Booker Prize 2025: A reader’s guide to the 13 novels (including Kiran Desai’s) on the longlist

The Booker Prize announced its 2025 longlist of thirteen titles on Tuesday. Indian writer Kiran Desai has been nominated for her forthcoming novel The Loneliness of Sunny and Sonia, 19 years after her previous book, The Inheritance of Loss, won the Man Booker Prize in 2006.

This year’s judging panel is being chaired by 1993 Booker Prize winner Roddy Doyle, and he’ll be joined by novelist Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀; actor and publisher Sarah Jessica Parker; writer and literary critic Chris Power; and author Kiley Reid. Doyle said that the novels on the longlist “examine the past and poke at our shaky present.”

The shortlist will be announced on September 23 at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall in London. The six shortlisted authors will each receive £2,500 and a specially bound edition of their book. The winner will be announced on November 10 at a ceremony at Old Billingsgate in London and will receive a cash prize of £50,000.

The longlist represents authors of nine nationalities across four continents, with UK authors securing the highest number of nominations. Malaysian writer Tash Aw has been longlisted for the third time, while Andrew Miller and David Szalay have been shortlisted once before. Ledia Xhoga and Maria Reva have been nominated for their debut novels....

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