Exclusive Books Boeke Prize - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Exclusive Books Boeke Prize is a book prize awarded in South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

, loosely modelled on the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

's Man Booker Prize

Man Booker Prize

The Man Booker Prize for Fiction is a literary prize awarded each year for the best original full-length novel, written in the English language, by a citizen of the Commonwealth of Nations, Ireland, or Zimbabwe. The winner of the Man Booker Prize is generally assured of international renown and...

, and sponsored by Exclusive Books

Exclusive Books

Exclusive Books is one of South Africa's largest book chains with branches throughout South Africa. They sponsor the Exclusive Books Boeke Prize....

. Although boeke is the plural of "book" in Afrikaans

Afrikaans

Afrikaans is a West Germanic language, spoken natively in South Africa and Namibia. It is a daughter language of Dutch, originating in its 17th century dialects, collectively referred to as Cape Dutch .Afrikaans is a daughter language of Dutch; see , , , , , .Afrikaans was historically called Cape...

, the Boeke Prize has only been awarded to novels written in English.

Launched in 1995, the award has been made mostly to first novels or works: 12 of the first 16 winners were debut works. The books are judged by a panel of book critics (40 in 2008).

Since being published, eleven of the awarded books have had a film adaptation

Film adaptation

Film adaptation is the transfer of a written work to a feature film. It is a type of derivative work.A common form of film adaptation is the use of a novel as the basis of a feature film, but film adaptation includes the use of non-fiction , autobiography, comic book, scripture, plays, and even...

released, with two more existing in various stages of adaptation or production.

