70 Classic Booker Prize-Nominated Novels, Recommended by our Readers

This is one of the 743 lists we use to generate our main The Greatest Books list.

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Booker Prize Library Readers, 70 Books

The Booker Library's list of must-read classics, as selected by its newsletter subscribers and social media followers, highlights the enduring appeal of books that have been nominated for the Booker Prize since its inception in 1969. These books, described as classics by journalist and author Italo Calvino, are notable for their ability to continually communicate new ideas and insights. The selected titles, drawn from over 600 nominated works, range from intimate stories to epic narratives, demonstrating a depth that rewards multiple readings and leaves a lasting impression on readers. This curated selection includes both bestsellers and lesser-known treasures, providing a comprehensive guide through the historical and contemporary highlights of the Booker Prize nominations.

This list was originally published in 2024 and was added to this site about 2 years ago.

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Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
1389 A Brief History of Seven Killings Marlon James 2014 Jamaican English
6354 Moon Tiger Penelope Lively 1987 British English
14586 Sacred Hunger Barry Unsworth 1992 British English
557 A Fine Balance Rohinton Mistry 1995 Indian English
1547 Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont Elizabeth Taylor 1971 British English
2913 Bring Up the Bodies Hilary Mantel 2012 British English
2406 Loitering With Intent Muriel Spark 1981 British English
2206 The Sense of an Ending Julian Barnes 2011 British English
248 Atonement Ian McEwan 2001 British English
651 The English Patient Michael Ondaatje 1992 Canadian English
17008 The Fishermen Chigozie Obioma 2015 Nigerian English
432 Cloud Atlas David Mitchell 2004 British English
259 Disgrace J. M. Coetzee 1999 South African English
132 The Handmaid's Tale Margaret Atwood 1985 Canadian English
14901 Every Man for Himself Beryl Bainbridge 1996 British English
3529 Girl, Woman, Other Bernardine Evaristo 2019 British English
2173 In a Free State V. S. Naipaul 1971 Trinidadian English
5330 Days Without End Sebastian Barry 2016 Irish English
2062 How Late It Was, How Late James Kelman 1994 Scottish English
1741 Life & Times of Michael K J. M. Coetzee 1983 South African English
987 Flaubert's Parrot Julian Barnes 1984 British English
64 Midnight's Children Salman Rushdie 1981 Indian English
1789 A Little Life Hanya Yanagihara 2015 American English
402 Wolf Hall Hilary Mantel 2009 British English
267 Never Let Me Go Kazuo Ishiguro 2005 British English
3124 Oryx and Crake Margaret Atwood 2003 Canadian English
5987 Paradise Abdulrazak Gurnah 1994 British English
731 Possession A. S. Byatt 1990 British English
204 The Remains of the Day Kazuo Ishiguro 1989 British English
1025 Schindler's List Thomas Keneally 1982 Australian English
7740 Shuggie Bain Douglas Stuart 2020 Scottish English
2350 The Butcher Boy Patrick McCabe 1992 Irish English
1260 The Blind Assassin Margaret Atwood 2000 Canadian English
17008 The Bookshop Penelope Fitzgerald 1978 British English
1144 The Bone People Keri Hulme 1984 New Zealand English
5981 The Children's Book A. S. Byatt 2009 British English
3803 Hotel du Lac Anita Brookner 1984 British English
1143 A Month In The Country J. L. Carr 1980 British English
14901 The Enchantress of Florence Salman Rushdie 2008 British English
5726 The Ghost Road Pat Barker 1995 British English
1007 Fingersmith Sarah Waters 2002 British English
1019 Lincoln in the Bardo George Saunders 2017 American English
358 The God of Small Things Arundhati Roy 1997 Indian English
2711 The Narrow Road to the Deep North Matsuo Bashō 1684 Japanese Japanese
662 The Siege of Krishnapur J. G. Farrell 1973 British English
3058 The Secret River Kate Grenville 2005 Australian English
722 The Line of Beauty Alan Hollinghurst 2004 British English
2959 The Sea John Banville 2005 Irish English
2311 Milkman Anna Burns 2018 Irish English
14901 Bewilderment Richard Powers 2021 British English
1503 The Famished Road Ben Okri 1991 Nigerian English
1141 Life of Pi Yann Martel 2001 Canadian English
453 The Sea, The Sea Iris Murdoch 1978 British English
6975 The Testaments Margaret Atwood 2019 Canadian English
1567 Empire of the Sun J. G. Ballard 1984 British English
1153 True History of the Kelly Gang Peter Carey 2000 Australian English
2513 Rites of Passage William Golding 1980 British English
6141 The Thousand Autumns Of Jacob De Zoet David Mitchell 2010 British English
769 The Underground Railroad Colson Whitehead 2016 American English
2950 The Inheritance of Loss Kiran Desai 2006 Indian English
8331 Swing Time Zadie Smith 2016 British English
803 The Vegetarian Han Kang 2007 Korean Korean
2359 Brooklyn Colm Toibin 2009 Irish English
6895 Washington Black Esi Edugyan 2018 Canadian English
2966 The White Tiger Aravind Adiga 2008 Indian English
1550 Waterland Graham Swift 1983 British English
858 The Sellout Paul Beatty 2015 American English
597 The Years Annie Ernaux 2008 French French
4673 A Horse Walks Into A Bar David Grossman 2014 Israeli Hebrew
15786 Ending Up Kingsley Amis 1974 British English