The Booker Prize winners of the 1980s
The top 3 according to 152 votes from people: Rites of Passage — William Golding · Life & Times of Michael K — J. M. Coetzee · Midnight's Children — Salman Rushdie. (Updated Oct 9, 2019.)
The ten novels that won the Booker Prize from 1980 to 1989, from Golding to Ishiguro.
Top 10
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1
Rites of Passage — William Golding
1980. A sea voyage to Australia in the early 19th century.
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2
Life & Times of Michael K — J. M. Coetzee
1983. A man crosses a South Africa at war with his mother's ashes.
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3
Midnight's Children — Salman Rushdie
1981. Children born at the moment of Indian independence; later named the 'Booker of Bookers'.
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4
Schindler's Ark — Thomas Keneally
1982. The story that became Schindler's List.
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5
Hotel du Lac — Anita Brookner
1984. A romance novelist at a Swiss hotel.
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6
The Old Devils — Kingsley Amis
1986. Retired Welsh friends and their drinking.
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7
The Bone People — Keri Hulme
1985. A painter, a mute boy and his foster father in New Zealand.
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8
Moon Tiger — Penelope Lively
1987. A dying historian recalls her life and a wartime love in Egypt.
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9
Oscar and Lucinda — Peter Carey
1988. Two gamblers and a glass church shipped across Australia.
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10
The Remains of the Day — Kazuo Ishiguro
1989. A butler looks back on his life of service.
How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.
Is something missing?
Comments (4)
Hotel du Lac is short and perfect.
Midnight's Children is still the Booker of Bookers for me.
The Bone People is such a strange, powerful book.
Oscar and Lucinda, the glass church ending, wow.