The Man Booker is a yearly award and one of the most respected prizes in the book industry. Earlier this year it was announced that to celebrate 50 years of the Man Booker this year there would be a Man Booker ‘Golden’ Prize, winning books from Man Booker history that have stood the test of time. And now, the Man Booker Golden Five is announced.
What’s more, anyone can vote on their favourite of the Man Booker Golden Five, just follow the link at the bottom of this piece, voting is open until midnight on 25th June.
In a Free State – V. S Naipaul
In a Free State was the Man Booker winner 1971.
Blurb:
No writer has rendered our boundariless, post-colonial world more acutely or prophetically than V. S. Naipaul, or given its upheavals such a hauntingly human face. A perfect case in point is this riveting novel, a masterful and stylishly rendered narrative of emigration, dislocation, and dread, accompanied by four supporting narratives.
Moon Tiger – Penelope Lively
Moon Tiger was the Man Booker winner 1987.
Blurb:
The elderly Claudia Hampton, a best-selling author of popular history; lies alone in a London hospital bed. Memories of her life still glow in her fading consciousness, but she imagines writing a history of the world. Instead, Moon Tiger is her own history, the life of a strong, independent woman, with its often contentious relations with family and friends. At its center — forever frozen in time, the still point of her turning world — is the cruelly truncated affair with Tom, a British tank commander whom Claudia knew as a reporter in Egypt during World War II.
The English Patient – Michael Ondaatje
The English Patient was the Man Booker winner 1992
Blurb:
A small cargo plane will come down to land, slipping from the level of the horizon. It tips its wings within desert light and then sound stops, it drifts to earth.
The final curtain is closing on the Second World War and in an abandoned Italian villa Hana, a nurse, tends to her sole remaining patient. Rescued from a burning plane, the anonymous Englishman is damaged beyond recognition and haunted by painful memories.
Wolf Hall – Hilary Mantel
Wolf Hall was the Man Booker winner 2009
Blurb:
England in the 1520s is a heartbeat from disaster. If the king dies without a male heir, the country could be destroyed by civil war. Henry VIII wants to annul his marriage of twenty years and marry Anne Boleyn. The pope and most of Europe opposes him. Into this impasse steps Thomas Cromwell: a wholly original man, a charmer and a bully, both idealist and opportunist, astute in reading people, and implacable in his ambition. But Henry is volatile: one day tender, one day murderous. Cromwell helps him break the opposition, but what will be the price of his triumph?
Lincoln in the Bardo – George Sanders
Lincoln in the Bardo was the Man Booker winner 2017
Blurb:
The American Civil War rages while President Lincoln’s beloved eleven-year-old son lies gravely ill. In a matter of days, Willie dies and is laid to rest in a Georgetown cemetery. Newspapers report that a grief-stricken Lincoln returns to the crypt several times alone to hold his boy’s body.
From this seed of historical truth, George Saunders spins an unforgettable story of familial love and loss that breaks free of realism, entering a thrilling, supernatural domain both hilarious and terrifying. Willie Lincoln finds himself trapped in a transitional realm – called, in Tibetan tradition, the bardo – and as ghosts mingle, squabble, gripe and commiserate, and stony tendrils creep towards the boy, a monumental struggle erupts over young Willie’s soul.
You have until 25th June at midnight to cast your vote on the Man Booker Golden Five and you can do so here at themanbookerprize.com the winner will be announced on 8th July.
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