70 classic Booker Prize-nominated novels
From books that changed the world to contemporary works that are certain to endure, these are your must-read classics from the Booker Library
13 cosy reads from the Booker Library, chosen by our readers
From autumnal escapes to novels with a touch of magic, these are the books our readers turn to as the nights draw in
Autumn. It’s a period of transition and change, ‘a time when the nights are sooner, chillier, the light a little less each time’. These words, written by Ali Smith in her Booker Prize 2019-shortlisted novel, aptly titled Autumn, sum up the essence of the season.
As this shift unfolds, we reached out to you, our readers, for your favourite books to curl up with as the nights draw in (we see you with envy, Southern Hemisphere friends). You recommended books that invited escape; books that celebrated lives well lived and which prompted moments of reflection; and crucially, books about the cold that could be read in the warm.
Here’s a collection of your favourite cosy reads from the Booker Library, a selection that promises to make those dark, autumnal evenings extra special.
The Story of Lucy Gault by William Trevor
In the summer of 1921, eight-year-old Lucy Gault clings to the glens and woods above Lahardane – the home her family is being forced to abandon. She knows the Gaults are no longer welcome in Ireland and that danger threatens. Lucy is headstrong and decides she must somehow force her parents into staying – but the path she chooses ends in disaster. One chance event, unwanted and unexpected, will blight the lives of the Gaults for years to come and bind each of them to this moment in time, to this wild stretch of coast. Shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2002, William Trevor’s haunting story of loss and hope captures the heart-rending emotions of a family torn apart.
What our readers said: ‘As a child, I spent many a cosy autumn evening sitting on my Gran’s lap whilst she told me fairy stories – so safe in her arms, so soothed by the lilt of her voice. I get the same sense of security, of being coddled and cosseted when I read William Trevor, and the perfect book of his for when the nights are drawing in is his eloquent and elegant cautionary fairy tale, The Story of Lucy Gault.’
Joanne O’Dwyer, The Booker Prize Book Club
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The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields
Written in diary form, The Stone Diaries follows the long and eventful life of Daisy Goodwill Flett, a Canadian woman, born in 1905 out of love and tragedy. The book follows Daisy’s life through marriage, motherhood and widowhood as she ages with the century, in a subtle and evocative portrait of one woman’s unique – therefore exceptional – life. The Stone Diaries was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1993.
What our readers said: ‘Picture a relaxing Saturday morning, teapot, comfy clothes and settling into the full life of the wonderful Daisy Goodwill Flett. The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields covers the whole of the 20th century and we meet up with Daisy roughly every 10 years. This is a cosy book because you get lost in the detail of a good life well lived with all of its loves and losses. It’s the epitome of cosy – have a box of tissues to hand though, because as with all fictional biographies, it ends just as life does.’
Kenneth Williams, The Booker Prize Book Club
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The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy
Arundhati Roy’s poetic debut novel, which won the Booker Prize in 1997, tells the story of twins Estha and Rahel, and the shocking consequences of a pivotal event in their young lives. Set in Kerala in the 1960s, the novel paints a vivid picture of life in a rural Indian town, the thoughts and feelings of the two small children, and the complexity and hypocrisy of the adults in their world. It is also a poignant lesson in the destructive power of the caste system and moral and political bigotry in general.
What our readers said: ‘The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy is perfect for October – a time for quiet reflection. I loved Roy’s lyrical prose exploring my favourite place, Kerala’s lush landscapes, and forbidden love. Reading this book feels like unravelling a mystery layered with emotions and memories, perfect for a cosy autumn escape.’
Kanchan Singh, Substack
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Stone Yard Devotional by Charlotte Wood
Burnt out and in need of retreat, a middle-aged woman leaves Sydney to return to the place she grew up, taking refuge in a small religious community hidden away on the stark plains of New South Wales.
