The Booker Prize Shortlist 2025

 Hello Gentle Reader,

The Booker Prize has announced this year’s shortlist of six novels and writers, who are best described as being established authorial voices well in command of their craft. The shortlist is as follows:

            Kirian Desai – “The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny,”
            Andrew Miller – “The Land in Winter,”
            Susan Choi – “Flaslight,”
            David Szalay – “Flesh,”
            Katie Kitamura – “Audition,”
            Ben Markovits – “The Rest of Our Lives,”

Some omissions are disappointing, while some inductees are not surprising. Kirian Desai is no stranger to the Booker Prize, having previously won the award in 2006 with her novel “The Inheritance of Loss,” her new novel, which took almost two decades to write, “The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny,” is the longest novel on the shortlist and is currently the critic’s favourite. If Desai walks away with the Booker Prize again, she will join the elite ranks of ‘double winner,’ which includes Peter Carey, J.M. Coetzee, Hilary Mantel, and Margaret Atwood. David Szalay, whose previously been shortlisted with his novel “All That Man Is,” in 2016, is considered this year’s dark horse with his novel “Flesh.” While, Andrew Miller returns to the Booker Prize shortlist now over two decades later with his novel “The Land in Winter,” an explorative novel of the heart.

While it disappoints me to see Jonathan Buckley not on the shortlist, I can appreciate that at long last the prize has taken interest in his work, even if “One Boat,” by all accounts was Buckley’s most conventional novel to date. Hopefully readers will be entreated to Buckley’s return to the Booker Prize with another novel, in his usual slant and playful style. Its time Jonathan Buckley got his overdue recognition, first for being on the most innovative and compelling writers at work in the English language, and second for disturbing the usual strait-laced grey monotone style, which has gripped the publishing industry steadily over the past few decades.

Finally, the American’s have a good turnout, with equally compelling narratives which take even a global approach in their literary attitudes.

While, I wouldn’t call this year’s Booker Prize shortlist earth shattering, it certainly has shifted in equilibrium to being one balanced on literary merit without carry the inclination of external considerations or optics. This year’s judges favoured strong mature and established voices in their deliberation, as the writers shortlisted have curated their reputations and worked at their craft. This year, the Booker Prize judges have returned the prize to attempting to recognize the best English language novel published for the year.

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