The Lost Man Booker Prize Books

Bomber
By Len Deighton
Bomber follows the progress of an Allied air raid through a period of 24 hours in the summer of 1943. A terrifying drama, both in the air and on the ground, it follows characters in both Britain and Germany. In its documentary style, it is unique. In its emotional power, it is overwhelming.



Troubles
By J.G. Farrell
His business in Ireland was rather short-lived, yet Maj. Brendan Archer is unable to leave the alluring discomforts of his crumbling hotel. Surrounded by gently decaying old ladies and proliferating cats, the major passes the summer. But this is Ireland in 1919, and the struggle for independence is about to explode with brutal force.



The Circle
By Elaine Feinstein
Lena's family life is coming apart at the seams. Her husband has been having an affair with the au pair and has retreated into his work at the science lab. Lena, desperately lost and seeking an identity of her own, increasingly finds solace at the bottom of a bottle. An exploration of the desperation and magic that marriage can be, The Circle is a poignant and poetic debut novel.



The Bay of Noon
By Shirley Hazzard
Lonely and rootless, Jenny finds herself in war-torn Italy. Against the fading grandeur of Naples, her close friendship with the beautiful and talented Gioconda must make room for a dour Scotsman and for Gioconda's new lover. These newfound friends require much more of Jenny than she had foreseen and gradually reveal to her the changing face of love.



A Clubbable Woman
By Reginald Hill
After taking a nasty knock in a rugby match, Connon finds his wife even more quiet than usual. When he wakes up from a nap, he comes downstairs to discover that communication has been cut off forever—by a hole in the middle of her forehead. Detective Superintendent Andrew Dalziel has a few ideas but the loyalties of Sgt. Peter Pascoe lie elsewhere.



I'm the King of the Castle
By Susan Hill
Young Charles Kingshaw and his mother have come to live with Edmund Hooper and his father in an ugly, isolated Victorian house. This extraordinary, evocative novel boils over with the terrors of childhood and is a chilling portrayal of childhood cruelty and persecution, parental blindness and our ambivalence about what are supposed to be the happiest days of our lives.