But disquiet interrupts this secluded life with three visitations. First comes a terrible mouse plague, each day signalling a new battle against the rising infestation. Second is the return of the skeletal remains of a sister who disappeared decades before, presumed murdered. And finally, a troubling visitor plunges the narrator further back into her past. Charlotte Wood’s novel was shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2024.
What our readers said: ‘I just finished Stone Yard Devotional and something about reading it in October, while the leaves fell & the world started to get silent, felt right.’
Siddaq, Substack
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The Wall by John Lanchester
Kavanagh begins his life patrolling the Wall. If he’s lucky, if nothing goes wrong, he has only two years of this: 729 more nights. The best thing that can happen is that he survives and gets off the Wall and never has to spend another day of his life anywhere near it. He longs for this to be over; longs to be somewhere else. Longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2019, The Wall is about why the young are right to distrust the old. It’s about a broken world you will recognise as your own - and about what might be found when all is lost. John Lanchester’s thrilling and hypnotic work of fiction: a mystery story, a love story, a war story and a story about a voyage.
What our readers said: ‘Much of the book is set during long, cold nights by the sea. Vivid description and eerie storytelling transport the reader into the action, so best enjoyed when cosy and warm. Having grown up on the Scottish coast myself, the mind-numbing cold and wet that Lanchester brings into being is very much accurate.’
Ewan, Substack
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The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
At the end of his three decades of service at Darlington Hall, Stevens embarks on a country drive, during which he looks back over his career to reassure himself that he has served humanity by serving ‘a great gentleman.’ But lurking in his memory are doubts about the true nature of Lord Darlington’s ‘greatness’ – and graver doubts about his own faith in the man he has served. Kazuo Ishiguro’s moving portrait of the perfect English butler, his loyalty and his fading, insular world in post-war England won the Booker Prize in 1989.
What our readers said: ‘A perfect book for cosying up in a comfortable armchair with a cup of tea on a chilly autumn day in England would be this masterpiece. It’s a gentle, elegant and pensive story of Stevens reflecting on his years of service, following in his aged father’s footsteps regarding duty, and his feelings for the former housekeeper, Miss Kenton. Did his dedication to his employer still have value after he was aware that he was a Nazi sympathiser? Did his checked feelings for Miss Kenton represent a loss that could have been filled with a comforting love which would have made his life more fulfilling? Stevens contemplates these thoughts and is left realising that as he reaches old age, he might have made other choices and is left with an emptiness he cannot change.’
Cecile De Forest, The Booker Prize Book Club
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The Riders by Tim Winton
In his Booker Prize 1995 shortlisted novel, Tim Winton depicts a desperate man’s odyssey across Europe in search of the missing wife he now realises he barely knew. After Scully has a ghostly vision of twenty horsemen, his wife, Jennifer, suddenly and mysteriously vanishes. Scully’s seven-year-old daughter, Billy, may have witnessed Jennifer’s disappearance, but has been rendered mute by the ordeal. Clues lead Scully and his daughter on a quest that covers Greece, Italy, Paris, and Amsterdam, as he slowly accepts his failure along with the idea that some things will never be known.
What our readers said: ‘I’ve returned to this haunting and haunted novel several times. It is as propulsive as a chase thriller and yet somehow also meditative, inward-looking and utterly heartbreaking.’
Richard, Substack
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Bewilderment by Richard Powers
Theo Byrne is an astrobiologist. He is also the widowed father of a most unusual nine-year-old. Robin is loving, funny and full of plans to save the world. He is also about to be expelled, for smashing his friend’s face in with a metal thermos. What can a father do, when the only solution offered is to put his boy on psychoactive drugs? What can he say, when his boy asks why we are destroying the world? The only thing to do is to take the boy to other planets, while helping him to save this one. Richard Powers’ deeply moving and brilliantly original novel was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2021.
What our readers said: ‘Where do I start to describe the depth of kindness and the sorrow it brings to us? The strength and wisdom it carries? Teary-eyed, I am a better person for having met Robin.’
