The Booker Prize 2025, Longlist

Hello Gentle Reader,

This years Booker Prize already found it off to a questionable start, when the judging panel was announced, and amongst them was the actress Sarah Jessica Parker. While its not unheard of for actors sometimes be included in the judging panel – Dan Stevens was part of the judging pane back in 2012 – but critics maintained the actors in question have a strong relation or background in literature studies as in the case of Dan Stevens. Sarah Jessica Parker, raised eyebrows because it appeared she was bringing more ‘glamour,’ or ‘star power,’ to the prize, rather what some may have considered serious qualifications. To be frank: anyone can read and provide an assessment of a novel, but for the sake of qualification, does this inevitably mean the individual in question (celebrity or otherwise) have the qualifications to provide critical analysis in order to advocate for, and adjudicate the award? If yes, then why not have a member of the reading public audition or interview to be a judge? Taking celebrity criticism out of the picture, the judges can be commended for assembling what can be described as some fairly decent novels, as over the years the Booker Prize has found the quality of their lists significantly lacking. Without further delay the following is this year’s longlist:

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

While I do not share the judge’s admission and appraisal that they have assembled the most globalist-oriented longlist, they have certainly made an effort and there are a few unique titles to spotlight as worthy contenders for the prize. There are also noticeable exclusions, such as Alan Hullinghorst with this new novel “Our Evenings,” or “Gliff,” by Ali Smith or “Theft,” by Abdulrazak Gurnah or “Time of the Child,” by Niall Williams or “What We Can Know,” by Ian McEwan. Perhaps they would have been included on the longlist if certain reforms were not introduced.

I am happy to see Jonathan Buckley (finally) get a nod by the Booker Prize, as Buckley is certainly one of the more innovative writers currently writing in English. “Tell,” Buckley’s previous novel, is told from the perspective of a set of recorded interviews with an eccentric businessman and art collectors’ gardener. The novel examined the nature of how we define our own lives and those of others by creating narratives and stories. “One Boat,” appears to be a more conventional novel, recounting the story of Teresa, who lost recently looses her father, returns to the small Greek town on the coast, where previously she came after her mother died. It’s described as an intensely psychological novel, and knowing Buckley the conventional elements will be flexed and bent by his literary mastery.

Kirian Desai returns for the Booker Prize with her long-anticipated novel “The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny,” which took 19 years to write. The novel is an epic love story and family drama novel, crossing continents and countries, as it traces the intertwined fates of two people navigating the complexities of family expectations, matters of the heart, the weight of history, and the alienation of the modern world. Kirian Desai previously won the then Man Booker Prize for her novel “The Inheritance of Loss,” in 2006. “The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny,” is an unapologetic epic novel and is the largest novel on this year’s longlist.

Andrew Miller returns to the Booker Prize with his novel, “The Land of Winter,” after previously being shortlisted for the prize in 2001 with his novel, “Oxygen.” While at the time “Oxygen,” received mixed reviews from critics, “The Land of Winter,” has been generously praised, and in what can be now be considered strong Miller fashion, “The Land of Winter,” is another novel of tender, graceful and eloquent exploration of the human heart, tracing the trajectory of two marriages in a post-war Britian, during an exceptionally brutal winter, the Big Freeze of 1962-63. Critics praise Andrew Miller for being an excellent cartographer of the minutiae of regular life, his novels are propelled by the intensity of their character driven narratives, and “The Land of Winter,” retreads this ground, but is a masterclass in historical detailing and psychological portraiture, capturing people and a society coming out of the shadow of war and rationing austerity; in addition to the frailty of people, but also their tenacity to persevere. What can easily be dismissed as bleak or relentlessly depressing, is sustained by Miller’s ability to sketch out hope without melodrama.

Tash Aw also finds himself returning to the Booker Prize with his new novel “The South,” after having been previously been longlisted in 2005 and 2013. The beginning of what is reported to be a planned quartet, “The South,” is framed as a coming-of-age narrative of a young named Jay, who with his family moves to the countryside that his grandfather has left them. It’s a dystopian landscape of diseased and dying vegetation. Regardless, Jay is sent out to work the fields in whatever way that is left, which is how he meets the farm manager son, Chuan. What follows is an intense relationship between the two boys, which plays out against a family day which finds itself increasingly infiltrated by an increasingly globalised world. “The South,” carries the hallmarks of a burgeoning epic slowly unfolding, as its set to drift with Jay and his family through the coming years and decades to come, no different then Naguib Mahfouz’s “Cairo Trilogy,” as it recounts a period of extraordinary social and political change from the experience of a family living through it. Whether or not this will help or hinder Tash Aw and the Booker Prize, is still unknown.  

This years Booker Prize is perhaps a significant improvement from last year. Perhaps not perfect, but a start. It doesn’t carry the stench of being organized with any political motivation or didactic principles introduced; though I still wouldn’t go so far as to call it globally encompassing, they’ve listed some unique talent nonetheless.

 

Thank you For Reading Gentle Reader
Take Care
And As Always
Stay Well Read
 
M. Mary