The Tinkers by Paul Harding 2010	Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout 2009	The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz 2008	The Road by Cormac McCarthy 2007	March by Geraldine Brooks 2006
Gilead by Marilynne Robison 2005	The Known World by Edward P. Jones 2004	Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides 2003	Empire Falls by Richard Russon 2002	The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon 2001
Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri 2000	The Hours by Michael Cunningham 1999	American Pastoral by Philip Roth 1998	Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dream by Steven Millhauser 1997	Independence Day by Richard Ford 1996
The Stone Diaries by Carol Shields 1995	The Shipping News by Annie Proulx 1994	A Good Scent From a Strange Mountain by Robert Olen Butler 1993	A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley 1992	Rabbit at Rest by John Updike 1991
The Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love by Oscar Hijuelos 1990	Breathing Lessons by Anny Tyler 1989	Beloved by Toni Morrison 1988	A Summons to Memphis by Peter Taylor 1987	Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry 1986
Foreign Affairs by Alison Lurie 1985	Ironweed by William Kennedy 1984	The Color Purple by Alice Walker 1983	Rabbit is Rich by John Updike 1982	A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole 1981
The Executioner's Song by Norman Mailer 1980	The Stories of John Cheever by John Cheever 1979	Elbow Room by James Alan McPherson 1978	(No Award) 1977	Humboldt's Gift by Saul Bellow 1976
The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara 1975	(No Award) 1974	The Optimist's Daughter by Eudora Welty 1973	Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner 1972	(No Award) 1971
Collected Stories by Jean Stafford 1970	House Made of Dawn by Scott Momaday 1969	The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron 1968	TheFixer by Bernard Malamud 1967	The Collected Stores of Katherine Anne Porter by Katherine Anne Porter 1966
The Keepers of the House by Shirley Ann Grau 1965	(No Award) 1964	The Reivers by William Faulkner 1963	The Edge of Sadness by Edwin O'Connor 1962	To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee 1961