70 classic Booker Prize-nominated novels, recommended by readers
70 classic Booker Prize-nominated novels, recommended by our readers · A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James · Moon Tiger by ...
Booker Prize in 2014
In the despair of a Japanese POW camp on the infamous Thailand-Burma Death Railway during World War Two, surgeon Dorrigo Evans is haunted by his love affair with his uncle’s young wife two years earlier. Struggling to save the men under his command from starvation, from cholera, from beatings, he receives a letter that will change his life. Richard Flanagan’s epic novel, which won the <anchor>Booker Prize in 2014</anchor>, tells the unforgettable story of one man’s reckoning with the truth.
The Man Booker Prize 2014 | The Booker Prizes
The Man Booker Prize 2014 \| The Booker Prizes

sprite-icon-arrow-leftsprite-icon-booker-prizesprite-icon-caret-downsprite-icon-caret-rightsprite-icon-cartsprite-icon-chevron-downsprite-icon-chevron-rightsprite-icon-clocksprite-icon-closesprite-icon-down-arrowsprite-icon-expandsprite-icon-facebooksprite-icon-hamburgersprite-icon-infosprite-icon-instagramsprite-icon-linkedinsprite-icon-magnifysprite-icon-mailsprite-icon-pausesprite-icon-play-filledsprite-icon-playsprite-icon-plussprite-icon-poundsprite-icon-quotesprite-icon-searchsprite-icon-soundsprite-icon-ticksprite-icon-tiktoksprite-icon-triangle-rightsprite-icon-twittersprite-icon-up-arrowsprite-icon-vimeosprite-icon-youtube

 [Skip to main content](#main-content)

[Go to The Booker Prizes homepage![Home](/themes/custom/numiko/dist/img/svg/booker-prizes-logo.svg)](/)

Menu

- [Booker Prize](/the-booker-prize)
  - Backto previous menu
  - [Booker Prize](/the-booker-prize)
  - [Booker Prize 2024](/the-booker-library/prize-years/2024)
  - [Booker Prize 2023](/the-booker-library/prize-years/2023)
  - [About the Booker Prize](/booker-prize/about-the-booker-prize)
  - [Prize Years](/the-booker-library/prize-years)
  - [Full list of winners and shortlisted authors](/the-booker-library/features/full-list-of-booker-prize-winners-shortlisted-and-longlisted-authors)
  - [Submissions process](/booker-prize/entering-the-booker-prizes)
- [International Booker Prize](/the-international-booker-prize)
  - Backto previous menu
  - [International Booker Prize](/the-international-booker-prize)
  - [International Booker Prize 2025](/the-booker-library/prize-years/international/2025)
  - [International Booker Prize 2024](/the-booker-library/prize-years/international/2024)
  - [About the International Booker Prize](/international-booker-prize/the-international-booker-prize-and-its-history)
  - [Prize Years](https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/prize-years?decade_date=1&field_prize=international)
  - [Full list of winners and shortlisted authors](/the-booker-library/features/full-list-of-international-booker-prize-winners-shortlisted-authors-and-their-books)
  - [Submissions Process](/booker-prize/entering-the-booker-prizes)
- [Booker Library](/the-booker-library)
  - Backto previous menu
  - [Booker Library](/the-booker-library)
  - [Authors](/the-booker-library/authors)
  - [Books](/the-booker-library/books)
  - [Prize Years](/the-booker-library/prize-years)
  - [Reading Guides](https://thebookerprizes.com/reading-guides)
- [Features](/the-booker-library/features)
  - Backto previous menu
  - [Features](/the-booker-library/features)
  - [Interviews](/interviews)
  - [Long reads](/long-reads)
  - [Videos](/the-booker-library/features/watch-videos)
  - [Book recommendations](/features/book-recommendations)
  - [Monthly Spotlight](/features/monthly-spotlight)
  - [Quizzes](/features/quizzes)
  - [Reading guides](/reading-guides)
  - [Reading lists](/features/reading-lists)
- [Podcast](/podcast)
- [Newsletter](/sign-up-to-our-newsletter)

Show search

Site Search

Apply

![Richard Flanagan 2014](/sites/default/files/styles/12_6_media_small/public/2021-08/Richard%20Flanagan_02.jpg?h=a8694e35&itok=wzr2cUiZ)

