The Booker Prize, formerly known as the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a literary prize awarded each year for the best novel written in English and published in the United Kingdom or Ireland. The winner of the Booker Prize receives international publicity which usually leads to a sales boost. When the prize was created, only novels written by Commonwealth, Irish, and South African citizens were eligible to receive the prize; in 2014 it was widened to any English-language novel—a change that proved controversial.
John Maxwell Coetzee OMG is a South African–Australian novelist, essayist, linguist, translator and recipient of the 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature. He is one of the most critically acclaimed and decorated authors in the English language. He has won the Booker Prize (twice), the CNA Prize (thrice), the Jerusalem Prize, the Prix Femina étranger, and The Irish Times International Fiction Prize, and holds a number of other awards and honorary doctorates.
The International Booker Prize is an international literary award hosted in the United Kingdom. The introduction of the International Prize to complement the Man Booker Prize was announced in June 2004. Sponsored by the Man Group, from 2005 until 2015 the award was given every two years to a living author of any nationality for a body of work published in English or generally available in English translation. It rewarded one author's "continued creativity, development and overall contribution to fiction on the world stage", and was a recognition of the writer's body of work rather than any one title.
The Man Asian Literary Prize was an annual literary award between 2007 and 2012, given to the best novel by an Asian writer, either written in English or translated into English, and published in the previous calendar year. It is awarded to writers who are citizens or residents of one of the following 34 Asian countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, East Timor, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Japan, Laos, Macau, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, North Korea, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Thailand, The Maldives, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam. Submissions are invited through publishers who are entitled to each submit two novels by August 31 each year. Entry forms are available from May.
The Death of Jesus is a 2019 novel by Nobel Prize-winning writer J.M. Coetzee; it is the third in his "Jesus" trilogy, following The Childhood of Jesus (2013) and The Schooldays of Jesus (2016). It was first published in Spanish under the title La muerte de Jesús and distributed throughout Latin America. In fact, it is the second of Coetzee's books to appear first in Spanish, the first being Siete cuentos morales or "Moral Tales".
Summertime is a 2009 novel by South African-born Nobel laureate J. M. Coetzee. It is the third in a series of fictionalized memoirs by Coetzee and details the life of one John Coetzee from the perspective of five people who have known him. The novel largely takes place in the mid to late 1970s, largely in Cape Town, although there are also important scenes in more remote South African settings. While there are obvious similarities between the actual writer of the novel, J. M. Coetzee, and the subject of the novel, John Coetzee, there are some differences - most notably that the John Coetzee of the novel is reported as having died. Within the novel, the opinions and thoughts of the five people are compiled and interpreted by a fictitious biographer, who also adds fragments from John Coetzee's notebooks. It was shortlisted for the 2009 Booker Prize. Coetzee was already a two-time winner of the award and it is for this reason that literary commentator Merritt Moseley believes he did not win it for Summertime.
Anuradha Roy is an Indian novelist, journalist and editor. She has written five novels: An Atlas of Impossible Longing (2008), The Folded Earth (2011), Sleeping on Jupiter (2015), All the Lives We Never Lived (2018), and The Earthspinner (2021).
The Childhood of Jesus is a 2013 novel by South African-born Nobel laureate J. M. Coetzee. The book was published simultaneously on 7 March 2013, by Jonathan Cape (UK) and Text Publishing (Australia). The U.S. edition was published on 3 September 2013, by Viking.
Hystopia is a 2016 novel by David Means. The novel was described by literary critic Christian Lorentzen as "a counterfactual narrative by a Vietnam veteran about his experience in a therapeutic, psychedelics-based trauma recovery program initiated by an unassassinated John F. Kennedy."
Serious Sweet is a 2016 novel by A. L. Kennedy. It is Kennedy's 8th novel and narrates the story of a civil servant who offers letter-writing services to single women.
Hot Milk is a 2016 novel by British author Deborah Levy. It follows the story of mother, Rose, and daughter, Sofia, who embark on a journey to a Spanish clinic in search of a medical cure for Rose's paralysis.
His Bloody Project: Documents relating to the case of Roderick Macrae is a 2015 novel by Graeme Macrae Burnet. Using fictional historical documents, it tells the story of a 17-year-old boy named Roderick "Roddy" Macrae, who commits a triple homicide in the village of Culduie, on the Applecross peninsula, in 1869.
The Many is a 2016 novel by Wyl Menmuir. It follows the story of Timothy, a foreigner who buys an abandoned house in a coastal village. The book was longlisted for the 2016 Man Booker Prize.
Work Like Any Other is a 2016 debut novel by Virginia Reeves. Set in the 1920s, it narrates the story of a poor electrician who siphons energy from his town's electricity source to save his family from poverty. In July 2016 the book was longlisted for the 2016 Man Booker Prize.
All That Man Is is a 2016 novel by David Szalay. It is a collection of nine, intertwined short stories.
The 2016 Booker Prize for Fiction was awarded at a ceremony on 25 October 2016. The Man Booker dozen of 13 books was announced on 27 July, narrowed down to a shortlist of six titles on 13 September. Paul Beatty was awarded the 2016 Booker Prize for his novel The Sellout, receiving 50,000 pounds ($61,000), and becoming the first American author to be awarded the prize.
The 2017 Booker Prize for Fiction was awarded at a ceremony on 17 October 2017. The Man Booker dozen of 13 books was announced on 27 July, narrowed down to a shortlist of six titles on 13 September. George Saunders was awarded the 2017 Booker Prize for his novel Lincoln in the Bardo, receiving £50,000 (~$65,000), and becoming the second American author in a row to be awarded the prize.
The 2021 Booker Prize for Fiction was announced on 3 November 2021, during a ceremony at the BBC Radio Theatre. The longlist was announced on 27 July 2021. The shortlist was announced on 14 September 2021. The Prize was awarded to Damon Galgut for his novel, The Promise, receiving £50,000. He is the third South African to win the prize, after J. M. Coetzee and Nadine Gordimer.
The 2003 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to the South African novelist John Maxwell Coetzee, better known simply as J. M. Coetzee, "who in innumerable guises portrays the surprising involvement of the outsider." He is the fourth African writer to be so honoured and the second South African after Nadine Gordimer in 1991.
