Saleem’s life is a whirlwind of disasters and triumphs that mirror the course of modern India at its most impossible, in Salman Rushdie’s masterpiece
The Best of the Booker
The Best of the Booker
In 2008, to mark the 40th Anniversary of the prize, the 'Best of the Booker' prize was awarded.
A panel of judges was asked to select a shortlist of the best books to have won the prize in the previous four decades. For the first time in the prize’s history, the overall winner was selected by an online public vote. Salman Rushdie was named winner of the ‘Best of the Booker’ award for Midnight’s Children with 36 per cent of the votes.
Rushdie commented: ‘Marvellous news! I’m absolutely delighted and would like to thank all those readers around the world who voted for Midnight’s Children.’ Unable to be there in person, the winning author made an appearance via video and his sons collected the award on his behalf.
Winner
Shortlist
The third volume of Pat Barker’s trilogy, which follows the fortunes of shell-shocked British army officers towards the end of the First World War
By Pat Barker
Peter Carey’s rich and endlessly inventive tale about two unusual characters in 19th-century Australia won the Booker Prize in 1988
By Peter Carey
J.M. Coetzee became the first author to win the Booker twice with this tale set in post-apartheid South Africa, where a professor’s complacency contributes to his utter downfall
By J.M. Coetzee
J.G. Farrell details the siege of a fictional town in India in 1857, when Muslim soldiers turned to bloody rebellion against their British overlords
By J.G. Farrell
Nadine Gordimer paints a complex portrait of dangerously deluded and wilfully ignorant privilege, set in South Africa during the time of Apartheid