14 Booker-nominated books that will change your worldview, as chosen by our readers

Books can have a life-altering effect, with a simple idea able to provide the catalyst for change. They allow us to see through the eyes of others and experience ways of living that can transform our original view of the world. From reflecting on our individual actions to understanding the complexities of life and how our past can influence the future, books can inherently change us.

In a speech broadcast at the Booker Prize ceremony in 2020, former US President Barack Obama said, ‘At their best, Booker Prize listed books remind me of fiction’s power to help us put ourselves in someone else’s shoes, understand their struggles and imagine new ways to tackle complex problems – and effect change.’

With those words in mind, and with the start of a new year providing the chance for us all to make a fresh start, we asked our readers to tell us about the Booker-nominated books that have changed their worldview, sparking new ideas and shifting opinions. Whether prompting career changes or helping individuals to process grief, these books provide strength to help overcome a variety of challenges, and offer lessons and insights that our readers have taken to heart. Prepare for your life to be altered by this list.

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

In Margaret Atwood’s feminist dystopian classic, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1986, nothing happens ‘that hasn’t already happened at some time or another’. 

Offred is a national resource. In the Republic of Gilead her viable ovaries make her a precious commodity, and the state allows her only one function: to breed. As a Handmaid she carries no name except her Master’s, for whose barren wife she must act as a surrogate. Dissenters are supposed to end up either at the Wall, where they are hanged, or in the Colonies, to die a lingering death from radiation sickness. But the irrepressible Moira shows Offred that it is possible to cheat the system.

What our readers said: ‘Few books in my adult life have affected me as powerfully as The Handmaid’s Tale. By the time it came out in 1985-1986, the advances of the 1970s were in the rear-view mirror, I was working in a male-dominated field, Ronald Reagan was president, the AIDS epidemic was in full swing, the religious right was gearing up to challenge abortion rights, and the women’s movement had stalled. The Handmaid’s Tale did not feel like science fiction but seemed more like a vision of the future. I realised when I read the book that rights could be taken away as easily as they could be granted. I haven’t slept easily since.’

Melinda Meador, Facebook

A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry

At a time of political turmoil, the lives of four strangers collide. Rohinton Mistry’s masterpiece, shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1986, is set in an unnamed Indian in the mid 1970s, where a state of emergency has been declared. 

In the tiny flat of the widowed Dina Dalal, Ishvar and Omprakash Darji, tailors who have been forced from their village into the city, and Maneck Kohlah, a young student from a hill-station near the Himalayas, are painfully constructing new lives, which become entwined in circumstances no one could have foreseen.

What our readers said: ‘A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry definitely changed my perspective on my life and how fortunate I am to have a home in Canada. I still think about this novel many years later, especially when I hear people complaining how terrible things are here.’

Mary Rutter, Facebook

Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart

Douglas Stuart’s blistering and heartbreaking debut, which won the Booker Prize in 2020, is an exploration of the unsinkable love that only children can have for their damaged parents. 

1981, Glasgow. The city is dying. Poverty is on the rise. When her philandering husband walks out, leaving her with three children, Agnes turns to alcohol for comfort. The children try their best to save her, yet one by one they have to abandon her in order to save themselves. Shuggie still holds out hope, but he has problems of his own – despite his efforts to pass as ‘normal’. Agnes wants to protect her son, but her addiction has the power to eclipse everything and everyone.

What our readers said: ‘Shuggie Bain changed me. It startled me out of a slow and sad life, reminding me of its brutality, its relentlessness, and how we cannot lose sight of our vulnerabilities within it. We must live every moment. And we cannot lose sight of our essential humanity, which unites us. A truth served dazzlingly, blindingly cold in this novel.’

Seanin Friel, Facebook

The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

In Julian Barnes’ compelling novella, which won the Booker in 2011, a middle-aged man is forced to reconsider his life when he is confronted with his imperfectly remembered past. 

Tony Webster and his clique first met Adrian Finn at school. Sex-hungry and book-hungry, they navigated the sixth form together, trading in-jokes, rumour and wit. Maybe Adrian was a little more serious than the others, certainly more intelligent, but they all swore to stay friends. Now Tony is retired. He’s had a career, a marriage, and a calm divorce. He’s certainly never tried to hurt anybody. Memory, though, is imperfect. It can always throw up surprises, as a lawyer’s letter is about to prove.

What our readers said: ‘I would like to think that I am a thoroughly nice bloke. However, upon finishing the book I did wonder if my recollections of the breakdown of a relationship would tally with the other person’s. It was sobering to think back and say: did I do the decent and right things?’

Simon Sunderland, Substack

Prophet Song by Paul Lynch

A mother faces a terrible choice, in Paul Lynch’s exhilarating, propulsive and confrontational portrait of a society on the brink – which won the Booker Prize in 2023. 

On a dark, wet evening in Dublin, scientist and mother-of-four Eilish Stack answers her front door to find the GNSB on her doorstep. Two officers from Ireland’s newly formed secret police want to speak with her husband. Things are falling apart. Ireland is in the grip of a government that is taking a turn towards tyranny. And as the blood-dimmed tide is loosed, Eilish finds herself caught within the nightmare logic of a collapsing society – assailed by unpredictable forces beyond her control and forced to do whatever it takes to keep her family together.  

What our readers said: ‘Prophet Song by Paul Lynch is a book that will always remain in my thoughts. It is so beautifully written and tells a story that belongs to us all. The tale of Eilish Stack and her family reminds us that the world we know can come undone in a blink of time. Sometimes there are signs to watch for, but the urge to live in the moment can lead any one of us into inertia or passivity. I hope to pull this book off my shelf often, to revisit these ideas.’

Barbara Ehrlich, Substack

Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee

In 1999, J.M. Coetzee became the first author to win the Booker a second time with this tale set in post-apartheid South Africa, where a professor’s complacency contributes to his utter downfall. 

Refusing to apologise after an impulsive affair with a student, David Lurie, a 52-year-old professor in Cape Town, seeks refuge on his daughter’s farm. Here, a savage and disturbing attack brings into relief the faults in their relationship. Pitching the moral code of political correctness against the values of Romantic poetry, Disgrace examines dichotomies both in personal relationships and in the unaccountability of one culture towards another.

What our readers said: ‘It is a difficult book, but a necessary one. Many complained that the writer does not take a definite position, but it seems to me that he is forcing us to ask difficult questions about the relations between men and women, Black and white, rich and poor, the new versus the old. Still one of the best novels by Coetzee, and one of my all-time favourites.’

Mr K D, Substack

The Ghost Road by Pat Barker

The third volume of Pat Barker’s trilogy, which won the Booker Prize in 1995 – follows the fortunes of shell-shocked British army officers towards the end of the First World War. 

In 1918, Billy Prior experiences a late-summer idyll, some days of perfect beauty, before the final battles in a war that has destroyed most of his generation. In London, Prior’s psychologist, William Rivers, tends to his new patients, more young men whose lives and minds have been shattered. At the same time, he recalls the primitive society on Eddystone Island where he studied as an anthropologist before the war.

What our readers said: ‘Barker weaves together fact and fiction in her exploration of the impact of shell shock on British officers towards the end of the war, and their new treatment by visionary psychologist William Rivers. The final book in her trilogy, it reveals the trauma of war and its shattering effect on lives and minds in a new way.’

Peter Belchamber, Substack

All answers have been edited for clarity.