Victoria Toujilina, The Booker Prize Book Club
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Enlightenment by Sarah Perry
Thomas Hart and Grace Macaulay have lived all their lives in the small Essex town of Aldleigh. Though separated in age by three decades, the pair are kindred spirits – torn between their commitment to religion and their desire to explore the world beyond their small Baptist community. But their friendship is threatened by the arrival of love.
Over the course of 20 years, by coincidence and design, Thomas and Grace will find their lives brought back into orbit as a devastating story of love and scientific pursuit unfolds and the mysteries of Aldleigh are revealed. Sarah Perry’s novel was longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2024.
What our readers said: ‘A gentle and touching book about love and loss with a touch of magic and the supernatural.’
Jackie Pentreath, The Booker Prize Book Club
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Held by Anne Michaels
1917. On a battlefield near the River Escaut, John lies in the aftermath of a blast, unable to move or feel his legs. Struggling to focus his thoughts, he is lost to memory – a chance encounter in a pub by a railway, a hot bath with his lover on a winter night, his childhood on a faraway coast – as the snow falls. 1920. John has returned from war to North Yorkshire, near another river – alive, but not still whole. Reunited with Helena, an artist, he reopens his photography business and endeavours to keep on living. But the past erupts insistently into the present, as ghosts begin to surface in his pictures: ghosts whose messages he cannot understand. Held was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2024.
What our readers said: ‘I can imagine sitting by a fireplace, not held but captivated, reading and rereading this loose, plotless collection of words and questions, pondering and pondering the meaning of everything, at least until spring.’
Poonam Krishnan, The Booker Prize Book Club
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The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng
It is 1921 and at Cassowary House in the Straits Settlements of Penang, Robert Hamlyn is a well-to-do lawyer, his steely wife Lesley a society hostess. Their lives are invigorated when Willie, an old friend of Robert’s, comes to stay. Willie Somerset Maugham is one of the greatest writers of his day. But he is beleaguered by an unhappy marriage, ill-health and business interests that have gone badly awry. He is also struggling to write. The more Lesley’s friendship with Willie grows, the more clearly she sees him as he is – a man who has no choice but to mask his true self.
Based on real events, Tan Twan Eng’s masterful novel of public morality and private truth was longlisted for the Booker Prize 2023.
What our readers said: ‘The faint smell of a wood-burning fire, the sound of falling leaves, and Twan’s beautifully constructed prose would make an ideal cosy setting for me.’
Penny Haws, The Booker Prize Book Club
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Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
February, 1862. Two days after his death, 11-year-old Willie Lincoln is laid to rest in a marble crypt in a Georgetown cemetery. All that night, his father Abraham paces the darkness of the graveyard, shattered with grief. Meanwhile, Willie is trapped in a state of limbo between the dead and the living - drawn to his father with whom he can no longer communicate, existing in a ghostly world populated by the recently passed and the long dead. Narrated by a chorus of voices, George Saunders’ startlingly original novel is a thrilling exploration of death, grief and the possibilities of life. It won the Booker Prize in 2017.
What our readers said: ‘Lincoln in the Bardo is a fantastic moody read with some very graveyard Halloweeny vibes. Even just the way it opens with the moon… and not the moon.’
Sarah Bringhurst Familia, Substack
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My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout
Lucy Barton is recovering slowly from what should have been a simple operation. Her mother, who she hasn’t spoken to for many years, comes to see her. Her unexpected visit forces Lucy to confront the tension and longing that have informed every aspect of her life: her impoverished childhood in Amgash, her escape to New York, her faltering marriage – and her own love for two daughters. Elizabeth Strout’s moving story, which was longlisted for the Booker Prize in 2016, shows how a simple hospital visit illuminates the tender relationship between an estranged mother and daughter.
What our readers said: ‘I love Elizabeth Strout’s My Name is Lucy Barton and Oh William. Reading her is like having a conversation with a lifelong friend, all warm and comfortable.’
Ken Lacroix, The Booker Prize Book Club
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