2006
The Inheritance of Loss, Kiran Desai

2005
 The Sea, John Banville

2004
The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst

2003
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood

2002
Life of Pi by Yann Martel

2001
True History of the Kelly Gang, Peter Carey

2000
The Blind Assassin, Margaret Atwood

1999
Disgrace, J.M. Coetzee

1998
Amsterdam by Ian McEwan
 

1997
The God of Small Things, Arundhati Roy

1996
Last Orders, Graham Swift

1995
The Ghost Road, Pat Barker

1994
How Late It Was, How Late, James Kelman

1993
Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, Roddy Doyle

1992
The English Patient, Michael Ondaatje; Sacred Hunger, Barry Unsworth

1991
The Famished Road, Ben Okri

1990
Possession: A Romance, A.S. Byatt

1989
The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro

1988
Oscar and Lucinda, Peter Carey

1987
Moon Tiger, Penelope Lively

1986
The Old Devils, Kingsley Amis

1985
The Bone People by Keri Hulme
(UK, US)

1984
Hotel du Lac, Anita Brookner

1983
Life & Times of Michael K, J.M. Coetzee

1982
Schindler's List, Thomas Keneally

1981
Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie

1980
Rites of Passage, William Golding

1979
Offshore, Penelope Fitzgerald

1978
The Sea, The Sea, Iris Murdoch

1977
Staying On, Paul Scott

1976
Saville, David Storey

1975
Heat and Dust, Ruth Prawer Jhabvala

1974
The Conservationist, Nadine Gordimer; Holiday, Stanley Middleton

1973
The Siege of Krishnapur, J.G. Farrell

1972
G.: A Novel, John Berger

1971
In a Free State, V.S. Naipaul

1970
The Elected Member, Bernice Rubens

1969
Something to Answer For, P.H. Newby