The 2025 Booker Prize Longlist: A Global Conversation in Fiction

The unveiling of the 2025 Booker Prize longlist has once again transformed literature into a global conversation. This year’s 13 chosen novels represent nine nationalities across four continents, bringing together a collection of voices that reflects the extraordinary reach of contemporary storytelling.

The longlist is both a celebration and a challenge. It asks readers to look beyond borders, to step into unfamiliar landscapes, and to listen to voices that may come from distant geographies but resonate with striking familiarity. Whether set in bustling cities or quiet rural enclaves, whether rooted in history or looking toward speculative futures, the novels demonstrate that literature’s strength lies in its diversity.

Among the longlisted authors is Kiran Desai, whose return nearly two decades after winning the Booker Prize in 2006 marks a significant literary moment. Alongside her stand debut writers making their first impact on the international stage — a reminder that the Booker Prize honours both legacy and discovery.

The judging panel praised the 2025 longlist as “a collection of books that, in their different ways, illuminate the challenges and possibilities of our shared world.” From questions of climate change to explorations of identity and belonging, these novels reveal fiction’s ability to reflect, confront and reimagine reality.

For readers, the longlist is not merely a catalogue of titles but an invitation to participate. Each year, the Booker Prize builds a community of readers who debate, predict and celebrate the books as the prize journey unfolds. With the shortlist to be announced on 23 September 2025, followed by the winner on 10 November 2025, that conversation is only just beginning.

The 2025 longlist proves once more that literature is a bridge — connecting writers and readers, nations and generations, voices that differ but also harmonise. It is, at its heart, a reminder that stories belong to all of us.