- [Go to our Facebook page.](https://www.facebook.com/TheBookerPrizes)
- [Go to our Twitter page.](https://www.twitter.com/TheBookerPrizes)
- [Go to our Instagram page.](https://www.instagram.com/thebookerprizes/)
- [Go to our YouTube page.](https://www.youtube.com/c/TheBookerPrizes)
- [Go to our TikTok page.](http://tiktok.com/@thebookerprizes)

Breadcrumb navigation

- [Home](/)

- [The Booker Library](/the-booker-library)

- [Prize Years](/the-booker-library/prize-years)


# The Man Booker Prize 2014

The year the prize was opened up to every nationality. Fears that Americans would now dominate were allayed with a second Antipodean winner in a row, with another historical novel.

The pre-prize chatter, some of it very heated, was about the wisdom or otherwise of allowing any novel written in English and published in the UK to compete – in other words, Americans. Critics feared a transatlantic invasion, although in the event only two US writers, Joshua Ferris and Karen Joy Fowler, made the shortlist.

It was Richard Flanagan, with a novel about illicit love and the brutal treatment of prisoners forced to build the Burma railway, who triumphed – the third Australian to win the prize.

Winner

[The Narrow Road to the Deep North](/the-booker-library/books/the-narrow-road-to-the-deep-north)

Shortlist

[The Narrow Road to the Deep North](/the-booker-library/books/the-narrow-road-to-the-deep-north)

[To Rise Again at a Decent Hour](/the-booker-library/books/to-rise-again-at-a-decent-hour)

[We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves](/the-booker-library/books/we-are-all-completely-beside-ourselves)

[J](/the-booker-library/books/j)

[The Lives of Others](/the-booker-library/books/the-lives-of-others)

[How to Be Both](/the-booker-library/books/how-to-be-both)

Longlist

[The Bone Clocks](/the-booker-library/books/the-bone-clocks)

[The Narrow Road to the Deep North](/the-booker-library/books/the-narrow-road-to-the-deep-north)

[To Rise Again at a Decent Hour](/the-booker-library/books/to-rise-again-at-a-decent-hour)

[We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves](/the-booker-library/books/we-are-all-completely-beside-ourselves)

[J](/the-booker-library/books/j)

[The Lives of Others](/the-booker-library/books/the-lives-of-others)

[How to Be Both](/the-booker-library/books/how-to-be-both)

[History of the Rain](/the-booker-library/books/history-of-the-rain)

[Orfeo](/the-booker-library/books/orfeo)

[The Blazing World](/the-booker-library/books/the-blazing-world)

[The Wake](/the-booker-library/books/the-wake)

[Us](/the-booker-library/books/us)

[The Dog](/the-booker-library/books/the-dog)

[The Narrow Road to the Deep North](/the-booker-library/books/the-narrow-road-to-the-deep-north)

Winner [The Booker Prize 2014](/the-booker-library/prize-years/2014)

[**The Narrow Road to the Deep North**](/the-booker-library/books/the-narrow-road-to-the-deep-north)

By[Richard Flanagan](/the-booker-library/authors/richard-flanagan)Published by Chatto & Windus

A love story unfolds over half a century, as Richard Flanagan’s epic novel tells the unforgettable story of one man’s reckoning with the truth.

## The Shortlist

Prize winner

[**The Narrow Road to the Deep North**](/the-booker-library/books/the-narrow-road-to-the-deep-north)

A love story unfolds over half a century, as Richard Flanagan’s epic novel tells the unforgettable story of one man’s reckoning with the truth.

By [Richard Flanagan](/the-booker-library/authors/richard-flanagan)

[**To Rise Again at a Decent Hour**](/the-booker-library/books/to-rise-again-at-a-decent-hour)

Joshua Ferris's dazzling comic novel. How would you feel if the person impersonating you online was having a much better life than you were?

By [Joshua Ferris](/the-booker-library/authors/joshua-ferris)

[**We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves**](/the-booker-library/books/we-are-all-completely-beside-ourselves)

Rosemary doesn't talk much, and about certain things she's silent.

