Explore the Booker Prize 2025 shortlist and plan for UK Literary Festivals 2026

The Booker Prize shortlisted titles 2025

Take a look at the Booker Prize 2025 shortlist – six exceptional novels from world-class authors exploring love, loss, and humanity at its finest.

With the Booker Prize winner announced on 10 November 2025, there’s no better time to discover new authors and start planning which UK literary festivals 2026 you might want to attend. EDIT: Huge congratulations to Flesh by David Szalay, this 2025 Booker winner!

If you're in a book club, why not pick one of these shortlisted books as your next read and plan a book group trip to one of the festivals when you know where the author will be appearing. Then you can plan questions for the authors around your discussions, get clarification on your 'differences of opinion', get your copies signed and generally share the most incredible book club experience.

Whilst many UK literary festivals won’t reveal their 2026 guest authors just yet, it’s safe to say that several, if not all, of these Booker Prize shortlisted writers will appear at events across the country next year - from Hay Festival and Cheltenham Literature Festival to Edinburgh International Book Festival and more.

Whether you’re following the Booker Prize 2025 or planning your literary festival calendar for 2026, now’s the perfect moment to immerse yourself in outstanding fiction and prepare for another inspiring year of books, ideas, and conversation.

Who is on the Booker Prize 2025 shortlist?

The Booker Prize 2025 shortlist  features six powerful novels from Susan Choi, Kiran Desai, Katie Kitamura, Ben Markovits, Andrew Miller, and David Szalay.

1. Flashlight by Susan Choi

Flashlight by Susan Choi, is a taut and emotionally charged novel exploring memory, truth, and the stories we tell ourselves to survive. Set between New York and Seoul, the book follows a journalist haunted by a mysterious disappearance she once covered - and her own complicity in shaping its narrative. Choi’s signature precision and psychological insight illuminate how storytelling becomes both a refuge and a trap. Flashlight has been praised for its elegant prose, moral complexity, and its powerful look at identity in the age of misinformation. As one of the standout contenders for the 2025 Booker Prize, Choi’s novel confirms her reputation as one of America’s most inventive contemporary writers. Readers drawn to literary thrillers and character-driven fiction will find Flashlight unforgettable - a novel that lingers long after its final page.

2. The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny by Kiran Desai

In The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny, Kiran Desai, the celebrated author of The Inheritance of Loss, returns with a deeply moving exploration of love, displacement, and belonging. Shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2025, this lyrical novel spans Mumbai, London, and New York, tracing two lives intertwined by fate and solitude. Desai captures the ache of migration and the quiet resilience of those searching for connection across cultures and continents. Her prose glows with empathy and wit, balancing humour with heartbreak. The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny has been hailed by critics as one of Desai’s most mature and affecting works, marking her triumphant return to the global literary stage. A powerful contender for the 2025 Booker Prize, this novel reminds readers why Desai remains a defining voice in modern literature.

3. Audition by Katie Kitamura

Audition by Katie Kitamura, shortlisted for the Booker Prize 2025, delves into the complex choreography of identity, performance, and silence. Set in a sleek European city, the novel follows a translator navigating personal and professional boundaries as she becomes entangled in a celebrity trial that tests her moral compass. Kitamura’s minimalist prose is as sharp as ever, transforming a story of restraint into an elegant psychological study. As in her acclaimed Intimacies, she examines how language both connects and divides. Audition stands out on the Booker Prize 2025 shortlist for its quiet intensity, emotional intelligence, and formal precision. It’s a haunting meditation on power and the fragility of truth - a must-read for fans of cerebral, character-driven fiction.

4. The Rest of Our Lives by Ben Markovits

The Rest of Our Lives by Ben Markovits is an ambitious, intimate portrait of modern family life. Moving between London and Berlin, the novel follows a middle-aged writer reckoning with his fading ambitions, his marriage, and the relentless passage of time. Markovits captures the melancholy beauty of ordinary life — the quiet crises, unspoken regrets, and moments of unexpected grace that define human experience. His prose is warm, witty, and deeply humane, offering readers a meditation on art, ageing, and the compromises we make for love. Among the Booker Prize 2025 shortlist, The Rest of Our Lives stands out for its emotional honesty and finely tuned realism. Markovits, long admired for his subtle storytelling, delivers his most accomplished work yet.

5. The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller

The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller, is a historical novel of remarkable depth and lyricism. Set in post-Civil War England, it follows a soldier returning home to find a nation — and a conscience - scarred by violence. Miller, known for Pure and Now We Shall Be Entirely Free, brings history vividly to life while exploring timeless questions of guilt, forgiveness, and moral rebirth. His prose shimmers with atmosphere, blending psychological insight with sweeping narrative power. Critics have called The Land in Winter one of the finest works on the Booker Prize 2025 shortlist, showcasing Miller’s mastery of tone and historical imagination. A haunting, redemptive story, it reminds readers why Miller remains one of Britain’s most accomplished novelists.

6. Flesh by David Szalay

In Flesh, David Szalay crafts a piercing examination of the human body and the moral weight of desire. Set across multiple European cities, the novel intertwines stories of strangers whose lives converge through acts of intimacy, illness, and survival. Szalay’s precise, unsentimental style turns ordinary moments into profound reflections on mortality and connection. Like his earlier work All That Man Is, Flesh explores what it means to inhabit a body - and to live ethically within it. Among the Booker Prize 2025 shortlisted novels, Flesh stands out for its philosophical depth and crystalline prose. It’s a stark, beautiful reminder of how fragile and essential our humanity remains.

For more details about the Booker Prize visit: https://thebookerprizes.com/

Justine.

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