Revealed: The 13 authors in the running for the Booker Prize 2025

Irish Examiner

4 days ago

Thirteen authors have been longlisted for this year's Booker Prize, including a previous winner as well as two debut novelists, but no Irish authors.
The 'Booker Dozen' features nine nationalities across four continents: Albania, Canada, Hungary, India, Malaysia, Trinidad and Tobago, Ukraine, the UK and USA. UK authors have secured the highest number of nominations — five authors who identify as British or joint British are in the running this year.
Last year, British author Samantha Harvey became the first woman since 2019 to win the £50,000 prize with her book Orbital. Dublin author Paul Lynch won the award in 2023 for Prophet Song.
'There are short novels and some very long ones. There are novels that experiment with form and others that do so less obviously,' says Irish author Roddy Doyle, chair of judges.
'Some of them examine the past and others poke at our shaky present. They are all alive with great characters and narrative surprises. All, somehow, examine identity, individual or national, and all, I think, are gripping and excellent.'
The 13 authors and their nominated works are:
Love Forms by Claire Adam.
by Claire Adam. The South by Tash Aw.
by Tash Aw. Universality by Natasha Brown.
by Natasha Brown. One Boat by Jonathan Buckley.
by Jonathan Buckley. Flashlight by Susan Choi.
by Susan Choi. The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai.
by Kiran Desai. Audition by Katie Kitamura.
by Katie Kitamura. The Rest of Our Lives by Ben Markovits.
by Ben Markovits. The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller.
by Andrew Miller. Endling by Maria Reva.
by Maria Reva. Flesh by David Szalay.
by David Szalay. Seascraper by Benjamin Wood.
by Benjamin Wood.
Misinterpretation by Ledia Xhoga.
Previous winner Kiran Desai is nominated 19 years after her book The Inheritance of Loss won the Booker Prize, and Tash Awm, who could become the first Malaysian winner, is longlisted for a third time.
Two debuts, Ledia Xhoga's Misinterpretation and Maria Reva's Endling, are hoping to replicate the success of six debut novels which have won the Booker in its 56-year history, the most recent being Douglas Stuart's Shuggie Bain.
The longest book on the list is Kiran Desai's The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny, weighing in at over 650 pages, while the shortest is Universality by Natasha Brown.
There were 153 submissions for this year's Prize, which is worth £50,000 (€57,760) and celebrates the best works of long-form fiction by writers of any nationality, written in English by a writer of any nationality and published in the UK and/or Ireland between October 1, 2024 and September 30, 2025.
The Booker Prize 2025 longlist
Hollywood actress Sarah Jessica Parker joins Irish writer Roddy Doyle among the Booker Prize judges this year, along with Booker Prize-longlisted authors Ayobami Adebayo and Kiley Reid, and broadcaster and literary critic Chris Power. Doyle, who won the award in 1993 for Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, is the chair of the panel and the first past Booker winner to chair the judges.
"My four colleagues are a generous, funny group but what was clear from the outset was that these are people who love – actually, who need – great books. Every decision was carefully measured; each of our books was examined with skill, wisdom and affection," Doyle says of his fellow judges.
Sex And The City star Parker, 60, is an avid reader who has had her own literary imprint publisher for several years. Parker's imprint SJP Lit, part of publisher Zando, has seen Women And Children First by Alina Grabowski, A Quitter's Paradise by Elysha Chang and Coleman Hill by Kim Coleman Foote published since 2022.
She and her husband, Ferris Bueller's Day Off star Matthew Broderick, holiday in Co Donegal and were cheering on the team in the All-Ireland last Sunday, with Broderick featuring on Saturday night's Up For The Match programme.
A shortlist of six books will be announced on September 23, with the winner announced on November 10.
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