The Booker Prizes Awardees & Honorees

For over fifty years, The Booker Prize has honored excellence in English literature published in the United Kingdom or Ireland, bringing international acclaim to its winners. Expanding the Booker's scope in 2005, the International Booker Prize has been awarded annually to an outstanding work of UK or Ireland-published translated literature. This collection of study guides highlights fiction titles for adults, both past award winners and finalists.

Publication year 2022

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Values/Ideas: Power & Greed, Values/Ideas: Truth & Lies

Tags Historical Fiction, Mystery / Crime Fiction, History: World


Publication year 2018

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Emotions/Behavior: Memory, Emotions/Behavior: Fear, Emotions/Behavior: Grief, Emotions/Behavior: Loneliness, Identity: Gender, Relationships: Family, Relationships: Mothers, Self Discovery, Society: Class, Society: Nation, Society: War, Values/Ideas: Loyalty & Betrayal, Values/Ideas: Safety & Danger, Values/Ideas: Truth & Lies

Tags Historical Fiction, WWII / World War II, Coming of Age / Bildungsroman, Post-War Era

Warlight (2018) is a historical fiction novel by Sri Lankan-born Canadian writer Michael Ondaatje. Ondaatje is best known for his Booker Prize winning novel, The English Patient (1992). Part spy thriller and coming-of-age story, Warlight follows 14-year-old Nathaniel Williams and his older sister, Rachel, in post-World War II London. When their parents depart for a year-long work assignment in Singapore, the siblings are left in the care of an enigmatic guardian named The Moth. Nathaniel... Read Warlight Summary


Publication year 2013

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Relationships: Family, Emotions/Behavior: Love, Natural World: Animals, Emotions/Behavior: Memory

Tags Psychology, Incarceration, Animals, Relationships, Realistic Fiction, Modern Classic Fiction

We Are All Completely Besides Ourselves is Karen Joy Fowler’s seventh novel. The book was first published in 2013. The following year, it won the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. Fowler said that the book takes inspiration from a real 1930s experiment. In an interview with Carmen Maria Machado published in The American Reader, Fowler states that she believes that using animals for research purposes is wrong, and... Read We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves Summary


Publication year 2025

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Emotions/Behavior: Memory, Emotions/Behavior: Nostalgia, Life/Time: The Past, Natural World: Climate, Relationships: Marriage

Tags Science-Fiction / Dystopian Fiction


Publication year 2020

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Values/Ideas: Science & Technology, Natural World: Space & The Universe, Natural World: Environment, Life/Time: The Future

Tags Historical Fiction, Science / Nature, History: World, Philosophy, Philosophy


Publication year 2009

Genre Novel, Fiction

Tags Historical Fiction, British Literature, History: World, History: European

Hillary Mantel’s Wolf Hall is the first in a trilogy of historical novels depicting life in the court of King Henry VIII. The story takes place in England during the tumultuous 1520s, and is told from the perspective of Thomas Cromwell, one of the king’s most trusted advisors. Mantel conducted extensive research to ensure historical authenticity and continuity, providing a rich account of the events leading up to the beginning of the English Reformation. Wolf... Read Wolf Hall Summary