By [Karen Joy Fowler](/the-booker-library/authors/karen-joy-fowler)

[**J**](/the-booker-library/books/j)

In his dystopian drama, Howard Jacobson has created a thought-provoking love story of incomparable strangeness, both tender and terrifying.

By [Howard Jacobson](/the-booker-library/authors/howard-jacobson)

[**The Lives of Others**](/the-booker-library/books/the-lives-of-others)

A son’s idealistic ambition to change the world has devastating consequences for his family and beyond, in Neel Mukherjee’s vividly powerful novel.

By [Neel Mukherjee](/the-booker-library/authors/neel-mukherjee)

[**How to Be Both**](/the-booker-library/books/how-to-be-both)

Ali Smith’s highly original literary double-take is a fast-moving, genre-bending conversation between forms, times, truths and fictions.

By [Ali Smith](/the-booker-library/authors/ali-smith)

## The Longlist

[**The Wake**\
by  Paul Kingsnorth](/the-booker-library/books/the-wake)

[**Us**\
by  David Nicholls](/the-booker-library/books/us)

[**The Dog**\
by  Joseph O'Neill](/the-booker-library/books/the-dog)

[**The Bone Clocks**\
by  David Mitchell](/the-booker-library/books/the-bone-clocks)

[Prize winner\
\
**The Narrow Road to the Deep North**\
by  Richard Flanagan (prize winner)](/the-booker-library/books/the-narrow-road-to-the-deep-north)

[**To Rise Again at a Decent Hour**\
by  Joshua Ferris](/the-booker-library/books/to-rise-again-at-a-decent-hour)

[**We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves**\
by  Karen Joy Fowler](/the-booker-library/books/we-are-all-completely-beside-ourselves)

[**J**\
by  Howard Jacobson](/the-booker-library/books/j)

[**The Lives of Others**\
by  Neel Mukherjee](/the-booker-library/books/the-lives-of-others)

[**How to Be Both**\
by  Ali Smith](/the-booker-library/books/how-to-be-both)

[**History of the Rain**\
by  Niall Williams](/the-booker-library/books/history-of-the-rain)

[**Orfeo**\
by  Richard Powers](/the-booker-library/books/orfeo)

[**The Blazing World**\
by  Siri Hustvedt](/the-booker-library/books/the-blazing-world)

## The 2014 judges

[**A.C. Grayling**](/the-booker-library/judges/ac-grayling)

[**Sir Jonathan Bate CBE**](/the-booker-library/judges/sir-jonathan-bate-cbe)

[**Sarah Churchwell**](/the-booker-library/judges/sarah-churchwell)

[**Dr Daniel Glaser**](/the-booker-library/judges/dr-daniel-glaser)

[**Alastair Niven**](/the-booker-library/judges/alastair-niven)

[**Erica Wagner**](/the-booker-library/judges/erica-wagner)

## Share this page

- [Share this page on Facebook](http://www.facebook.com/share.php?u=https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/prize-years/2014)
- [Share this page on Twitter](https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=&url=https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/prize-years/2014)
- [Share this page on LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=true&url=https://thebookerprizes.com/the-booker-library/prize-years/2014)
- [Share this page on Mail](/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#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)

[Get emails worth reading about books worth reading. Sign up to our newsletter](/newsletter-signup)

- [Media Centre](/information-for/media-centre)
- [Register for more information](/information-for-booksellers-libraries-and-book-clubs)
- [About the Booker Prize Foundation](/about-the-booker-prize-foundation)
- [Contact Us](/contact-us)
- [Terms & Conditions](/terms-conditions)
- [Privacy Policy](/privacy-policy)
- [Cookie Settings](#cookie-settings)

- [Go to our Facebook page.](https://www.facebook.com/TheBookerPrizes)
- [Go to our Twitter page.](https://www.twitter.com/TheBookerPrizes)
- [Go to our Instagram page.](https://www.instagram.com/thebookerprizes/)
- [Go to our YouTube page.](https://www.youtube.com/c/TheBookerPrizes)
- [Go to our TikTok page.](http://tiktok.com/@thebookerprizes)

The Booker Prize Foundation benefits financially from purchases you make using 'buy the book' links on our website. [Find out how we use this money to support readers and writers of the future](/beyond-the-prizes).

© 2024 - Booker Prize Foundation (registered charity in England no 1090049)