Booker Prize 2025 Longlist Announced
Booker Prize Announcement 2025: Long-Awaited Kiran Desai Sequel Unveiled Alongside List of Notable Contenders
The Booker Prize 2025 has unveiled its longlist, featuring a diverse array of 13 novels hailing from various continents and cultures. The novels, which span across different emotional registers, are set to compete for the prestigious literary award, with the overall winner receiving £50,000.
Among the contenders is Tash Aw's "The South," a novel that delves into universality in its narrative, although specific details about the book remain scarce. Other notable entries include Susan Choi's "Flashlight," which revisits 20th-century Korean history through a Korean-American family saga, and Kiran Desai's "The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny," a sprawling, intimate bildungsroman that explores themes of loneliness, identity, and the immigrant experience.
Desai's latest novel centers on two young protagonists, Sonia and Sunny, whose lives intersect after each has spent time apart. Sonia finds herself in college in Vermont dealing with a toxic relationship, while Sunny lives in Brooklyn, aspiring to be a journalist. Both return to India and fall for each other, but their relationship remains fragile amid career struggles and traditional parental expectations.
"The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny" is a 667-page novel that explores the lives of two immigrants meeting in India on an overnight train. The prose is described as elegant and artful, with a broad yet subtle scope emphasizing detailed human experiences.
The judging panel, including Booker Prize winning novelist Roddy Doyle and actor/producer Sarah Jessica Parker, will narrow the field to a six-book shortlist to be announced on 23 September. The winner will be revealed in London on 10 November.
In addition to "The South" and "The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny," the longlist includes "Love Forms" by Claire Adam, "The South" by Tash Aw, and "Endling" by Maria Reva, offering rich commentary on displacement, identity, and connection in a fragmented world. Other nominees include Katie Kitamura's "Audition," a taut, elliptical novel exploring performance and truth, and David Szalay's "Flesh," a slippery, rags-to-riches tale following a Hungarian ex-con in London.
While the specifics of "The South" are yet to be disclosed, the novel is set for release in late September 2025. This year's focus for the Booker Prize returns to Earth and human connection, following last year's winner, Samantha Harvey's "Orbital," which focused on a meditative narrative aboard the International Space Station.
The longlist of the Booker Prize 2025 includes Tash Aw's "The South," delving into various aspects of lifestyle, and Kiran Desai's "The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny," a sprawling novel centered on themes of books, entertainment, and the immigrant experience.
