2025 Booker Prize longlist

This year's Booker Prize longlist was announced earlier today in London, and from a first glance it looks like an exceptionally strong list of novels, at least in my opinion.

Love Forms by Claire Adam
The South by Tash Aw:
Universality by Natasha Brown
One Boat by Jonathan Buckley
Flashlight by Susan Choi
The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai
Audition by Katie Kitamura
The Rest of Our Lives by Benjamin Markovits
The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller
Endling by Maria Reva
Flesh by David Szalay
Seascraper by Benjamin Wood
Misinterpretation by Ledia Xhoga

The Guardian: Most global Booker prize longlist in a decade features Kiran Desai and Tash Aw

Thanks for posting the Booker Longlist, Darryl. I have only read The Land in Winter and I really enjoyed it . I have Love Forms out from the library so I think I will read that fairly soon. I might order The Rest Of Our Lives from the UK, but I haven't quite decided yet.

>2 vancouverdeb: You're welcome, Deb. I'm glad that you enjoyed The Land in Winter; I'll keep my eye out for it. I requested Audition, Flashlight, Flesh and The South from my local library, so I'll start there.

Is anyone currently reading? Endling and feel uneasy about the structure being a bit wobbly with her use of meta fiction?

>4 kjuliff: Not me, Kate. I started reading Flesh, my first book from the longlist, yesterday.

>4 kjuliff: I read a bit of Endling but I was not enjoying it enough to continue. Maybe I'll try it again if it make the shortlist.

>6 vancouverdeb: It’s a bit of a confusing book in the beginning, but I plowed through and was glad I did. It takes a bit of effort to keep going. I’m pretty sure it’s not going to be very popular.

Has anyone noticed the judges for this year's Booker?

The chair is Roddy Doyle; also
Ayobami Adebayo
Sarah Jessica Parker
Chris Power
Kiley Reid

Hmmm. Sarah Jessica Parker's show And Just Like That currently has a storyline where her character is writing a novel. There is a voice over of the text, and it is some of the most boring, cliched prose I've heard in years. She violates all the rules that writers are taught early in their creative writing classes. Yikes! Should she really be a judge?

>8 Nickelini: I was unaware of that, Joyce. What I did learn is that Love Forms, a novel by a good friend of hers, Claire Adam, was chosen for the longlist, although she apparently declared a potential conflict of interest during the book reviewing process.

I did read Love Forms and I think it deserves to be shortlisted, but I have only read the two books from the Longlist. I put a brief review on my thread in 75's.

>10 vancouverdeb: I'm glad that you thought Love Forms was worthy of its Booker Prize nomination, Deb.

I mentioned on my Club Read thread that I finally finished Flesh by David Szalay late last night. I'll give it 4 stars, and write a review of it later today. The copy of Audition I requested is available in my local library, so that will probably be the next longlisted book I read.

I’m still reading Misinterpretation and think it’ll make the shortlist. It has a freshness and enough originality to get it through. But is it enough in today’s literary climate. Still re-reading Universality and yet to finish Endling which may have a chance.

Here is my review of Audition. So far it’s been a year of experimental styles. Typically you look at the same thing in different ways. It as if the generational book has given away to simultaneous interpretations of the same story. If it does nothing else it will confuse AI.

>14 kjuliff: Thanks for posting your review of Audition, Kate. I've just started Part II, and I should finish it tonight or tomorrow at the latest.

I picked up a copy of Flashlight from my local library on Monday, which I'll read next, and Universality will be waiting for me when I return to the library on Friday.

>15 kidzdoc: I’m reading Flashlight now, which I somehow spoiled by reading the New Yorker short story of the same name. I also read an interview with Choi which she gave shortly after the publication of the short story Flashlight, where she discussed expanding it to full novel. I hope I will love the novel as much as I loved the short story..

I finished Flesh last week and so far it’s the only Booker longest book to stay with me well after finishing it.

An aside – when reading audiobooks it’s very important to get the characters’ names right. Unfortunately the narrator of Audition mispronounced the main character’s name. Since she’s Japanese, sounds beginning with “Z” or “X” aren’t part of her native phonetic range.

I’ll get around to posting reviews of all the books in this year’s Booker list that have been available for me. I’m really hoping.Flesh will make it to the shortlist..

>16 kjuliff: Thanks, Kate.

My review of Flesh by David Szalay is here.

A quick introduction. I am Hugh, I live in England and I moderate a GoodReads group (The Mookse and the Gripes) that is very heavily involved in discussing prize lists. I am more of a dabbler here at LT, which I use mainly as a backup. Just thought I'd dip my toe into the discussion here.

I have now read 12 of the books on this year's list, and thanks to a paper ARC which my local independent bookshop gave me on Wednesday, I am almost 200 pages into the last one (Sonia & Sunny). I have read the longlist every year since 2017, and for me this year's is one of the strongest. My personal favourites are Seascraper and Endling, for very different reasons. Neither of those reviews made it through the export/import process but I'll copy them over manually when I have time.

>19 bodachliath: Welcome to the group, Hugh! I have been an occasional lurker in the Mookse and the Gripes group in past years, but not since the COVID-19 pandemic and especially since the end of 2021, when my reading dropped off dramatically after I had to stop working as a pediatrician in order to become the full time caregiver for my mother, who has dementia.

Although I've followed the Booker Prize since my first visit to London in 2007 I've never finished the longlist in any year, although I have completed the shortlist in advance of the award ceremony on several occasions. I've only read two longlisted books so far this year, Flesh (4 stars from me) and Audition (4½ stars). My plan for this year is to wait until the shortlist is announced, although I will read The South if it comes from my local library before then, and attempt to finish the shortlist again this year, especially since there are novels by Abdulrazak Gurnah, Dinah Mengestu, Teju Cole and several others that I do want to get to this year (I'm reading Theft by Gurnah now).

I'm quite eager to get your take on the longlisted books, and I'll head over to the Mookse and the Gripes thread on Goodreads this weekend.

Apparently the winner is Flesh. Anyone have their money on that one?

>21 Nickelini: I thought it could win, and agree with the decision

It was the first of the long list i read and i did enjoy it. At least more than I enjoyed Audition lol!