| Year | Book | Author |
| 2006 | March | Geraldine Brooks |
| 2005 | Gilead | Marilynne Robinson |
| 2004 | The Known World | Edward P Jones |
| 2003 | Middlesex | Jeffrey Eugenides |
| 2002 | Empire Falls | Richard Russo |
| 2001 | The Amazing adventures of Kavalier & Clay | Michael Chabon |
| 2000 | Interpreter of maladies | Jhumpa Lahiri |
| 1999 | The Hours | Michael Cunningham |
| 1998 | American Pastoral | Philip Roth |
| 1997 | Martin Dressler | Steven Millhauser |
| 1996 | Independence Day | Richard Ford |
| 1995 | Stone diaries | Carol Shields |
| 1994 | Shipping news | E. Annie Proulx |
| 1993 | Good scent from a strange mountain | Robert Olen Butler |
| 1992 | A Thousand acres | Jane Smiley |
| 1991 | Rabbit at rest | John Updike |
| 1990 | Mambo Kings play songs of love | Oscar Hijuelos |
| 1989 | Breathing lessons | Anne Tyler |
| 1988 | Beloved | Toni Morrison |
| 1987 | A Summons to Memphis | Peter Taylor |
| 1986 | Lonesome Dove | Larry McMurtry |
| 1985 | Foreign affairs | Alison Lurie |
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