quichotte by Salman Rushdie
- **The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
- 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World by Elif Shafak
2018
- Everything Under by Daisy Johnson
- The Long Take by Robin Robertson
- The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner
- **Milkman by Anna Burns
- The Overstory by Richard Powers
- Washington Black by Esi Edugyan
2017
- Autumn by Ali Smith
- Elmet by Fiona Mozley
- Exit West by Mohsin Hamid
- History of Wolves by Emily Fridlund
- **Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
- 4 3 2 1 by Paul Auster
2016
- All That Man Is by David Szalay
- Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien
- Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh
- His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet
- Hot Milk by Deborah Levy
- **The Sellout by Paul Beatty
2015
- **A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James
- A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler
- The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma
- A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
- Satin Island by Tom McCarthy
- The Year of the Runaways by Sunjeev Sahota
2014
- How to Be Both by Ali Smith
- J by Howard Jacobson
- The Lives of Others by Neel Mukherjee
- **The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan
- To Rise Again at a Decent Hour by Joshua Ferris
- We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler
2013
- Harvest by Jim Crace
- The Lowland by Jhumpa Lahiri
- **The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton
- A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki
- The Testament of Mary by Colm Tóibín
- We Need New Names by NoViolet Bulawayo
2012
- **Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel
- The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng
- The Lighthouse by Alison Moore
- Narcopolis by Jeet Thayil
- Swimming Home by Deborah Levy
- Umbrella by Will Self
2011
- Half-Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan
- Jamrach’s Menagerie by Carol Birch
- Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman
- **The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
- The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt
- Snowdrops by A.D. Miller
2010
- C by Tom McCarthy
- **The Finkler Question by Howard Jacobson
- In a Strange Room by Damon Galgut
- The Long Song by Andrea Levy
- Parrot and Olivier in America by Peter Carey
- Room by Emma Donoghue
2009
- The Children’s Book by A.S. Byatt
- The Glass Room by Simon Mawer
- The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
- The Quickening Maze by Adam Foulds
- Summertime by J.M. Coetzee
- **Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel
2008
- The Clothes on Their Backs by Linda Grant
- A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz
- The Northern Clemency by Philip Hensher
- Sea of Poppies by Amitav Ghosh
- The Secret Sculpture by Sebastian Barry
- **The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
2007
- Animal’s People by Indra Sinha
- Darkmans by Nicola Barker
- **The Gathering by Anne Enright
- Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones
- On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan
- The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid
2006
- Carry Me Down by M.J. Hyland
- In the Country of Men by Hisham Matar
- **The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai
- Mother’s Milk by Edward St. Aubyn
- The Night Watch by Sarah Waters
- The Secret River by Kate Grenville
2005
- The Accidental by Ali Smith
- Arthur & George by Julian Barnes
- A Long Long Way by Sebastian Barry
- Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
- On Beauty by Zadie Smith
- **The Sea by John Banville
2004
- Bitter Fruit by Achmat Dangor
- Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
- The Electric Michelangelo by Sarah Hall
- I’ll Go to Bed at Noon by Gerard Woodward
- **The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst
- The Master by Colm Tóibín
2003
- Astonishing Splashes of Colour by Clare Morrall
- Brick Lane by Monica Ali
- The Good Doctor by Damon Galgut
- Notes on a Scandal by Zoë Heller
- Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
- **Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre
2002
- Dirt Music by Tim Winton
- Family Matters by Rohinton Mistry
- Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
- **Life of Pi by Yann Martel
- The Story of Lucy Gault by William Trevor
- Unless by Carol Shields
2001
- Atonement by Ian McEwan
- The Dark Room by Rachel Seiffert
- Hotel World by Ali Smith
- number9dream by David Mitchell
- Oxygen by Andrew Miller
- **True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey
2000
- **The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
- The Deposition of Father McGreevy by Brian O’Doherty
- English Passengers by Matthew Kneale
- The Keepers of Truth by Michael Collins
- The Hiding Place by Trezza Azzopardi
- When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro
1999: Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee
1998: Amsterdam 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
1992: Sacred Hunger by Barry Unsworth
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 Ark by Thomas Keneally
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
1974: Holiday by Stanley Middleton
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
1970: Troubles by J.G. Farrell
1969: Something to Answer For by P.H. Newby