| Year and title | Answer | % Correct |
|---|---|---|
| 1981: Midnight's Children | Salman Rushdie | 87%
|
| 2009: Wolf Hall | Hilary Mantel | 76%
|
| 1989: The Remains of the Day | Kazuo Ishiguro | 69%
|
| 2012: Bring Up the Bodies | Hilary Mantel | 68%
|
| 1997: The God of Small Things | Arundhati Roy | 66%
|
| 2002: Life of Pi | Yann Martel | 66%
|
| 1978: The Sea, the Sea | Iris Murdoch | 65%
|
| 1990: Possession | A. S. Byatt | 61%
|
| 1998: Amsterdam | Ian McEwan | 60%
|
| 2000: The Blind Assassin | Margaret Atwood | 60%
|
| 1999: Disgrace | J. M. Coetzee | 56%
|
| 1993: Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha | Roddy Doyle | 56%
|
| 2001: True History of the Kelly Gang | Peter Carey | 53%
|
| 1988: Oscar and Lucinda | Peter Carey | 51%
|
| 1986: The Old Devils | Kingsley Amis | 44%
|
| 1982: Schindler's Ark | Thomas Keneally | 44%
|
| 1983: Life & Times of Michael K | J. M. Coetzee | 43%
|
| 1992: The English Patient | Michael Ondaatje | 43%
|
| 2011: The Sense of an Ending | Julian Barnes | 42%
|
| 1980: Rites of Passage | William Golding | 42%
|
| 2005: The Sea | John Banville | 41%
|
| 2004: The Line of Beauty | Alan Hollinghurst | 39%
|
| 1995: The Ghost Road | Pat Barker | 38%
|
| 1987: Moon Tiger | Penelope Lively | 37%
|
| 1984: Hotel du Lac | Anita Brookner | 35%
|
| 1991: The Famished Road | Ben Okri | 35%
|
| 2003: Vernon God Little | DBC Pierre | 35%
|
| 1996: Last Orders | Graham Swift | 34%
|
| 1971: In A Free State | V. S. Naipaul | 32%
|
| 1985: The Bone People | Keri Hulme | 31%
|
| 2013: The Luminaries | Eleanor Catton | 29%
|
| 2017: Lincoln in the Bardo | George Saunders | 29%
|
| 1973: The Siege of Krishnapur | J. G. Farrell | 29%
|
| 2010: The Finkler Question | Howard Jacobson | 28%
|
| 1970 (retrospective award): Troubles | J. G. Farrell | 28%
|
| 2006: The Inheritance of Loss | Kiran Desai | 28%
|
| 1969: Something to Answer For | P. H. Newby | 28%
|
| 1972: G. | John Berger | 27%
|
| 1979: Offshore | Penelope Fitzgerald | 27%
|
| 2015: A Brief History of Seven Killings | Marlon James | 26%
|
| 1974: The Conservationist | Nadine Gordimer | 26%
|
| 1977: Staying On | Paul Scott | 24%
|
| 2007: The Gathering | Anne Enright | 23%
|
| 2008: The White Tiger | Aravind Adiga | 23%
|
| 2016: The Sellout | Paul Beatty | 23%
|
| 2014: The Narrow Road to the Deep North | Richard Flanagan | 22%
|
| 1970: The Elected Member | Bernice Rubens | 21%
|
| 1975: Heat and Dust | Ruth Prawer Jhabvala | 21%
|
| 1992: Sacred Hunger | Barry Unsworth | 20%
|
| 1974: Holiday | Stanley Middleton | 20%
|
| 1994: How Late It Was, How Late | James Kelman | 19%
|
| 1976: Saville | David Storey | 17%
|