| 2004 The Line of Beauty by Alan HollinghurstThe |
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| 2003 Vernon God Little by DBC Pierre (Peter Warren Finlay) |
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| 2002 Life of Pi by Yann Martel |
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| 2001 True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey |
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| 2000 The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood |
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| 1999 Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee |
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| 1998 Amsterdam by Ian McEwan |
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| 1997 The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy |
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| 1996 Last Orders by Graham Swift |
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| 1995 The Ghost Road by Pat Barker |
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| 1994 How Late It Was, How Late by James Kelman |
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| 1993 Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha by Roddy Doyle |
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| 1992 The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje |
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| 1992 Sacred Hunger by Barry Unsworth |
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| 1991 The Famished Road by Ben Okri |
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| 1990 Possession by A.S. Byatt |
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| 1989 Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro |
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| 1988 Oscar and Lucinda by Peter Carey |
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| 1987 Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively |
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| 1986 The Old Devils by Kingsley Amis |
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| 1985 The Bone People by Keri Hulme |
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| 1984 Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner |
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| 1983 Life and Times of Michael K by J.M.Coetzee |
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| 1982 Schindler’s Ark by Thomas Keneally |
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| 1981 Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie |
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| 1980 Rites of Passage by William Golding |
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| 1979 Offshore by Penelope Fitzgerald |
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| 1978 The Sea, The Sea by Iris Murdoch |
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| 1977 Staying On by Paul Scott |
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| 1976 Saville by David Storey |
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| 1975 Heat and Dust by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala |
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| 1974 The Conservationist by Nadine Gordimer |
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| 1974 Holiday by Stanley Middleton |
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| 1973 The Siege of Krishnapur by J.G.Farrell |
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| 1972 G: A Novel by John Berger |
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| 1971 In a Free State by V.S.Naipaul |
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| 1970 The Elected Member by Bernice Rubens |
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| 1969 Something to Answer For by P.H.Newby |
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