Award winners

Year	Title	Author
1995	Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is a non-fiction work by John Berendt. Published in 1994, the book was Berendt's first, and became a The New York Times bestseller for 216 weeks following its debut....	John Berendt John Berendt John Berendt is an American author, known for writing the best-selling non-fiction book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, which was a finalist for the 1995 Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction....
1996	Behind the Scenes at the Museum Behind the Scenes at the Museum Behind the Scenes at the Museum is the first novel of Kate Atkinson. The book covers the experiences of Ruby Lennox from a middle-class English family living in York....	Kate Atkinson Kate Atkinson Kate Atkinson MBE is an English author.She was born in York, and studied English Literature at the University of Dundee, gaining her Masters Degree in 1974. She subsequently studied for a doctorate in American Literature. She has often spoken publicly about the fact that she failed at the viva ...
1997	Angela's Ashes Angela's Ashes Angela's Ashes is a 1996 memoir by the Irish-American author Frank McCourt. The memoir consists of various anecdotes and stories of Frank McCourt's impoverished childhood and early adulthood in Brooklyn, New York and Limerick, Ireland, as well as McCourt's struggles with poverty, his father's...	Frank McCourt Frank McCourt Francis "Frank" McCourt was an Irish-American teacher and Pulitzer Prize–winning writer, best known as the author of Angela’s Ashes, an award-winning, tragicomic memoir of the misery and squalor of his childhood....
1998	Cold Mountain Cold Mountain (novel) Cold Mountain is a 1997 historical fiction novel by Charles Frazier. It tells the story of W. P. Inman, a wounded deserter from the Confederate army near the end of the American Civil War who walks for months to return to Ada Monroe, the love of his life; the story shares several similarities with...	Charles Frazier Charles Frazier Charles Frazier is an award-winning American historical novelist.Frazier was born in Asheville, North Carolina, and graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1973. He earned an M.A. from Appalachian State University in the mid-1970s, and received his Ph.D. in English from the University...
1999	The Reader The Reader The Reader is a novel by German law professor and judge Bernhard Schlink, published in Germany in 1995 and in the United States in 1997...	Bernhard Schlink Bernhard Schlink Bernhard Schlink is a German jurist and writer. He was born in Bethel, Germany, to a German father and a Swiss mother, the youngest of four children. Both his parents were theology students, although his father lost his job as a Professor of Theology due to the Nazis, and had to settle on being a...
2000	The Poisonwood Bible The Poisonwood Bible The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver isa bestselling novel about a missionary family, the Prices, who in 1959 move from Georgia to the village of Kilanga in the Belgian Congo, close to the Kwilu River...	Barbara Kingsolver Barbara Kingsolver Barbara Kingsolver is an American novelist, essayist and poet. She was raised in rural Kentucky and lived briefly in the former Republic of Congo in her early childhood. Kingsolver earned degrees in biology at DePauw University and the University of Arizona and worked as a freelance writer before...
2001	Eddie's Bastard	William Kowalski William Kowalski William John Kowalski III is an American novelist and screenwriter.-Youth:Kowalski is the eldest child of Dr. William John Kowalski, Jr. of Buffalo, N.Y. and Kathleen Emily Siepel of Angola, N.Y. . In 1974, the family moved to Erie, Pennsylvania...
2002	Atonement Atonement (novel) Atonement is a 2001 novel by British author Ian McEwan.On a fateful day, a young girl makes a terrible mistake that has life-changing effects for many people...	Ian McEwan Ian McEwan Ian Russell McEwan CBE, FRSA, FRSL is a British novelist and screenwriter, and one of Britain's most highly regarded writers. In 2008, The Times named him among their list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945"....
2003	Life of Pi Life of Pi Life of Pi is a fantasy adventure novel by Yann Martel published in 2001. The protagonist, Piscine Molitor "Pi" Patel, an Indian boy from Pondicherry, explores issues of spirituality and practicality from an early age...	Yann Martel Yann Martel Yann Martel is a Canadian author best known for the Man Booker Prize-winning novel Life of Pi.-Early life:Martel was born in Salamanca, Spain where his father was posted as a diplomat for the Canadian government. He was raised in Costa Rica, France, Mexico, and Canada...
2004	The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time is a 2003 novel by British writer Mark Haddon. It won the 2003 Whitbread Book of the Year and the 2004 Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book...	Mark Haddon Mark Haddon Mark Haddon is an English novelist and poet, best known for his 2003 novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.- Life and work :...
2004	The Kite Runner The Kite Runner The Kite Runner is a novel by Khaled Hosseini. Published in 2003 by Riverhead Books, it is Hosseini's first novel, and was adapted into a film of the same name in 2007....	Khaled Hosseini Khaled Hosseini Khaled Hosseini , is an Afghan-born American novelist and physician of ethnic Tajik origin. He is a citizen of the United States where he has lived since he was fifteen years old. His 2003 debut novel, The Kite Runner, was an international bestseller, selling more than 12 million copies worldwide....
2005	The Time-Traveler's Wife	Audrey Niffenegger Audrey Niffenegger Audrey Niffenegger is an American writer, artist and academic.-Writing:A film version of Niffenegger's debut novel, The Time Traveler's Wife , starring Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams, was released in August 2009.She has also written a graphic novel, or "novel in pictures" as Niffenegger calls it,...
2006	Q & A	Vikas Swarup Vikas Swarup Vikas Swarup is an Indian novelist and diplomat who has served in Turkey, the United States, Ethiopia, the United Kingdom, South Africa and Japan, best known for his novels Q & A and Six Suspects.-Early life:...
2007	The Book Thief The Book Thief The Book Thief is a novel by Australian author Markus Zusak. Narrated by Death, the book is set in Nazi Germany It describes a young girl's relationship with her foster parents, Hans and Rosa, and the other residents of their neighborhood, and a Jewish fist-fighter who hides in her home during the...	Markus Zusak Markus Zusak Markus Zusak is an Australian author. He is best known for his books The Book Thief and The Messenger , which have been international bestsellers.- Career :...
2008	The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is an award-winning crime novel by Swedish author and journalist Stieg Larsson. It is the first book in the trilogy known as the "Millennium series"....	Stieg Larsson Stieg Larsson Karl Stig-Erland Larsson , who wrote professionally as Stieg Larsson, was a Swedish journalist and writer, born in Skelleftehamn outside Skellefteå. He is best known for writing the "Millennium series" of crime novels, which were published posthumously...
2009	The Help The Help The Help is an American situation comedy television series which premiered on The WB on March 5, 2004. The show was a raunchy comedy that focused on the hard-lucked life of a beauty school dropout, who now must work for the wealthy and spoiled Ridgeway family. The rest of the hired help are also...	Kathryn Stockett Kathryn Stockett Kathryn Stockett is an American novelist. She is known for her 2009 debut novel, The Help, which is about African American maids working in white households in Jackson, Mississippi during the 1960s.-Career:...
2010	One Day One Day (novel) One Day is a novel by David Nicholls, published in 2009. Each chapter covers the lives of two protagonists on 15 July, St. Swithin's Day, for twenty years. The novel attracted generally positive reviews, and was named 2010 Galaxy Book of the Year...	David Nicholls David Nicholls (writer) -Background:Nicholls is the middle of three siblings. He attended Barton Peveril sixth-form college at Eastleigh, Hampshire, from 1983 to 1985 , and playing a wide range of roles in college drama productions...

Award winners

See also