Keri Hulme

The 1985 Booker Prize winner - the first from New Zealand, and also the first to win for a debut novel - sadly passed away on December 27th.

Welcome to the online home of the Booker Prizes, where we celebrate the almost 600 books to which the Booker and International Booker Prize have drawn attention since 1969.

Metaphysical thrillers and disturbing love stories, personal meditations and searing dramas: drop by the Booker Library to discover books written by masterful storytellers, which will resonate with you for the rest of your life.

Or why not find out more about this year’s Booker Prize - all the books nominated, highlights from the winner ceremony, plus exclusive writing from the shortlisted authors?

After being shortlisted in 2003 and 2010, Damon Galgut won the 2021 Booker Prize with his searing and brutally funny novel The Promise, set during South Africa’s transition out of apartheid. ’I think the function of novels is to make it clear to you that the world is not made in your own image,’ he said after he won.

So: delve in, understand someone new, travel the world. Fiction is always here for you.

Our Christmas Quiz answers

Knowledge of Angels: A Booker Christmas Quiz

We'll be revealing the answers to our Christmas Quiz - one a day for all of January - to provide even more inspiration for your New Year resolution to read more (exceptional) books.

Between the Covers

Rooney Mara as the young Roseanne in the 2016 film adaptation of The Secret Scripture

The secrets of Sebastian Barry's The Secret Scripture

Sebastian Barry's The Secret Scripture, shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2008, is the story of Roseanne, a woman approaching her 100th birthday who has spent much of her adult life in a Sligo asylum now due to close.

Sarah Waters sits in front of bookshelves and a window.

Inside the Fingersmith archive with Sarah Waters

Mapping The Garden of Evening Mists

Molly Keane at the Booker Prize ceremony 1981

Molly Keane's 1981 Diary

Between the Covers

Suffolk's best independent bookshops

Exit West audiobook cover on a red background.

The Making of Exit West

Watch the best bits of the Booker Prize ceremony

The moment Damon Galgut wins the 2021 Booker Prize.

Douglas Stuart speaks with Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cornwall

Thirty years after his win for The Famished Road, Ben Okri speaks with Samira Ahmed during the 2021 Booker Prize ceremony.

Maya Jasanoff speaks with Samira Ahmed before unveiling the 2021 Booker Prize winner.

Damon Galgut speaks with Samira Ahmed during the 2021 Booker Prize ceremony.

‘The Promise’, directed by Christine Ubochi, featuring David Jonsson and produced by Rural Media.

‘Great Circle’ directed by Christine Ubochi, featuring Ria Zimitrowicz and produced by Rural Media

‘A Passage North’, directed by Yero Timi-Biu, featuring Paul G Raymond and produced by Rural Media

‘Bewilderment’, directed by Liam Young, featuring Luke Norris and produced by Rural Media

‘The Fortune Men’ directed by Yero Timi-Biu, featuring Elmi Rashid Elmi and produced by Rural Media

‘No One is Talking About This’, directed by Liam Young, featuring Fiona Button and produced by Rural Media

Winner The Booker Prize 2021

The Promise

By: Damon Galgut
Published by: Chatto & Windus

Brutal emotional truths hit home in Damon Galgut’s deft, powerful story of a diminished family and a troubled land.

I'd like to accept this on behalf of all the stories told and untold, the writers heard and unheard, from the remarkable continent I'm part of. Please keep listening to us, there's a lot more to come

— Damon Galgut accepting the Booker Prize 2021, November 3 2021

Damon Galgut, by the numbers

The number of novels, including The Promise, written by Damon Galgut

Years between Arctic Summer, Damon Galgut’s previous novel, and The Promise

Damon Galgut’s age when his first novel was published

Number of times Damon Galgut has been shortlisted for the Booker (2003, 2010, 2021)

More about this year's Booker Prize

The 2021 Booker Prize

Discover more about this year’s Booker Prize - the winner, the shortlist, the longlist, the judges.

Find out more about Damon Galgut

Line up of - from left - Patricia Lockwood, Richard Powers, Nadifa Mohamed, Damon Galgut, Maggie Shipstead and Anuk Arudpragasam at Southbank Centre.

The 2021 Booker shortlisted authors, live and in person

Behind the scenes: the Booker and book binding

Gifted new talent to direct films for the 2021 Booker Prize ceremony

Damon Galgut's The Promise 'an excellent winner'

The Promise is ‘rich with layers and yet it is compact’, wrote BBC arts correspondent Rebecca Jones after Damon Galgut’s was named winner of the 2021 Booker Prize. Jones said the novel ‘deftly tells the story of South Africa and its troubled transition from apartheid state to multi-racial democracy’ while also being a ‘gripping saga’ about one family. Read more at the BBC.

Damon Galgut wins Booker Prize with 'gripping' South Africa novel The Promise, BBC, November 4 2021