The 2026 Booker Prize winner for English-language novels was announced this past Monday, November 9. Honored was a post-apocalyptic work I’d never heard of called The End of Everything by an author I’d never heard of named M. John Harrison.

So, I decided to look at the list of Booker recipients since the annual award began in 1969 to find novels and authors known to me. Turns out I’ve heard of quite a few, but had read only 10 of the victorious books. Still, that number is better than nothing – and here are my thoughts about those 10 novels, going chronologically back in time.

The most recent one I’ve read is 2019’s Booker winner: The Testaments by Margaret Atwood. Her compelling novel is of course the sequel to the Canadian author’s 1985 classic The Handmaid’s Tale depicting a dystopian world for women. The Testaments wasn’t as good, but it came fairly close – especially impressive for a sequel written 34 years later.

I’ve also read American author George Saunders’ Lincoln in the Bardo, which won the 2017 Booker. A haunting, quite original work about President Lincoln’s dead son Willie being stuck in a sort of purgatory and his father’s reaction to that. Yet the novel, which has a format reminiscent of a play, was hard to read at times and periodically dragged.

In 2013, the Booker went to The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton, a New Zealand author still in her 20s at the time. The long, very ambitious novel is set during the 1866 Gold Rush in New Zealand. Mostly a great read, but the 848-page book could have been about 25% shorter.

The 2009 winner was English author Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall, which I finally got to a couple years ago. A stunningly crafted novel set in the 1500s that focuses on royalty, power dynamics, and more. It did get a bit tedious here and there.

The next-earlier Booker winner (2002) I read was Canadian author Yann Martel’s Life of Pi, about a shipwrecked boy and tiger – written with a mix of adventure and philosophy. Pretty compelling overall.

Margaret Atwood previously won the Booker, in 2000, for The Blind Assassin – a book featuring intense family drama as well as a novel within a novel. One of Atwood’s best.

In 1997, the Booker winner was The God of Small Things, a spectacular debut novel from Arundhati Roy of India. She focuses on young twins and other characters living amid social discrimination and political upheaval.

The next-earlier Booker winner (1992) I read was The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje of Canada. An intense drama featuring four very different people – including a badly burned man – thrown together at an Italian villa during World War II.

My favorite Booker-winning novel is English author A.S. (Antonia Susan) Byatt’s Possession, which received the honor in 1990. It’s about two 20^th-century academics investigating the lives of two 19^th-century poets, and I found it more riveting than that premise would make it seem.

The other Booker-winning novel I’ve read is Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day, recipient of the award in 1989. A masterfully subtle look at a butler, the household he serves, fascism, and more.

Your thoughts about the novels I mentioned, and/or about other Booker winners you’ve read that I haven’t? Here’s a link to all the prize recipients.

Misty the cat says: “My plan to run from 2026 to 2027 will not be successful until January 1.”

My comedic 2024 book – the part-factual/part-fictional/not-a-children’s-work Misty the Cat…Unleashed – is described and can be purchased on Amazon in paperback or on Kindle. It’s feline-narrated! (And Amazon reviews are welcome. 🙂 )

This 90-second promo video for the book features a talking cat: 🙂 (Not my voice. 🙂 )

I’m also the author of a 2017 literary-trivia book…

…and a 2012 memoir that focuses on cartooning and more, including many encounters with celebrities.

In addition to this weekly blog, I write the 2003-started/award-winning “Montclairvoyant” topical-humor column every Thursday for Montclair Local. The latest piece – which mixes discussion of a controversial electrical substation with sub-shop-sandwich silliness — is here.