Booker Prize nominees include novels by Kiran Desai, Katie Kitamura and Susan Choi
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The 13 titles nominated for the prestigious British literary award also include books by David Szalay, Maria Reva and Claire Adam.
PHOTO: YUKI SUGIURA FOR BOOKER PRIZE FOUNDATION/NYTIMES
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Alex Marshall
LONDON – In 2006, Indian author Kiran Desai shot to fame when she won the Booker Prize with The Inheritance Of Loss, a novel about a teenage romance in India and illegal migration in New York City.
But she struggled to write a follow-up.
Now, almost two decades later, Desai has been nominated for the Booker again – for The Loneliness Of Sonia And Sunny, the novel that she was grappling with during that time.
On July 29, the Booker Prize judges announced the 13 novels nominated for the 2025 edition of the prestigious British literary award, with Desai’s novel arguably the highest profile.
Other nominees include American novelist Katie Kitamura’s Audition, about an actress who becomes embroiled with a man who claims to be her son; American author Susan Choi’s Flashlight, a Korean-American family saga; and Hungarian-English writer David Szalay’s Flesh, which tells the tale of a man who inveigles his way to a life of privilege.
In Desai’s novel, scheduled for a Sept 23 release, two immigrants to the United States return to their native India and meet on an overnight train.
The 667-page book has yet to receive major reviews, but Booker Prize judges – who in 2025 include Irish novelist Roddy Doyle and American actress Sarah Jessica Parker – described it in a news statement as a “vast and immersive” work that “enfolds a magical realist fable within a social novel within a love story”.
Founded in 1969, the Booker Prize is one of the literary world’s most coveted awards, given each year to a novel written in English and published in Britain or Ireland. The winner in 2024 was Orbital, English novelist Samantha Harvey’s meditative novel about astronauts aboard the International Space Station.
The judging panel in 2025 is now tasked with re-reading all 13 nominees and then creating a six-book shortlist scheduled to be announced on Sept 23. The winning title will be unveiled at a ceremony in London on Nov 10, and its author will receive a prize of £50,000 (S$86,000).
The nominees
Claire Adam’s Love Forms, about a Trinidadian woman trying to find the child she gave up as a young girl. Julie Myerson, in a review for The Guardian, described the novel as “quietly devastating”.
Tash Aw’s The South, in which a Malaysian man recalls a steamy teenage vacation. Heller McAlpin, reviewing the book for The New York Times, called it “a gorgeous coming-of-age story”.
Natasha Brown’s Universality, a satire that begins with a journalist reporting on a brutal attack at a hippie commune.
Jonathan Buckley’s One Boat, about a woman grieving her father’s death. The novel is the first Booker-nominated title published by Fitzcarraldo Editions, a British imprint known for publishing Nobel laureates and fiction in translation.
Susan Choi’s Flashlight, which touches on historical events including North Korean re-education camps.
Kiran Desai’s The Loneliness Of Sonia And Sunny.
Katie Kitamura’s Audition, which Joumana Khatib, in the Times, said was the author’s “most thrilling examination yet of the deceit inherent in human connection”.
Benjamin Markovits’ The Rest Of Our Lives, in which a New York law professor goes on a road trip after leaving his wife when their daughter starts college.
Andrew Miller’s The Land In Winter, about two couples living through one of Britain’s coldest recorded periods, in the 1960s. British critics have praised the title for its sensitive portrayal of flawed protagonists.
Maria Reva’s Endling, set in Ukraine on the brink of Russia’s 2022 invasion, with characters including several mail-order brides and a hunter of rare snails. Reviewing the novel for the Times, Ania Szremski called it “a startling and ambitious whirlwind”.
David Szalay’s Flesh, a rags-to-riches story of a Hungarian man with a criminal record who ends up in London high society. Dwight Garner in the Times said that he admired Szalay’s book “from front to back without ever quite liking it”.
Benjamin Wood’s Seascraper, about a fisherman whose life is disrupted by a Hollywood director. Wood is “one of the finest British novelists you’ve never heard of”, wrote Johanna Thomas-Corr in a review of the novel for The Times of London.
Ledia Xhoga’s Misinterpretation, about an interpreter whose marriage has turned sour. Lucy Popescu, in The Observer, called the novel “a nuanced exploration of communication failures, blurred boundaries and the emotional cost of unchecked altruism”.
NYTIMES
