A man attempts to escape a recent loss while confronting a trauma from a long lost summer, in John Banville’s haunting and evocative novel
The Man Booker Prize 2005
- Winner
A bumper year, a face-off between old rivals, and a decision settled by the chair of judges’ casting vote. After much wrangling, the tide swept John Banville’s The Sea to victory
The shortlist saw a reprise of the 1989 match-up when Banville and Kazuo Ishiguro were both contenders. Other heavyweight nominees – Julian Barnes, Sebastian Barry, and the Smiths Ali and Zadie – added to the judges’ headache.
A win for The Sea, both stylish and thoughtful, was not universally heralded, leaving Banville to muse: ‘If they give me the bloody prize, why can’t they say nice things about me?’ The film of Ishiguro’s pipped-at-the-post Never Let Me Go went on to great success.
The Sea
Winner of The Booker Prize 2005
- Published by
- Picador
A man attempts to escape a recent loss while confronting a trauma from a long lost summer, in John Banville’s haunting and evocative novel
The shortlist
Julian Barnes’ novel, based on a real events, traces the intersecting lives of an obscure solicitor and the world-famous creator of Sherlock Holmes
Sebastian Barry’s powerful novel about the harsh realities of war examines the Great War from the perspective of Irish soldiers fighting for Britain
Thought-provoking and unsettling by turns, Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel gradually unveils the true nature of three children’s apparently happy childhoods
Ali Smith’s inventive portrayal of a family unravelled by a mysterious visitor. Who is Amber? And why has she joined the Smarts on holiday?
By Ali Smith
Male lust and female friendship draw two families together - despite the gulf that exists between them - in Zadie Smith’s engaging satire
By Zadie Smith
The longlist
The Harmony Silk Factory
by Tash Aw
The Sea
by John Banville (prize winner)
Arthur & George
by Julian Barnes
A Long Long Way
by Sebastian Barry
Slow Man
by J.M. Coetzee
In the Fold
by Rachel Cusk
Never Let Me Go
by Kazuo Ishiguro
All for Love
by Dan Jacobson
A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian
by Marina Lewycka
Beyond Black
by Hilary Mantel
Saturday
by Ian McEwan
The People's Act of Love
by James Meek
Shalimar the Clown
by Salman Rushdie
The Accidental
by Ali Smith
On Beauty
by Zadie Smith
This Thing of Darkness
by Harry Thompson
This is the Country
by William Wall
