The Booker Prize
Shortlists from the 1980s
[Winners listed first]
1989
"The Remains of the Day", Kazuo Ishiguro
"Cat's Eye", Margaret Atwood
"The Book of Evidence", John Banville
"Jigsaw - an Unsentimental Education", Sybille Bedford
"A Disaffection", James Kelman
"Restoration", Rose Tremain

Booker 1989 page
 
1988
"Oscar and Lucinda", Peter Carey
"Utz", Bruce Chatwin
"The Beginning of Spring", Penelope Fitzgerald
"Nice Work", David Lodge
"The Satanic Verses", Salman Rushdie
"The Lost Father", Marina Warner

Booker 1988 page
 
1987
"Moon Tiger", Penelope Lively
"Anthills of the Savannah", Chinua Achebe
"Chatterton", Peter Ackroyd
"Circles of Deceit", Nina Bawden
"The Colour of Blood", Brian Moore
"The Book and the Brotherhood", Iris Murdoch

Booker 1987 page
 
1986
"The Old Devils", Kingsley Amis
"The Handmaid's Tale", Margaret Atwood
"Gabriel's Lament", Paul Bailey
"What's Bred in the Bone", Robertson Davies
"An Artist of the Floating World", Kazuo Ishiguro
"An Insular Possession", Timothy Mo

Booker 1986 page
 
1985
"The Bone People", Keri Hulme
"Illywhacker", Peter Carey
"The Battle of Pollocks Crossing", J. L. Carr
"The Good Terrorist", Doris Lessing
"Last Letters from Hav", Jan Morris
"The Good Apprentice", Iris Murdoch

Booker 1985 page
 
1984
"Hotel du Lac", Anita Brookner
"Empire of the Sun", J. G. Ballard
"Flaubert's Parrot", Julian Barnes
"In Custody", Anita Desai
"According to Mark", Penelope Lively
"Small World", David Lodge

Booker 1984 page
 
1983
"Life and Times of Michael K.", J. M. Coetzee
"Rates of Exchange", Malcolm Bradbury
"Flying to Nowhere", John Fuller
"The Illusionist", Anita Mason
"Shame", Salman Rushdie
"Waterland", Graham Swift

Booker 1983 page
 
1982
"Schindler's Ark", Thomas Keneally
"Silence Among the Weapons", John Arden
"An Ice-Cream War", William Boyd
"Sour Sweet", Timothy Mo
"Constance or Solitary Practices", Lawrence Durrell
"The 27th Kingdom", Alice Thomas Ellis

Booker 1982 page
 
1981
"Midnight's Children", Salman Rushdie
"The Sirian Experiments", Doris Lessing
"The Comfort of Strangers", Ian McEwan
"Good Behaviour", Molly Keane
"Rhine Journey", Anne Schlee
"Loitering with Intent", Muriel Spark
"The White Hotel", D.M. Thomas

Booker 1981 page
 
1980
"Rites of Passage", William Golding
"A Month in the Country", J.L. Carr
"Earthly Powers", Anthony Burgess
"Clear Light of Day", Anita Desai
"The Beggar Maid", Alice Munro
"No Country for Young Men", Julia O'Faolain
"Pascali's Island", Barry Unsworth

Booker 1980 page