THE TOP FIVE....Booker Prize winners
An entirely subjective opinion on an entirely subjective prize.
I was lucky enough to attend The Booker Prize ceremony last week, where Samantha Harvey became the first woman to win since 2019 with her 136-page novel, Orbital. I’ve just started reading it and it’s an immediately intriguing premise - the story of six fictional astronauts on the International Space Station. Below, please find the titles I consider to be the previous five best Booker Prize winners (and I have by no means read *all* the winners, so my opinion is at least 40% blind ignorance). Tell me what you think I’ve left out in the comments below!
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
Exquisite in its restraint, deeply moving in its telling: the story of Stevens the butler whose sense of duty is so rigid that he fails to realise he has fallen in love.
Last Orders by Graham Swift
Swift is a criminally underrated novelist and this isn’t even his best book (that would be Waterland, imo). This 1996 winner tells the tale of four friends gathering to dispose of another friend's ashes.