Line-up features Kiran Desai, Tash Aw, and David Szalay
Featuring thirteen nominees from nine different nationalities – including Indian novelist Kiran Desai and Malaysian author Tash Aw – this year’s Booker Prize longlist is the most global in a decade, reported the Guardian.
At 667 pages, Desai’s novel The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny is the longest book on the list, and took her almost 20 years to write. The book marks Desai’s first appearance on the longlist after her novel The Inheritance of Loss, which won the Booker Prize in 2006.
Tash Aw, meanwhile, made it onto the list for the third time with his latest book, The South. If Aw takes wins, he will become the first Malaysian author to take home the Booker Prize.
This year’s judging panel includes Sex and the City star Sarah Jessica Parker, along with Nigerian writer Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀, American novelist Kiley Reid, critic Chris Power and chair of judges Roddy Doyle.
“The chosen books are all alive with great characters and narrative surprises,” said Doyle. “All, somehow, examine identity, individual or national, and all are gripping and excellent.”
Praising the quality of submissions this year, he added, “Whittling down the nominations at times was agony.”
A total of 153 books were submitted between October 2024 and September 2025, all written in English and published in the UK or Ireland.
Independent publisher Fitzcarraldo Editions scored its first entry on the longlist with Jonathan Buckley’s One Boat. Another independent publisher, Faber, has three titles nominated this year: Universality by Natasha Brown, The Rest of Our Lives by Ben Markovits, and Claire Adam’s Love Forms. Publishing giant Penguin, meanwhile, saw the highest number of titles on the list with five books.
Gaby Wood, chief executive of the Booker Prize Foundation, remarked that it is “striking that most of the longlisted writers have already had sustained careers.”
Out of the thirteen books, only two debut works featured on the list: Misinterpretation by Ledia Xhoga and Endling by Maria Reva.
The remaining works comprised Flashlight by Susan Choi, Audition by Katie Kitamura, The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller, Flesh by David Szalay, and Seascraper by Benjamin Wood.
The longlist nominees for the Booker Prize, which is worth a whopping GBP50,000, will be whittled down to a shortlist to be announced on September 23, with the ultimate winner be revealed on November 10. Last year’s Booker prize was won by Samantha Harvey for her novel Orbital.
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