Man Booker Prize Winners & Finalists (1976)

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Publisher's Comments:

Set in South Yorkshire , this is the story of Colin's struggle to come to terms with his family - his mercurial, ambitious father, his deep-feeling, long-suffering mother - and to escape the stifling heritage of the raw mining community into which he was born. This book won the 1976 Booker Prize.

Publisher's Comments:

In early 1749 a white woman and a black man are stranded together in the wilderness of the South African interior. She is an educated person, totally helpless in the wilds. He is a runaway slave. As they face the long trek back to civilization, a fellowship emerges between them.

Publisher's Comments:

Rising was R.C. Hutchinson's last novel, the final pages of which he was writing on the day he died. The powerful re-creation of an episode in South American history, it is also the profound exploration of human relationships and the struggle between good and evil.

Sabino—the outcast member of a rich mine-owning family—is renowned for his arrogance and brutality. For reasons of personal revenge, he agrees to lead an expedition to crush saboteurs who are attacking a railway like vital to the mine. Leading his army of half-starved men across the arid and treacherous landscape, Sabino also embarks on a journey of the soul.

Publisher's Comments:

Shortlisted for the 1976 Booker Prize, this is a novel about an ordinary woman, in the middle of her life, seized by love for a younger man. The author also wrote "The Colour of Blood", "The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne" and "The Doctor's Wife".

Publisher's Comments:

Dramatic story set in Spain, with an interesting subtext from Shakespeare's Timon of Athens. Shortlisted for the Booker Prize and somewhat scarce.

Publisher's Comments:

A small, pretty seaside town is harshly exposed by a young boy's curiosity. His prurient interest, oddly motivated, leaves few people unaffected—and the consequences cannot be ignored.

Longlist information for 1976 is not available; the Booker Prize did not release longlists until 2001.

Walter Allen (Chair), Mary Wilson, and Francis King