In a review in The New York Times, Christopher Lehmann-Haupt wrote: “Reading ‘The English Patient,’ you hold on to the gunnel and your hat at the start. But by the end you find yourself resting on the bottom of the boat, with your hat over your face to keep off Mr. Ondaatje’s too brilliant prose.”

The film adaptation starring Kristin Scott Thomas and Ralph Fiennes won nine Academy Awards in 1997, including best picture.

Each of the judges for the Golden Man Booker Prize was allocated a decade from the prize’s history and tasked with selecting the best work from it. The public then voted on this shortlist.

Last year’s winner, “Lincoln in the Bardo,” by George Saunders, was selected by the poet Hollie McNish. Simon Mayo, a novelist and broadcaster, chose the 2009 prize winner “Wolf Hall” by Hilary Mantel. The poet Lemn Sissay picked “Moon Tiger” by Penelope Lively, the winner in 1987. And Robert McCrum, a writer and editor, selected “In a Free State” by V.S. Naipaul, which won in 1971.