Most global Booker prize longlist in a decade features Kiran Desai and Tash Aw
The judging panel, which this year includes Sex and the City star Sarah Jessica Parker alongside Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ and chair of judges Roddy Doyle, also chose books by Katie Kitamura, Andrew Miller, Ben Markovits and Jonathan Buckley as part of their 'Booker dozen' longlist of 13 titles.
Susan Choi, Natasha Brown and Benjamin Wood were also named as longlistees.
Desai makes the longlist with her first book since her Booker prize-winning 2006 novel The Inheritance of Loss. Set to be published in September, The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny took almost 20 years to write, and at 667 pages is the longest title on the list. Kiran's mother, Anita Desai, has previously been shortlisted for the Booker three times.
Love Forms by Claire Adam (Faber)
The South by Tash Aw (4th Estate)
Universality by Natasha Brown (Faber)
One Boat by Jonathan Buckley (Fitzcarraldo Editions)
Flashlight by Susan Choi (Jonathan Cape)
The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai (Hamish Hamilton)
Audition by Katie Kitamura (Fern Press)
The Rest of Our Lives by Ben Markovits (Faber)
The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller (Sceptre)
Endling by Maria Reva (Virago)
Flesh by David Szalay (Jonathan Cape)
Seascraper by Benjamin Wood (Viking)
Misinterpretation by Ledia Xhoga (Daunt Books Originals)
The chosen books 'are all alive with great characters and narrative surprises', said Doyle. 'All, somehow, examine identity, individual or national, and all, I think, are gripping and excellent.'
Aw is longlisted for the third time for his latest book The South. If he takes home the £50,000 award in November, he will become the first Malaysian to win the prize.
Szalay, previously shortlisted in 2016 for All That Man Is, was this time put forward for Flesh, which traces the story of one man, István, from his teens to midlife. Another past shortlistee, Miller – nominated in 2001 for Oxygen – made this year's list for The Land in Winter.
Publisher Fitzcarraldo Editions, which has had multiple titles nominated for the International Booker prize for translated fiction, earned its first Booker longlisting this year with Buckley's 13th novel One Boat – which is the slimmest title on the list, coming in at 168 pages.
Another independent publisher, Faber, has three titles nominated this year: Brown's Universality, Markovitz's The Rest of Our Lives, and Claire Adam's Love Forms. Penguin imprints see the highest number of titles, with five making the list.
Just two debuts appear on the 2025 longlist: Misinterpretation by Ledia Xhoga and Endling by Maria Reva, which follows three women and an endangered snail travelling in a mobile lab through contemporary Ukraine.
It is 'striking that most of the longlisted writers have already had sustained careers', said Gaby Wood, chief executive of the Booker Prize Foundation.
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This year's list also features 'the highest number of different nationalities we've seen on a Booker prize longlist for a decade', yet 'British writers are strongly represented too', she added. Five British writers made this year's longlist: Brown, Buckley, Miller, Szalay – who is Hungarian-British – and Benjamin Wood for Seascraper.
Four American writers made the cut: Choi for her latest novel Flashlight and Kitamura for Audition along with Xhoga and Markovits. No Irish writers appear on this year's list, despite having strong representation in recent years.
Doyle said that whittling down the nominations 'at times' was 'agony'. 153 books were submitted, all written in English and published in the UK or Ireland between 1 October 2024 and 30 September 2025.
Joining Doyle, Parker and Adébáyọ̀ on this year's panel is the novelist Kiley Reid as well as the writer and critic Chris Power.
Parker follows other actors who have judged the prize in recent years, including Adjoa Andoh and Robert Webb. When the panel was announced in December, Wood said that in recent months she had 'enjoyed sharing book recommendations with Sarah Jessica, who has passionately supported contemporary fiction for many years.'
In 2016, Parker began serving as editorial director at SJP for Hogarth, an imprint of Penguin, before launching her own imprint, SJP Lit, in partnership with independent publisher Zando in 2023. She also shares book recommendations on her Instagram account.
The shortlist will be announced at the Southbank Centre's Royal Festival Hall on Tuesday 23 September, with the winner revealed on Monday 10 November.
Last year's Booker prize was won by Samantha Harvey for her novel Orbital. Other recent winners include Paul Lynch, Shehan Karunatilaka, Damon Galgut and Douglas Stuart.
To explore all the books on the longlist for the Booker prize 2025 visit guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.
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