5 best books recognized as the best in the history of the Booker Prize

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The Booker Prize, one of the most prestigious awards for English-speaking writers, is known for its unconventional approach to judging works. It can be obtained by both venerable authors and novice writers who have managed to combine in their books deep content, an unusual form of presentation and mastery of the word. In 2018, five best books were named, which became laureates of the award for all 50 years of its existence, and one was named that received the Golden Booker Prize.

In the Free State by Vidiadhar Naipaul

The book of the British writer is five stories (including a prologue and an epilogue), which are not connected with each other by a common plot, but at the same time each is about freedom. Freedom, not only in the usual sense. It is this topic that runs like a red thread, forcing the reader to think about the meaning of life and real liberation from prejudices and stereotypes imposed by society or the state.

The Booker Prize for this book was awarded to the writer in 1971 and was considered by the jury to be practically a master class in literature from the venerable writer. Readers were not so unanimous in their assessment of the book. To some, the book seemed somewhat boring, while others perceived it as revealing the base qualities of a person.

Perhaps such an ambiguous assessment is associated with the description in the works of Vidiadhar Naipaul of all that it is customary to shyly keep silent about. In 2001, the writer became a Nobel laureate.

Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively

Claudia Hampton is 76 years old, she lived an incredibly interesting life, in which there was a place for meetings and partings, an amazing love story and interesting people. Today she is bedridden and reflects on the course of world history and related events. The own fate of a middle-aged woman, a historian and a war correspondent, is analyzed and makes you think about whether you can walk your way with dignity and not regret anything at the end.

The narrative seems inconsistent, but this is exactly what the memories of a dying person are. Claudia Hampton writes a book in her imagination that will never see the light of day. But the reader may well be inspired by this story filled with endless love of life.

Penelope Lively received the Booker Prize for this book in 1987, but even today the work deserves attention and makes you think, be inspired and live, despite the difficulties and problems that arise.

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Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

A strong historical novel that makes one look at some rather famous events in England in the first half of the sixteenth century. Look and suddenly find yourself somewhere there, in an old castle, where you can not only feel all the charm of that time, but also feel the smells coming from the kitchen, hear the crackling of a torch, be drawn into a whirlwind of political intrigue, walk the path with Thomas Cromwell.

The novel is written so deliciously that the whole time of reading it does not leave the feeling that the reader is in the center of events. Sympathizes, worries, doubts along with the main character. There are no good or bad heroes here, there are people with their own virtues and vices. "Wolf Hall" in some incredible way makes the reader interested in history and to study the period in question in the novel to the smallest details.

Hilary Mantel's book received the Booker Prize for the book "Wolf Hall" in 2009, and already in 2012 for the continuation of the novel - the book "Bring Bodies."

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

In the novel by George Saunders, the real and the other worlds are mixed. And in exactly the same way, it was as if eyewitness testimony and conversations with ghosts were mixed. Just one night, described in the work, can change the perception of the world. A book about the tragic loss of his son by the sixteenth US President Abraham Lincoln, it would seem, simply cannot be funny. But the author managed to make the reader smile while reading this story.

Lincoln in the Bardo is a kind of literary experiment, a search for new forms filled with unusual content. And he was honored with the 2017 Booker Prize. It should be noted that "Lincoln in the Bardo" is the first major work of the author, before that George Saunders wrote only stories and essays.

The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje

This book won an award in 1992, and in 2018, according to the results of the work of the jury and the reader's vote, it was awarded the Golden Booker and was recognized as the best in the last half century. Readers compare the work with the novel "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel García Márquez in writing style and with a film "Titanic" for the romance and tragedy of the plot.

The film based on this book won nine Oscars and, nevertheless, the work itself turns out to be deeper, more serious and more dramatic than the film adaptation. Four people, by the will of fate, found themselves in one place and at the same time, page after page, reveal their secrets, and the thoughtful reader can only find the root causes of the events that happened to the heroes.

Books written in the genre of the family saga have always been popular, one has only to remember "The Thorn Birds" by Colin McCullough or "The Forsyte Saga" by John Galsworthy. Modern writers also do not ignore this topic, offering narratives about the passage of time within the same family. Sometimes it seems that the author seemed to have spied on the life of the reader himself and now invites him to look from the outside at himself.